Job done but Cullen’s men make heavy work of seeing off Saints
LEINSTER were far from at their best but did enough to pick up another Champions Cup bonus-point win as they saw off an understrength Northampton side 35-19 at the RDS.
With Northampton coach Chris Boyd as good as conceding the match in the build-up, Leo Cullen’s men were expected to romp to victory but the Saints proved to be obdurate opponents throughout.
Ireland coach Andy Farrell will be monitoring updates on centre Garry Ringrose, who started brightly on his return from injury before being forced off early, while Caelan Doris and Harry Byrne pulled out through late injuries.
It was a tighter contest than expected in the first half, with tries from Josh Murphy, Cian Healy and Dave Kearney giving injury-hit Leinster a 22-14 interval lead.
Fraser Dingwall and Champions Cup debutant Tom James hit back for Saints, who fielded a muchchanged side following last week’s home loss to Bordeaux.
Jamison Gibson-Park and Nick Isiekwe swapped early second-half tries, leaving fly-half Ross Byrne to kick Leinster home with two closing penalties.
Flanker Murphy, a first-time starter in Europe, crashed over in the second minute after a break by Garry Ringrose.
Byrne’s older brother Ross converted but was met by a meaty tackle from Dingwall soon after, as the resulting turnover penalty relieved some pressure on Saints.
A well-supported Healy burrowed over on the 15-minute mark, making up for an earlier knock-on close to the try-line. Byrne converted for 14-0.
However, the departure of a concussed Jimmy O’Brien meant further action on the Irish province’s bench and Northampton were able to take advantage.
Dingwall took a lovely line onto a James pass to score underneath the posts, with his centre partner Rory Hutchinson converting.
Byrne responded with a 27thminute penalty, only for scrum-half James to profit from a strong Northampton scrum, reaching over past two covering defenders.
Leinster regained their composure late on, though, as Gibson-Park used a penalty advantage to fling a pass wide and put Kearney over in the left corner, despite Ryan Olowofela’s attempts to intercept.
The second half was only two minutes old when Gibson-Park sauntered in under the posts, profiting from an advancing scrum and exposing some poor defending from stand-in fly-half George Furbank.
After Byrne added the extras, Gibson-Park quickly handed back five points when his kick was charged down by loan signing Isiekwe, who collected for his first European try. Hutchinson missed the difficult conversion. A sudden rain shower made for a scrappy third quarter, with Northampton having plenty of possession, their best move being a neat chip-andregather by Tom Collins. Those result-sealing penalties from Byrne came in the 60th and 71st minutes.
Along with it being Northampton’s 13th straight defeat in all competitions, the citing commissioner may have a closer look at a Tom Wood clearout where his shoulder made contact with Josh Van Der Flier’s head.
With concussion a hot topic in the game on the back of the legal case brought by former players suffering from dementia and other brain-related injury, it was an incident that many will believe should have merited a red card, but referee Pierre Brousset deemed it to be an ‘accidental collision’.
‘I know there’s some level of contact with the head/face, but I haven’t slo-moed that down to look at it again,’ said Cullen when asked about the Wood clearout..
‘It looks like he has some level of wrap at the end of all that. We’ll look at it and we’ll give it our view. It goes through the normal channels, like all the incidents in the game.’
On the game itself, the Leinster boss admitted it had not gone as planned but was pleased to emerge with maximum points after a contest that proved more testing
than was anticipated. ‘We started the game OK, but it was a bit disjointed after that,’ admitted Cullen.
‘Even though we’ve got a win and a bonus point, guys in the dressing room are scratching their heads as to what actually went on there.’
Boyd was quietly satisfied with the performance by Saints but admits that they have to develop consistency if they wish to turn their season around.
‘We made some defensive lapses, but I think generally the intent was really good. It probably didn’t show it on the TV and you wouldn’t have picked it up on the radio, but it was quite windy. It actually was quite difficult to play,’ said Boyd.
‘We haven’t lacked intent all year. We’ve tried really hard.
‘We’ve just been inaccurate for periods of time.
‘Our challenge is to be more consistent for longer periods. We have the capability. We just drop off the concentration and it costs us.’