FIRST-RATE SECOND STRING
Frawley stands out for Blues as fringe players are still too strong for lacklustre Ulster
WE’VE known for a long time that Leinster are the best team in the Pro14 by a country mile. Leinster ‘A’ aren’t far behind them.
It’s incredible to think that Leo Cullen would deign to leave players like Ciaran Frawley, Will Connors and Josh Murphy out of the matchday squad for next Friday’s Pro14 semi-final at this venue, but those are the luxuries which are available to the Leinster coaching team at the moment.
Frawley, in particular, looks a serious player. The presence of Johnny Sexton and the Byrne brothers has necessitated a shift to inside centre for him and he looks made for this level.
Frawley impressed on both sides of the ball throughout the game. We’ll be seeing a lot more of him.
Same goes for Connors, arguably the best tackler in the country. The word on the street was the young openside was poised to win his first cap against Italy in March before the lockdown.
Connors was at his chop-tackling best last night. He was a constant pest for Ulster, like every good openside flanker should be.
You’d fear for Ulster over in Edinburgh next weekend. The lockdown clearly hasn’t been kind to them and rapid improvement will be needed in that looming Pro14 semi-final.
It was all rather jovial before kickoff. There was Jacob Stockdale and Rob Kearney chatting away on the half-way line prior to the warmups.
A more encouraging sight was Dan Leavy strolling around the pitch, 17 months after he suffered that horrific leg injury against last night’s opposition at this venue.
Leinster are carefully managing their star flanker’s return to competitive action and with good reason. There’s no need to rush that return, especially when you have their sort of depth in the backrow.
Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan were given the weekend off to recharge. The socalled second-string selection of Josh Murphy, Will Connors and Max Deegan was quality, with Rhys Ruddock and Scott Penny in reserve.
Consider that Jordi Murphy was on the opposition team sheet and it illustrates the reserves that Leinster have at their disposal.
The other three provinces – especially Munster – have gained back some ground in recent years but they are still miles behind Leinster’s prolific system which is pumping out Test-quality players at a prolific rate.
It’s the reason why Cullen could make 15 changes for this game against a close to fully-loaded Ulster side and lose little sleep the night before. You would fear for Ulster if the roles were reversed, a weakened team against this Leinster outfit would be carnage.
Ulster needed a fast start after last weekend’s poor display against Connacht and Dan McFarland would have wanted to see a reaction from his squad. Once again, they were slow out the blocks and found themselves 7-0 in arrears with less than three minutes on the clock.
Ed Byrne celebrated his first game as captain by ploughing over from close range but it was Frawley who proved the catalyst, creating havoc with an early chip kick and regathering to give his side territory and momentum. Byrne’s brace of penalties had Leinster cruising 13-0 into the break and they were rarely troubled by their sloppy and indisciplined opponents.
Any time Ulster got some momentum or put a decent passage of play together, they would get undone by indiscipline or errors. It was a bit like watching Ireland in 2019.
Even John Cooney was struggling, the Ulster scrum-half dropping a pass cold after Jordi Murphy had supplied quick ball off the top of a lineout. Later on he would send a box kick out on the full.
It’s early days in this rebooted season but McFarland will be hoping that this is just early rust and not a deeper malaise. Leinster were just so efficient. Nothing they were doing was spectacular but they were winning all the mini battles.
Normal service resumed after the break when Byrne punished more Ulster indiscipline to increase Leinster’s lead to 16 points.
It took 54 minutes but Ulster finally found a semblance of cohesion when the visiting forwards mauled Rob Herring over the line for their first points of the night.
Cooney’s conversion gave the visitors a belated foothold in a game that was slipping away from them.
Another Cooney penalty – thanks mainly to a trademark Stuart McCloskey charge – made it a sixpoint game with 10 minutes to go.
That seemed to stoke Leinster back into life and Harry Byrne – on for his brother Ross – killed any notions of a fightback with a deft cross kick, with Penny, another second-half replacement, winning the race to touch down. Game over.
When Cooney raced away for a brilliant score from 75 metres out, it was called back for offside.
It was that kind of a night for Ulster.
Harry Byrne would blitz through some weary Ulster tacklers to top off an impressive performance.
ULSTER: J Stockdale (L Ludik 55); M Faddes, J Hume, S McCloskey (D Shanahan 76), R Lyttle; I Madigan (B Johnston 62), J Cooney; E O’Sullivan (K McCall 69), R Herring (J Andrew), T O’Toole (M Moore 55); S Carter (capt.), K Treadwell (D O’Connor 55); M Rea, J Murphy (N Timoney 62), M Coetzee.
SCORERS: Tries – Herring. Con – Cooney. Pen –
Cooney.
LEINSTER: R Kearney; H Keenan, R O’Loughlin, C Frawley (J O’Brien 75), C Kelleher; R Byrne ( H Byrne 64), J Gibson-Park (R Osbourne, 72); E Byrne (capt) (M Milne62), S Cronin (J Tracy 51), M Bent (T Clarkson 57); D Toner, R Molony; J Murphy (R Ruddock 55), W Connors (S Penny 72), M Deegan.
SCORERS: Tries – E Byrne, Penny, H Byrne. Cons -
R Byrne, H Byrne. Pens – R Byrne (3).
REfEREE: G Clancy (Ireland).