Launchbury hurt by Dublin deja vu

JOE LAUNCHBURY felt an awful sense of deja vu as he trudged from the Aviva Stadium pitch, but the Wasps captain vowed to learn more brutal lessons from his second humbling loss there in a fortnight. Fourteen days after England’s Grand Slam dream was shattered on the same Dublin ground, Launchbury was again powerless to halt a Johnny Sexton-driven juggernaut as Leinster outclassed Wasps 32-17 in the Champions Cup. With England team-mates James Haskell, Elliot Daly and Nathan Hughes experiencing similar emotions, Wasps captain Launchbury admitted: ‘It’s tough to take. It’s not about us (England players), it’s about the group. Us England boys wanted to come back here and help the group perform. We have an unbelievable set of guys in the changing room and everyone is feeling the same as I do now. We are hungry to do better. ‘We have an opportunity now to get back to our domestic campaign and pick up where we left off and really push on.’ Willie Le Roux’s calamitous 25th-minute blunder, which saw him drop the ball over the line when it seemed easier to score, summed up a woeful Wasps performance as Leinster proved too classy.