Leinster 54 Edinburgh 13:LEINSTER ENSURED a home semi-final in the RaboDirect Pro12 with an eight-try blitz of fellow Heineken Cup semi-finalists Edinburgh. They played some scintillating rugby on the night, mainly in two periods of complete dominance either side of the interval.
Some of the rugby was irresistible, canny angles, great depth, offloading in the tackle and an appreciation of how to first create and then exploit space. They were never going to completely dominate and Edinburgh did have their moments, but the worrying thing for the Scottish side was that their opponents missed a sack-full of kicks and still breached the half-century mark.
It was a fine team performance but Devin Toner, Shane Jennings, Seán Cronin and Jamie Heaslip generated pace and momentum in carrying ball and the backs responded by tearing the Edinburgh defence asunder; to a man superb.
Ian Madigan had another brilliant match in the pivot position.
The opening throes of the contest were accompanied by a flurry of tries to match the arctic conditions ranging from the bizarre to the sublime.
Leinster took the lead in fortuitous circumstances on seven minutes withy a try from flanker Shane Jennings.
Its origin was a penalty from Leinster centre Fergus McFadden that stuck an upright, deflected out towards the touchline and back into play and as Edinburgh wing Lee Jones tried to gather the ball it bounced wickedly back over the try line. Jennings was rewarded for the integrity of his chase by pouncing on the ball.
McFadden missed the conversion and indeed it wasn’t until his fifth place-kick, a penalty on 28 minutes, that he registered a first success: given his excellent goal-kicking statistics this season it was a surprise, albeit conditions were difficult.
Edinburgh responded aggressively and though the genesis of their riposte owed to an appreciably forward inside pass from outhalf and captain Greig Laidlaw to flanker Roddy Grant, it culminated in a try for centre Nick de Luca.
The Scottish side showed patience to maintain a sustained assault on the Leinster defence, both close-in and further out, and it paid off when the home side finally ran out of defenders. Laidlaw kicked a superb conversion and the visitors found themselves in front 7-5.
The lead lasted all of four minutes but it was the manner in which Leinster struck that defines this team both in terms of intent and, when they get it right, execution. Toner won an Edinburgh lineout – his second steal of the opening quarter – inside the Leinster 22 and the home side elected to move it wide.
It was Gordon D’Arcy’s beautifully weighted pass that allowed Isa Nacewa to steal a march on the Edinburgh defence. Dave Kearney got outside and initially past Tim Visser and even though the Leinster wing was tap-tackled, he had the presence of mind to offload to the supporting McFadden; the centre showed great pace to negotiate the final 30 metres of an 80-metre counter-attack.
He couldn’t add the conversion nor a subsequent penalty before finally finding the range with a penalty on 28 minutes. Laidlaw had an opportunity to respond in kind but the wind caught his kick and dragged it wide of the posts.
The home side were playing with great enterprise, varying the point and direction of attack with everyone contributing. Cronin’s try three minutes before the interval represented all that was good about Leinster in the opening 40 minutes. Fionn Carr rescued the move when it threatened to break down and Cronin kept his depth intelligently and cut a great angle to barrel his way over.
The hosts had increased their lead two minutes after the resumption, Heaslip making the initial sally, Cronin carrying powerfully to within a couple of metres of the Edinburgh line but adjudged to have lost the ball forward. Leinster simply turned over the set-piece and Carr, second favourite when Ian Madigan opted to cross-kick, showed a greater desire than Jones to grab the try. Nacewa, who took over the kicking duties, landed the conversion.
The crowd sat back and waited expectantly but it was the Scottish visitors who demonstrated the greater appetite over the next 15 minutes; two penalties from outhalf Laidlaw was a minimum return for their dominance and but for the continuing travails in the lineout it could have been even more lucrative.
Leinster, though, quickly found a second wind and with it an avalanche of points as they rediscovered their rhythm, facilitated by Edinburgh introducing five replacements in one fell swoop; in fairness the home side would do the same soon after.
Nacewa chose a great line to sweep through a gap on the fringe of a ruck and race under the posts, Leo Auva’a was mauled over the line by the pack and then Noel Reid’s great break and offload allowed fellow replacement Brendan Macken to race over in the corner. Toner grabbed the final try of the night. Nacewa and Madigan tagged on a couple of conversions each with the former kicking a penalty to boot restoring the high spirits of the home supporters.
SCORING SEQUENCE
7 mins: Jennings try, 5-0; 10: de Luca try, Laidlaw conversion, 5-7; 14: McFadden try, 10-7; 28: McFadden penalty, 13-7; 37: Cronin try, 18-7. Half-time: 18-7. 42: Carr try, Nacewa conversion, 25-7; Laidlaw penalty, 25-10; 54: Laidlaw penalty, 25-13; 60: Nacewa penalty, 28-13; 63: Nacewa try, Nacewa conversion, 35-13; 66: Auva’a try, 40-13; 70: Macken try. Madigan conversion 47-13; 79: Toner try, Madigan conversion, 54-13.
LEINSTER: I Nacewa; D Kearney, F McFadden, G D’Arcy, F Carr; I Madigan, I Boss; H van der Merwe, S Cronin, N White; D Browne, D Toner; R Ruddock, S Jennings, J Heaslip (capt). Replacements: K McLaughlin for Browne 60 mins; R Strauss for Cronin 65 mins; J McGrath for van der Merwe 65 mins; L Auva’a for Heaslip 65 mins; N Reid for Nacewa 65 mins; B Macken for McFadden 68 mins; E Reddan for D’Arcy 72 mins.
EDINBURGH: T Brown; L Jones, N de Luca, M Scott, T Visser; G Laidlaw (capt), C Leck; K Traynor, R Ford, G Cross; E Lozada, S Cox; S McInally, R Grant, N Talei. Replacements: G Gilchrist for Cox half-time; J Thompson for Brown 48 mins; A Kelly for Ford 60 mins; R Hislop for Traynor 60 mins; J Gilding for Cross 60 mins; D Denton for Grant 60 mins; R Rennie for Talei 60 mins.
Referee: P Fitzgibbon (IRFU)
