Rugby Ireland, RaboDirect
Pro12, Leinster Rugby, Heineken Cup Final 2013, Stade Francais, Brian
O’Driscoll, Aviva Stadium Dublin
Leinster go Silver Mining
The fact that the chanting
was sporadic, reserved for when Isa Nacewa touched the football, offered a
microcosm of Leinster’s performance in the RaboDirect Pro12 semi-final victory
over the Glasgow Warriors.
It was a fitful display,
lacking the nuance and subtlety that normally accompanies the home side’s back
play. The injuries to Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy and the ensuing
reshuffle of the three quarters line had an impact but credit must go too to
the manner in which Glasgow’s aggressive line speed in defence cut down space
and time.
The Leinster supporters are
keen to pay tribute at every turn to a New Zealander who has been outstanding
for the province in his time here. The long goodbye has begun. Saturday night’s
bruising victory means that it will be extended by a week before Nacewa
embraces retirement and the long journey home to New Zealand.
Take stock
First, he’ll prepare for
Friday night’s Amlin Challenge Cup final against Stade Francais and the
following weekend return to the Ballsbridge venue for a Pro12 final against
Ulster. It is only then that Nacewa will take stock of his time in Dublin.
Every time he took
possession against the Warriors he ran aggressively, his clever footwork in
contact, allowing him to defy the laws of physics in collision, when outweighed
or outnumbered. He might even have claimed a try from a beautifully flighted
cross-kick from outhalf Jonny Sexton but the ball bounced and scuttled away
from his grasp.
In a dressing room, where
bumps, bruises, blood and stitches were commonplace, Nacewa bore no visible
scars as he offered an insight into the match. He paid tribute to a Glasgow
team that came up agonisingly short on the night. “They are one of the hardest
games of the season and when it comes to a semi-final, you have to throw
everything at it and they did that. We were chasing them around the park for
most of the second half.
“They were playing into a
stiff breeze there (in the second half) and made the most of the ball that they
had. We coughed up a lot of opportunities ourselves, so we’ve just got to do
the basics right next week,” he added looking ahead to Stade Francais.
“We just need to really get
the breakdown right. We knew Glasgow were going to come at us and they really
disrupted our ball. It was a bit of the same last week against Ospreys too. So
if we can clean up the breakdown area and get our basics right, we’re in for a
good game.”
Leinster’s defensive line
speed was too passive at times, allowing Glasgow boss most of the collisions
and maximise impressive offloading. Fergus McFadden and Kevin McLaughlin – both
of whom had excellent matches – showed that aggression in the tackle can yield
turnovers.
Nacewa explained: “You know,
line speed is a bit of an attitude thing and they really attacked well in the
second half, so credit to them.”
The focus for now will be
exclusively on Stade Francais before the big Pro12 decider.
“Ulster will get a bit of a
rest next week and they’ve probably been the in-form team the whole season in
this Pro 12. So they’re going to be primed and ready for us,” said Nacewa.
“It’s a great way to go off,
with two finals. You work all year for this and there’s no better way than to
stay at the RDS for two more weeks.”
It may not be quite the
double they wanted, and the one they’ve come up a game short of in the last two
seasons, but regardless of that another unbroken, unyielding run of
end-of-sequence knock-out games is again already underlining how difficult a
RaboDirect PRO12/Amlin Challenge Cup double will be for Leinster, even with
both finals at the RDS.
In reaching the final of the
former before turning their attention to the latter against Stade Francais next
Friday, Leinster will spend the next 48 hours or more anxiously patching up
their squad after a nerve-jangling, sapping and costly 17-15 semi-final win
over Glasgow at the RDS on Saturday.
Gordon D’Arcy is their most
acute concern, a nasty looking calf injury possibly ruling him out of both
games. “Gordon cramped up pretty badly,” admitted Joe Schmidt. “They think it’s
possible there’s a tear there but we’re not going to know until he’s been
examined. So we’ll have a look and find out within the next 48 hours.”
As ever when Brian
O’Driscoll goes down and reluctantly departs the fray, crowd and medical staff
alike would have been immediately fretting like mother hens over the great
man’s back injury, though Schmidt did not seem too perturbed.
“Brian just tightened right
up and couldn’t really stretch out. He was keen to continue but really, it just
wasn’t an option. Against the guys they’ve got, if you’re trying to catch hold
of Hogg, Maitland or DTH van der Merwe – I won’t name their whole backline but
they’re a handful. I wouldn’t be overly concerned and I’m normally concerned
about most things, so hopefully it’s a good sign.”
Richardt Strauss and Fergus
McFadden will have to manage knee and shin injuries, while Schmidt was hopeful
Seán O’Brien, ruled out with a calf strain here, will come into the equation
for the Stade game.
“To be honest I don’t know
if we’ll be doing a lot in the front half of the week, we have six guys who are
off to the Lions, to London, for the whole of Monday, so our training will be
restricted probably to Tuesday and Wednesday.”
Medical staff
Asked if this was the week
Leinster’s medical staff will come into their own, Schmidt quipped: “They
didn’t do too well today! They need to work on their fitness; there were a lot
of guys going down. But they do a super job and they’ll have the glue and
sticky tape out, and hopefully that will mean we can piece together a team for
next week and then the week after, when we’re just delighted we’re not going to
be on holiday.”
Verily, though, this was not
what the doctors ordered six days before the first of those RDS finals against
a rested Stade Francais, an occasion which, alas, will not be illuminated by a
last appearance in European rugby by one-time Leinster icon Felipe Contepomi,
as Stade have not registered him for the competition. Against that, former
Leinster prop Stan Wright may feature.
Such was the ferocity of the
collisions and unrelenting tempo of Saturday’s game that players began dropping
like flies from the moment O’Driscoll’s back seized up early on, and ultimately
eight of the substitutions made by both sides, whether temporary or permanent,
were injury-enforced.
Given Stuart Hogg had a
conversion to take the sides into extra time, Schmidt was eternally grateful
for that small mercy. “Yeah, we were 2-1 down in the try count as well so not
only would it have extended the effort of players and furthered the fatigued,
but also we have had to win that extra-time because on count back of tries they
were up two to one, which is exactly what they did to us last time they were
here.”
Leinster, truly with the
best of respects, will be relieved to at least see the back of Glasgow. Lamenting
Leinster’s exaction, some dropped balls and missed opportunities, Schmidt
admitted Glasgow had their chances too.
“A really frustrating
night,” admitted Schmidt. “I think we didn’t really have the platform, we
missed a few lineouts where if you don’t get those you don’t get access to play
off and then you don’t get any sort of momentum.”
He also lamented the
poorly-officiated scrums, where Leinster mostly had the edge throughout, and
highlighted one attacking five-metre scrum when Mike Ross was pinged even
though Ryan Grant was virtually U-shaped.
“I mean, why would we
collapse our scrum when we’ve been dominant five metres out from the line?” he
asked rhetorically, and with justification.
