Leinster shrug off injury to Sexton as they ‘educate’ Saints
A week can be a long time in rugby. Just seven days after Northampton trounced Leicester here 36-13, the leaders of the Premiership were demolished by seven tries to one on their own patch by a ravenous Leinster team in the European Champions Cup.
As Chris Boyd, director of rugby, admitted, it was an “education” and not of the good kind. The post-match statistics sheet showed both teams roughly equal for clean breaks, defenders beaten and turnovers conceded. The difference was that when Leinster got into the red zone, they used their shortrange carrying game to plunder tries, whereas Northampton lacked that same power that the Irish team possessed in the form of James Ryan, Josh van der Flier and Andrew Porter.
Leinster are three wins from three in Pool One, as well as having a perfect record in the Pro14. The only dampener was the serious knee injury suffered by fly-half Johnny Sexton. “He’s a little uncomfortable there at the moment,” Leo Cullen, the Leinster head coach said. “I don’t know the extent of it, but we’ll find out more [in the] early part of next week.”
The first half was a magnificent contest, probably the best 40 minutes of rugby since the World Cup. The boot of Dan Biggar kept Northampton firmly in the contest at 19-16 down, yet Boyd sensed the writing was on the wall.
“I looked at the guys at half-time and it looked like there was a fair bit of juice taken out of their legs,” Boyd said. “The chat was good but you can tell when guys are fresh and you can tell when guys have been under the pump.”
So it proved. Within seven minutes of the restart, Leinster had scored two tries to claim the bonus point and settle the contest. The outstanding Jordan Larmour, who will surely be Ireland’s full-back in the Six Nations, broke and despite being dragged down by Rory Hutchinson, Cian Healy spun and scored from close range. Then it was the turn of Robbie Henshaw and No8 Caelan Doris to break the line, with Ross Byrne, on as a replacement for the injured Sexton, applying the finish.
Northampton refused to be bowed, the indefatigable Teimana Harrison and the excellent Matt Proctor to the fore. For the next 20 minutes, they were virtually camped in the Leinster half, but found no way through. Then, as if to show them how to do it, Leinster added a couple of exclamation marks to the scoreline through replacements Luke McGrath and Ed Byrne.
Perhaps we should not be surprised. The Leinster line-up is packed full of Irish internationals. If they are not currently wearing a green shirt then they will be very soon, as is the case with Doris. Northampton’s best players by contrast are Biggar, a fly-half who 50 per cent of Wales seems to hate, and Cobus Reinach, South Africa’s thirdchoice scrum-half.
“It’s a learning for us that there’s another level of physicality and fitness required if we’re going to compete,” Boyd said. “If you look at the European competitions, there are four or five sides who can genuinely take their game to Test match level and Leinster are one of them. What they bring is this enormous level of physicality which you have got to deal with.”
Northampton were almost immediately introduced to the scale of their task when they were turned over in the Leinster 22. Larmour broke past the floundering Jamie Gibson before feeding the finishing pass to James Lowe.
The home team responded perfectly. Harrison supplied the initial thrust through his leg drive and then Hutchinson and Tom Collins spread the ball to Ahsee Tuala, who finished in the corner. Biggar then nudged them in front but Northampton will feel they could have had more as Collins misjudged the bounce of Reinach’s grubber, which would certainly have resulted in a try.
Larmour was also the architect of Leinster’s second try and although Jamison Gibson-Park was brilliantly tackled by opposite number Reinach, a few phases later flanker Rhys Ruddock plunged over. A pair of Biggar penalties again nudged Northampton ahead, but just a minute before half-time Porter was driven over after Leinster had kicked to the corner.
The three-point interval deficit became 27 by full-time. In 2013, Leinster won here 40-7 only for Northampton to win 18-9 in Dublin the following week. Saints supporters need all the silver linings they can grasp.
However, Boyd was clear to address one rumour, having been linked with Leicester’s England scrum-half Ben Youngs. “I can tell you in the criteria of recruitment for us, Ben Youngs only fulfils one criteria, which is that he is English,” Boyd said. “I have never spoken to Ben Youngs in my life and we have absolutely no interest in him at Northampton. Is that reasonably clear? We are looking for young guys with potential. Ben Youngs has been wonderful for Leicester and for England. That’s his club. I am not interested in recruiting a 30-year-old from another club in England. It is not where we are going. You can put that one to bed.”