Leicester 14 Leinster 23
Leinster duly set up a mouth-watering semi-final against fellow European aristocrats Toulouse at the Aviva Stadium, most probably next Saturday, when subduing and becalming the Tigers’ home team and crowd alike at a febrile Welford Road.
In deservedly inflicting a first home defeat of the season for the Premiership leaders, the four-time winners thus set up a semi-final with the five-time winners and reigning champions. The tournament being run off with indecent hast, and even with just a week to do so, that won’t be a hard sell.
Leo Cullen will have enjoyed this return visit to his home for two years in the mid-noughties - well, relatively speaking for any head coach - as his well-oiled machine to all intents and purposes sealed the deal with a first-half performance which married pragmatism with ambition, and at all times with accuracy.
Their 20-0 half-time lead didn’t flatter them remotely and effectively put the tie to bed. Their standards slipped in the third quarter, when they had to withstand a fierce Leicester rally and this contributed to Leicester having much more possession and territory, but Leinster saw out the game comfortably enough.
The return of James Ryan proved hugely significant, not least in stealing two Leicester line-outs, and Caelan Doris, the hugely influential Josh van der Flier and Robbie Henshaw typified Leinster’s more dynamic carrying with their footwork before contact.
They engaged Leicester in the kicking duels - they do like their kick-tennis hereabouts - and emerged in credit, and the 9-7 penalty against them was swelled by a plethora of scrum penalties either way, but what set them apart from Leicester was also their ability to play at a higher tempo.
In this, the heartbeat of their team was the ever-improving Jamison Gibson-Park, whose sharpness at the base and service was augmented by his heads-up awareness and ability to find space. Outside him Johnny Sexton and the carriers played very flat to the line, sometimes it seemed too much so, but they were far more efficient at finding space on the outside, even from inside their 22.
Jimmy O’Brien made an assured Euro debut and, as ever, Hugo Keenan hardly put a foot wrong, while the Leinster back three were excellent under the predictable aerial bombardment.
As expected, once Leinster played well, they were always the likelier winners. After such a superlative first-half display, it was perhaps inevitable and indeed no harm - especially with Toulouse in mind - that standards slipped in the second-half.
But what really stood out was how fit, fresh and in-form so many of their players looked. Prepared purely over the last three weeks for this match, they look as fresh as daisies.
Although about 5,000 shy of its 25,000 capacity, Welford Road was a proper European cauldron at the kick-off, and the home crowd had wasted little time in adopting a persecution complex at the hands of Mathieu Raynal - which was also in part a compliment to the assured nature of Leinster’s start.
This even extended to the aerial game, Gibson-Park putting up a Garryowen which Ben Youngs fumbled for Leinster to power through the phases. A penalty for offside enabled Sexton to open the scoring to respectful silence.
There were a few moments to encourage the home crowd. Gibson-Park kicked out on the full and Andrew Porter was pinged at the first scrum for George Ford to kick to the corner. But Ryan nicked the Julian Montoya throw before a strong defensive set culminated in Sexton and Ryan combining to force a spillage from Olly Chisholm which the skipper celebrated enthusiastically.
Leinster also picked their moments to play. Lowe gathered a Ford bomb, marked, tapped and linked with kindred Kiwi spirit Gibson-Park to release Keenan. When Rónan Kelleher galloped toward the line off the recycle Leinster looked in business before Tommy Reffell nabbed Lowe at the base.
Still, a scything break by Gibson-Park brought them back into the danger zone, and although Lowe was stopped short from Jimmy O’Brien’s long pass, it was with an advantage.
Sexton tapped the penalty into the corner, the pack set up a dummy maul and van der Flier peeled infield at pace and power through Harry Potter’s tackle to reach out for the line.
The first Leinster roar suggested there were around 3-4,000 supporters clad in blue under the warm sun.
Leinster continued to play the vastly more ambitious and accurate rugby, Sexton’s floated pass releasing O’Brien from inside the 22, before they launched Henshaw from a line-out and powered through the phases, Henshaw finally bursting through Ford’s tackle to score, Sexton converting.
Leinster were so good they even took a leaf out of Leicester’s limited manual. Not wasting any time playing in their own half, Sexton went to the air, Freddie Steward was brilliantly tackled by Garry Ringrose and Gibson-Park was quickly over the ball to earn a penalty which Sexton nailed.
To be honest, Leinster weren’t remotely flattered by their 20-0 lead.
Leicester needed the interval and returned with renewed determination,
A sequence of penalties culminated in a close-range maul which again had the home crowd in full voice. Cue a trademark power play in a sequence of one-off charges, the last of them by the Ellis Genge (otherwise largely kept in check), before Ford whipped a long pass for Ashton to finish in the corner. Ford also converted.
Leinster were briefly rattled, Henshaw over-running Doris, who fumbled, and they required a double effort by O’Brien and van der Flier to prevent the hulking Nemani Nadolo from grounding the ball over the line, plus Ryan’s second line-out steal.
Gibson-Park brought some calmness with a well controlled exit and having lifted the third quarter siege, they made their first foray upfield tell when van der Flier charged down Potter’s relieving kick. Although Jasper Wiese prevented Jack Conan from scoring he did so at the expense of a five metre scrum by gathering before the try line.
Ross Byrne replaced Sexton, applying cotton to a blood wound above his right eye, Conan was launched off the five metre scrum and when Richard Wigglesworth came through too early on Gibson-Park, Byrne tapped over the penalty for a three-score lead.
The Tigers’ last chance effectively ended when Genge was pinged at an attacking five metre scrum for boring in when under pressure from Michael Ala’alatoa, a fate that would befall the Tigers totem again at another scrum before he was replaced.
Leicester’s maul manufactured a late consolation try for replacement hooker Nic Dolly but they had been beaten emphatically enough on their own turf.
Scoring sequence: 4 mins Sexton pen 0-3; 16 mins van der Flier try, Sexton con; 21 mins Henshaw try, Sexton con 0-17; 38 mins Sexton pen 0-20; (half-time 0-20); 46 mins Ashton try, Ford con 7-20; 66 mins Byrne pen 7-23; 78 mins Dolly try, Ford con 14-23.
LEICESTER TIGERS: Freddie Steward; Chris Ashton, Matias Moroni, Guy Porter, Harry Potter; George Ford, Ben Youngs; Ellis Genge (capt), Julian Montoya, Dan Cole; Ollie Chessum, Calum Green; Hanro Liebenberg, Tommy Reffell, Jasper Wiese.
Replacements: Nemani Nadolo for Moroni (45 mins), George Martin for Reffell (50 mins), Joe Heyes for Cole, Richard Wigglesworth for Youngs (both 59 mins), Harry Wells for Green (63 mins), Freddie Burns for Ford (67 mins), Nic Dolly for Montoya (73 mins), James Whitcombe for Genge (76 mins).
LEINSTER: Hugo Keenan; Jimmy O'Brien, Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, James Lowe; Johnny Sexton (capt), Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Rónan Kelleher, Tadhg Furlong; Ross Molony, James Ryan; Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan.
Replacements: Dan Sheehan for Kelleher (48 mins), Cian Healy for Porter, Michael Ala'alatoa for Furlong, Ross Byrne for Sexton (all 63 mins), Rhys Ruddock for Conan, Luke McGrath for Gibson-Park (both 71 mins), Tommy O'Brien for J O'Brien (72 mins), Joe McCarthy for Ryan, Porter for Healy (both 76 mins).
Referee: Mathieu Raynal (France)
