Leinster 34 Cardiff Blues 23: IN THE greater scheme of things this was only round two of the Magners League, but this was still a significant win in many respects.
Kick-starting the Joe Schmidt era and reviving the RDS factor was all the more encouraging as it came against fairly chipper European Challenge Cup champions who had arrived here with nine wins on the bounce.
There was also the manner of the victory. Having seemed in control throughout much of the first half against a strangely out-of-sorts Blues (perhaps uncomfortable in pink), Leinster looked to have tossed their advantage away when Cardiff eased 23-20 ahead.
The tide had already begun to turn before Schmidt had started to empty the bench and withdraw some of the team’s leaders, such as Brian O’Driscoll and Shane Jennings, in accordance with the IRFU World Cup management programme. This was not so much the old hands who wrested control of the game back from the Blues and stormed to the finishing line, more the kids.
Although a fired-up O’Driscoll would rejoin the fray, when Leinster launched their comeback in the game’s decisive phase they were backboned by a core of seven, home-grown young players, the oldest of whom is Fergus McFadden at 24. Five of them are 22 or under.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence in the younger players. If we don’t show that confidence, they don’t get an opportunity and they don’t know how to close out a tough game – or chase a tough game, as it was in the end,” said Schmidt, who praised the leadership and performances from the back of Luke Fitzgerald and Isa Nacewa.
For Schmidt, the over-riding emotion was, he admitted, relief. “As I said during the week, Jono Gibbes lives and dies by what we do as well. We were both taking a step towards the guillotine around the 70th minute mark. We live and die the game, so don’t think it was any different when I was in France. It might be my name attached to the team, but, jeez, whether you are in behind or up in front of the team, you still live and die by it. It is just pressure.”
The other telling lesson from the game is that, under the revised laws (and even with inconsistent referees such as Andy Macpherson, who don’t apply the hindmost line as they ought) the motto must always be “when in doubt, keep it in hand”.
The rewards for their policy were a couple of well-worked first-half tries through the phases. Isaac Boss’ break and offload enabled Jennings to score with a classic number seven’s support line, and the scrumhalf then creating a blindside overlap with a smart skip-pass to Richardt Strauss, and quick hands from the hooker and the classy Fitzgerald sent the all-action Nacewa, clearly enthused by the arrival of his former Auckland Blues mentor, scampering away.
Even so, Leinster could possibly have played more territory than they did in the first half, and allowed Cardiff a couple of softish three-pointers to keep them in the game. Then they kicked away possession too freely as they lost their focus in the third quarter.
With Cardiff running Leinster turnovers out from deep, Nacewa had made a try-saving tackle on Richard Mustoe before Bradley Davies deftly reached for the line after a hopelessly dishevelled Leinster had failed to defend a secondary maul. The equalising try nearing the hour could be traced to Chris Cjekaj ending some kick-pong with a chip-and-catch. Several phases later Casey Laulala fixed a static, transfixed defence for Xavier Rush to eventually put Richie Rees over.
Previously error-proof, Dan Parks had kicked Cardiff in front with a penalty, but then, curiously, opted to extend the lead to six (still only a score) on 66 minutes with a wayward drop goal from another phased attack – no doubt much to Leinster’s relief.
Admittedly, as Schmidt maintained, some of Leinster’s kicking – such as Fitzgerald’s cross-kick for Nacewa – had been a clever option badly executed. But when Parks promptly dropped the long restart by Ian Madigan, that was Leinster’s cue. Two minutes of unbroken rugby culminated in a compelling score. Leinster’s first wave of attacks having been rebuffed, Fitzgerald, Nacewa and David Kearney, with a superb line, worked a clever counter. Three high-tempo recycles later, Nathan Hines stepped in at scrumhalf and Cian Healy burst through Parks’ tackle and freed his arms when tackled by Czekaj for McFadden to score with hard-running straight line from deep.
Fittingly, the impressively composed Madigan delivered the bonus point and the coup de grace. He had only been called in about 15 minutes before kick-off when Jonathan Sexton suffered a quad strain in kicking practice, for only his second league start. The 21-year-old Blackrock product timed his first break to perfection, using O’Driscoll’s decoy switch with a show-and-go to break the tackle of, yep, that man Parks again, and score.
But this also showed that it’s so much more beneficial for a young player to be introduced at home surrounded by frontliners than as part of a sacrificial line-up at, say, Rodney Parade, as has been the lot of others.
A bit disconcerting has been their habit of falling off in their performance levels in the second half, which happened again here, and with Kurt McQuilkin having gone, some of the organisation, intensity and line speed of their defending was not what you had come to associate with then.
Early days yet, of course, and in the circumstances a five-point haul was worth celebrating.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 4 mins: Jennings try, Nacewa con 7-0; 8: Nacewa try, con 14-0; 13: Parks pen 14-3; 19: Parks pen 14-6; 31: Nacewa pen 19-6; 36: Nacewa pen 20-6; (h-t 20-6); 50: Davies try, Parks con 20-13; 59: Rees try, Parks con 20-20; 63: Parks pen 20-23; 69: McFadden try, Nacewa con 27-23; 79: Madigan try, Nacewa con 34-23.
LEINSTER: L Fitzgerald; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, F McFadden, I Nacewa; I Madigan, I Boss; H van der Merwe, R Strauss, M Ross, N Hines, E O'Donoghue, S O'Brien, S Jennings (capt), J Heaslip. Replacements: D Kearney for Horgan (50 mins), E Reddan for Boss (54 mins), J Fogarty for Strauss (56 mins), C Healy for van der Merwe, S Shawe for Ross, D Ryan for Jennings, E O'Malley for O'Driscoll (all 60 mins), O'Driscoll for McFadden (74-79 mins), M Galarza for O'Donoghue (78 mins).
CARDIFF BLUES: C Czekaj; R Mustoe, C Laulala, D Hewitt, T James; D Parks, R Rees; T Davies, T Rhys Thomas, S Andrews, B Davies, D Jones, M Paterson, S Warburton, X Rush (capt). Replacements: F Filise for T Davies (40 mins), J Yapp for Andrews (50 mins), G Evans for Hewitt (56-60 mins) and for Laulala (72 mins), J Down for Jones (58 mins), B White for Warburton (72 mins). Not used: R Williams, L Williams, C Sweeney.
Referee: Andy Macpherson(SRU).
