Leinster slip down the rankings after failing to hit recent heights
THIS wasn’t the unbridled coronation weekend expected of high-flying Leinster. Friday night in France was supposed to have borne witness to them not only firming up home quarter-final advantage there and then, but also breezily striding into the last eight seeded as Europe’s best ranked side for the first time since 2005.
Last night they weren’t even Ireland’s best heading into the knockouts, Munster following the pattern started earlier in the day by Clermont and Saracens, securing the win that also took them past Leinster’s 23 points.
It completed the fall of the three-time champions from first to fourth in the last eight seedings over the course of six Saturday hours, uncomfortable viewing as this tumble down the pecking order is set have a semi-final kickback if they progress, an away date in France now on the cards if No1 seeds Clermont reach the last four.
That down-the-track prospect will lengthen previously shortened odds on Leinster ultimately lifting the trophy at Murrayfield in May, as there was giddy pre-round six anticipation that netting the No1 rank for themselves would secure the Dublin semi rendezvous to further bolster title chances.
Leo Cullen tried not to dwell on this negative twist when absorbing harum-scarum mechanics of clinging to their edge-of-seat draw at Castres with 14 players, Mike McCarthy just 73 seconds on the pitch before seeing yellow.
For Cullen, who instead had two-try Robbie Henshaw’s growing influence to thank for avoiding defeat, the outlook was all quarter-finals — not the semi ramifications — and while officially they are still hanging for another day regarding home field mathematics, unofficially they had realised prefinal whistle that a much-desired Dublin fixture — a seventh home quarter-final in 12 last eight appearance across 16 seasons — is theirs in 10 weeks’ time.
It was why they unashamedly hurried the ball off the pitch to seal their 24-all draw, secure in the knowledge that even if the three Saturday results went against them, as they did, only a 62-point Connacht win at Toulouse today would send them on their travels in the quarters instead of packing out the Aviva… and everyone knows an extravagant Connacht victory by that margin isn’t going to happen.
Leinster got the message onto the pitch that it was okay to draw, awareness not shared by their hosts who left a ninth successive home win behind.
Three times in closing moments they drilled penalties to the corner in mistaken hope that scoring a fourth try and netting five match points would push them ahead of Montpellier into second place and into a qualification spot overnight as a best runner up.
How they didn’t know that a Montpellier bonus-clinching try against Northampton had already pushed Jake White’s team out of reach was extraordinary. It meant that instead of denying Leinster the draw by slotting one of the penalties for the win that would have left Cullen’s crew stuck on 22 points and in danger of surrendering home quarter-final advantage, they left them off the hook, blinded by bullheaded, white line fever.
No wonder Leinster’s huge sigh of relief. They had gotten away with it. Content was how Jamie Heaslip described the dressing room, stout second-half resistance encapsulated in that last five-minute stand which helped rectify the wounding tackle completion rate running at less than 70 per cent at the break. Not winning, though, had Cullen admitting flashbacks to December 2008 when a soulless surrender at the same ground prompted accusations they were just not good enough. They ended that season as first time champions and the target now is to become four time winners. Getting it right on the road after the quarters will be crucial then.
‘We just need to understand the challenges of playing away from home and how different it is to playing in front of those home comforts,’ said Cullen. ‘For some younger guys, Castres was a big step up and big learning. Away in France, it’s a tough place to come.’
They will likely be back there in late April with how the semi-final draw is now shaped. By then, expect Cullen’s future to be sorted, an extension expected to his original two-year deal from summer 2015.
Holding onto senior coach Stuart Lancaster is less certain, though. He’s now in demand on the English club circuit, but could also be a shrewd new Connacht boss if the IRFU’s David Nucifora becomes that way inclined.
Lancaster’s September arrival was the adrenaline shot which sharpened Leinster’s young bloods, transforming last season’s unwanted tag as Europe’s 16th best with just 82 points and five tries for six pool points and a last-place group finish.
Now, 227 points, 31 tries and 23 pool points later, their winter renaissance delivered. Home quarter-final, here they come.