Exeter blunders punished in thrilling Leinster fightback
The miserable run for English clubs in the Champions Cup continued in Dublin yesterday, but not without a monumental effort from Exeter Chiefs in a gladiatorial contest that has all but secured Leinster a quarter-final place.
There may have been a hint of controversy about the winning try, with replays showing that Dan Leavy’s onehanded pass to Luke McGrath looked to have gone slightly forward, but the Irish province deserved the victory, a second in six days against the English champions, on the back of a ferocious second-half display.
Yet for long periods of the match, Exeter had looked on course to reverse the run of defeats for the Premiership clubs after last weekend’s whitewash, and after Harlequins had shipped over 50 points in another defeat by Ulster in Belfast on Friday night.
First-half tries by Sam Skinner and Luke Cowan-Dickie and a penalty by Gareth Steenson had established a 17-3 lead as Exeter dominated possession and territory in the first half and Leinster struggled to cope with the loss of Ireland fly-half Jonathan Sexton, who was forced off in the second minute with a concussion injury.
It was left to Leinster captain Isa Nacewa to keep his side in the game, landing five penalties to claw the Irish province back into the game as Exeter’s indiscipline at the breakdown was punished, before the Irish side finally took control of the game with a stunning impact from their bench.
Leavy and James Ryan spearheaded that late charge with barnstorming performances to back up hugely impressive displays by Jack Conan and McGrath, preventing Exeter scoring a single point in the second half.
Exeter must now beat Montpellier at Sandy Park and Glasgow away to keep alive any chance of making the quarter-finals as a best-placed runner-up.
“We have two tough games left, and we will go for them flat out and see what the pool brings,” said Rob Baxter, Exeter’s director of rugby.
“We have qualified before in some extraordinary circumstances, more extraordinary than the circumstances we are in now. I was a little bit annoyed at the soft points we gave up at the end of the first half with a couple of penalties that came back to haunt us.
“One thing that really got highlighted today was how much mistakes or a lack of accuracy can hurt you. There were some big swings out there.
“At times, it felt like we were making a mistake at one end of the field and all of a sudden we had to defend at the other end of the field.
“And those were the big swings that got harder and harder for us to control as the game wore on.
“Ultimately – and I said this to the players – the most important thing for us is to come out of today and last week as a better team, and I think we will because you could see the improvement in us in all kind of ways from last week.
“Some ill discipline spread through various players in the side that dented us at times when we were in possession, and a couple of errors in pressure moments.
“Fair play to Leinster, they exploited them very well and kept their nerve and when the scoreboard pressure came on at the end, they have dealt with it better than they have.”
It was an utterly spellbinding affair; ebbing and flowing as two quality sides took chunks out of each other, testing each other’s resolve with a combination of fleet-footed attacks and overbearing commitment.
Leinster looked to have started the contest several notches below from the professional smash and grab victory at Sandy Park six days earlier and were hampered both by injuries and flashes of indiscipline that saw first Cian Healy and then Scott Fardy shown yellow cards.
There were moments in the first half
when Exeter looked to have already established a match-winning platform.
Baxter’s side had set the tone with the ideal start, scoring a try by Skinner, who powered over after a sniping break by scrum-half Nic White as early as the third minute.
Jack Nowell looked sharp following his long lay-off with a fractured cheekbone as did Olly Woodburn, who provided a threat in attack and largely coped impressively with the aerial bombardment directed his way.
Cowan-Dickie, whose season has also been disrupted by injury, had a huge game, too, capping the display with a try from a rolling maul from a line-out and also winning an important penalty at the breakdown to halt Leinster’s comeback.
And yet Leinster refused to panic, even when the margin of deficit stretched to 14 points and they lost Fardy to the sin-bin. It was critical for Leinster to score next, and such is their quality that they managed to narrow the gap with two penalties by Nacewa before Fardy returned to the field as they hauled themselves back into the contest by the interval.
Leinster’s power play on the hour mark had all the intensity of a Test match. Jack Conan sprinted into the Exeter 22 from the base of the scrum and they attacked from close range again and again.
How Exeter withstood the barrage was equally remarkable, with Fergus McFadden eventually being held up over the line.
The penalty was Leinster’s, however, and Nacewa landed his fourth to narrow the deficit to just two points.
The decisive play came in the 66th minute when Leavy stormed into space and was able to offload to McGrath for the winning try. Exeter had their moments in the final reckoning, but Leinster deservedly held on to move five points clear at the top of Pool Three.
“It was as close as international qual- ity as you will get, and the one thing that we will be frustrated with when we break it down and analyse the game is that under that pressure, the sum of our weaknesses got exposed,” Baxter admitted afterwards.