ONE GAME away from retaining their crown as the best team in Europe, and winning a third Heineken Cup in four years, Leinster stand on the brink of greatness, yet such was the frantic nature of the final five minutes that even the victorious players appeared to be a little drained emotionally as well as physically.
No one threw themselves into the fray more readily from the off than Brian O’Driscoll in just his fifth game back after a six-month absence due to surgery on a disc in his neck.
“It’s hard to immediately kind of rank it but it feels great because it was one of those games that was really going to test us as a side, and question whether we were up to winning in France and it’s great to get through that,” said O’Driscoll.
In that sense it tested their collective character as much as their technique? “Yes, it did, because they’re probably the best team in France at the moment and now that they’ve won their first French championship this was the next thing that they were after – they really wanted to lift that Heineken Cup,” he added.
“To give ourselves the chance to win three in four years is great but that’s all it is – an opportunity. There’s still a lot of playing left and I’m sure that there’ll be a province will think that their team can do a job on us.
“It’s just very exciting, it really is,” said O’Driscoll. “All the hard work of coming back from injury and from surgery is to play in those big games and to test yourself, and it’s nice when the test comes out on the right side and you get a positive result. It makes all that hard graft worthwhile. We shouldn’t have been only four points up with five minutes to go, and that’s what would annoy me, whatever about the missed penalty. There were other opportunities.
“We put ourselves in good position, with good turnovers and kicks into the corners, but we kind of malfunctioned a little at set-pieces at times and that kind of hurt us, because it’s hard to build any momentum out there at times. It was physical. That first 20-25 minutes was so quick and so tough, but those things, they can’t go for 80 minutes and you’ve just got to hang tough.
“Yeah, it’s hugely fulfilling to be able to play and win in those types of games because that’s not for the faint-hearted.”
Similarly, the outstanding Rob Kearney conceded: “To be fair we were probably a little bit lucky there at the end; nine times out of 10 Fofana scores that try, but we’ll take it when it’s there. We had to dig really deep at the end and those forwards on the front line, I can’t speak highly enough about them.”
His man-of-the-match award clearly surprised him a little, and gave rise to some good-natured slagging in the dressing-room. “Yeah, as the lads were saying inside, a five-minute cameo and that’s all I did in the whole game! I’ve tried enough drop goals and I’ve missed them so it’s nice to finally see one go between the sticks.”
As for his creation of Cian Healy’s try moments beforehand with a move which Jonny Sexton had called during the half-time interval, Kearney revealed: “We haven’t used it since Christmas. It’s something we knew we were going to score off; we just had that belief. It’s great it worked for us. Wayne was lucky to get out of the way for it. The last game we used it was Cardiff away at Christmas and we scored off it then.”
Looking ahead to the final, Kearney said: “Ulster have had a fantastic season, credit where credit is due. They beat Clermont at home which isn’t easy and they gave it a right go away from home. They’re flying high, they’re very confident at the moment. Last week they were missing some key players (the suspended John Afoa and the injured Chris Henry) and those key players make a huge difference to their team. When they have those back for the final, it will be a completely different game and they’ll be much tougher opposition.”
