Leinster 19 Edinburgh 18:A FLAWED win, or, as Joe Schmidt said after the match "we clumsied it out". Picking holes in Leinster's performance on Saturday seems churlish and easily done.
The tacticians would have watched a callow backline run almost everything when it was the last thing they should have done. They would have seen the turnovers, the poor decision making and the generally frenetic pace of a match that rarely seemed to drop from top gear.
But when you go into battle without Brian O’Driscoll, Gordon D’Arcy, Rob Kearney, Luke Fitzgerald, Jonathan Sexton and Jamie Heaslip, it would seem to be over exacting to expect your side to come out all singing and dancing against an Edinburgh team peppered with international players.
Doubtless, Leinster will look at the win for what it is and they will feel justifiably proud that the young guns stood up and, even if they did clumsy out the match, they did so with some swashbuckling phases and critically, with the scoreline balanced their way by one point. That will please them no end.
“It was a mixed bag but the raw talent was pretty inventive,” said Schmidt and few could argue. While the Leinster coach made a point of also mentioning Shane Jennings, Leo Cullen and Richardt Strauss, it was largely a platform night for the younger crew.
Andrew Conway showed the sort of fizz people have been talking about, while Ian Madigan at outhalf, Fergus McFadden and Eoin O’Malley combined to give Leinster continuous punch and pluck in their fearless approach to taking the ball on.
At times the match looked more like a schools game as Leinster threw the ball with abandon and tirelessly attacked an Edinburgh side that took their time to adjust. Then when their left wing, Tim Visser, was mismatched with Leinster hooker Strauss in a foot race after 10 minutes, the joint-leading try scorer in the competition coolly showed some deft footwork to keep the ball alive and touched down for Edinburgh’s first try.
Madigan and Isa Nacewa rarely, if ever, kicked for territory and perhaps if any invidious comparison was to be made between Madigan and Sexton at outhalf, it would be Sexton’s ability to control the territory and tempo of the game with his kicking from the hand.
Nacewa kicked two more penalties and Chris Paterson knocked over one for the Scots to give Leinster a slender 9-8 lead going into the break.
All of Leinster’s points came from the boot of the fullback Nacewa, apart from Conway’s try eight minutes into the second half, when he took a short pass from Nathan Hines and sidestepped his way in for the score. It was converted for 16-8, Leinster’s biggest lead of the game. It was then Edinburgh began to creep back over the final half hour.
“It’s been a fantastic October, really,” said Schmidt. “We just wanted to make sure we got that five-in-a-row. There was massive support from the guys who are in the international side at the moment. Johnny Sexton ran water for us, making sure his knowledge and experience was getting on to Ian Madigan. That’s the squad ethos at the moment.”
It was pointed out that while the five in October have been valuable to Leinster’s momentum and league status, the three in November may be tougher as he faces more Magners League games without his international players. But that is Schmidt’s lot this season and he simply won’t get that many windows in the year where all of his players are available.
One other positive aspect for Leinster was the return of Shaun Berne for the first time since May.
“When we play Dragons on November 19th I don’t think they will lose too many to the Welsh team,” said Schmidt, looking forward. “It will be very much backs to the wall again.
“But I believe Edinburgh are one of the toughest teams to keep under wraps. You’ve got to be really well balanced defensively all the time and if you turn ball over, as we did when they scored their first try, you know you’ve Visser out there and Chris Paterson’s got a bit of class and a bit of speed. They don’t need too many chances to finish it off.”
Paterson’s try arrived on the hour when hooker Ross Ford burst past Strauss to break the Leinster line before galloping towards the posts. When he was downed, Paterson was at hand to take it on, running in unhindered by the Leinster cover.
The final minutes were fraught for Leinster and the 16,786 crowd but there was no panic and although they turned the ball over a few times, it was deep in Scottish territory.
Nacewa might have stretched the margin with a late penalty but when the flags stayed down Edinburgh sensed there was a slim possibility of nicking the game.
“There was a couple of times we turned ball over and made it a bit tougher for ourselves,” said Schmidt. “But guys were working really hard off the ball to make sure we did get some balance in our defensive line.”
As Schmidt observed Leinster ‘clumsied’ out the match, which should allow them to reflect on an important win with another game in the experience locker and an interesting, if difficult, month ahead.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 4 mins: I Nacewa pen 3-0; 10: T Visser try 3-5; 17: Nacewa pen 6-5; C Paterson pen 6-8; 28: Nacewa pen 9-8; 48: Conway try, Nacewa con 16-8; 50: C Paterson pen 16-11; 52: Nacewa pen 19-11; 59: C Paterson try and con 19-18.
LEINSTER: I Nacewa; S Horgan, E O’Malley, F McFadden, A Conway; I Madigan, P O’Donoghue; H van der Merwe, R Strauss, M Ross, L Cullen (capt), N Hines, D Ryan, S Jennings, S Keogh. Replacements: I Boss for O’Donoghue (54 mins); R Ruddock for Keogh (68 mins); S Berne for Madigan (78 mins).
EDINBURGH: C Paterson; J Thompson, A Grove, J Houston, T Visser; A Blair, M Blair; A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Cross; S McLeod, E Lozada, N Talei, R Grant (capt), R Rennie. Replacements: D Young for Cross (51 mins; 60 mins) C Laidlaw for M Blair; H Hamilton for Lozada (70 mins).
Referee: C Damasco (FIR).
