Irish galacticos on song as Leicester are sent packing
LEINSTER, supercharged by Garry Ringrose on his return from injury, strolled into the Champions Cup semi-final in a style which suggests they will be claiming a fifth title next month.
Fielding the rump of Ireland’s Grand Slam side, most of them rested and refreshed after their labour in green, Leinster played at a pace way beyond Tigers and demonstrated enviable continuity in everything they did.
Remarkably there were periods when, by their standards, they went off the boil, yet still they had the firepower to accumulate 55 points against last year’s Premiership champions. They are an awesome machine when fully revved up.
Tigers fought the good fight until half-time when, at 17-10 down, they were just about in touch but got blown away after the break when the Irish galacticos really went to work.
The process started when Leinster scored 10 unanswered points when reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes after a yellow card to Caelan Doris – perhaps that was the challenge they needed to engage top gear – and the writing was well and truly on the wall after that.
Leinster seemingly scored at their leisure thereafter although Tigers did manage a couple of tries themselves to keep the score semi respectable.
It was Ringrose, looking fully restored to rude health after a month out with a concussion, who set the tone from the off as he sprinted home after a remorseless 11-phase Leinster attack after Mike Brown had fumbled the kick off.
Handre Pollard slotted a penalty as Tigers initially hit back strongly but then Ringrose struck again, this time profiting from superb approach work from Ross Byrne and the livewire Jimmy O’Brien who wasn’t far behind Ringrose when they dished out the MOM award. To these eyes O’Brien is the coming man of Ireland rugby and despite Mack Hansen’s excellence in the Six Nations, could well be a starter come the big World Cup games.
A Byrne penalty on the half hour stretched the lead to 17-3 and then, for the only period of the game, Leicester found some momentum and built up a good head of steam as half time approached which was rewarded with a well taken Anthony Watson try in the corner. Theoretically it was game on and that Doris yellow, for a high but not dangerous tackle on Jasper Wiese, augured well but that only fired up the home side.
While their world class No.8, who was playing openside in the absence of Josh van der Flier, was off they took complete control. First they shunted Tigers off their own ball for Byrne to slot the resulting penalty in front of the posts and then Jamison Gibson-Park scampered home after yet another telling contribution from Ringrose although frankly the final pass looked a little dubious.
No sooner had Doris returned than the game was effectively settled with another mighty mauling effort from Leinster earning a penalty try with salt being rubbed into the Tigers wound by the dismissal of hooker Charlie Clare for 10 minutes after he dragged the maul down.
The mayhem continued soon after when back row prospect Scott Penny spun out of another maul to dob down and dismiss Jack van Poortvliet with a mighty hand off as it threatened to get really ugly.
Tigers though showed some heart, indeed one or two such as George Martin and Tommy Reffell enjoyed fine games in adversity. Ollie Cracknell added a little vim off the bench and muscled his way over for a try from a short range tapped penalty before the deserving
O’Brien tiptoed over for a try before a 40-metre interception try by Harry Potter softened the scoreline further. But only a little. Leinster insisted on having the last word and it was replacement prop John McKee who forced his way over for their seventh and final try.
It’s difficult to see how Leinster can be denied a fifth title but we were saying the same thing this time last season.
Their one Achilles’ heel might yet be officialdom. To these eyes they still, to an extraordinary degree, dive in off their feet at the breakdown and take out players ahead of the ruck. As with the All Blacks in their pomp, Leinster and indeed Ireland seem to wear a cloak of immunity at present, the almost inevitable reward for being such a great team generally.
Nika Amashukeli, probably the best referee in the world right now, saw no evil on Friday night but should a referee suddenly take against their modus operandi in a big match it could be extremely disruptive.