Rugby

Leo Cullen still seeks improvement as Leinster thrash Ospreys to move into second

Welsh outfit kept in touch as Leinster mistakes ensured a sluggish first half

Leinster’s Ryan Baird in action against the Ospreys in the URC. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho

John O'Sullivan at the RDS
Sun May 12 2024 - 13:25
URC: Leinster 61 Ospreys 14

It was not quite the razzle dazzle rugby that the final scoreline suggested for Leinster. A 26-point barrage in the final 10 minutes provided a harsh footnote for a flagging Ospreys team that were punished mercilessly as several marquee reinforcements from the bench gave the Irish province a vitality and edge that had been lacking in the first half.

It is a touch pernickety to highlight those initial lapses that handed the Ospreys 14 points with the promise of more had they been a tad more composed; after all, nine tries, three for right wing Jordan Larmour alone, is a more than decent haul but Leinster head coach Leo Cullen was not oblivious to the fitful nature of the display in the first quarter of the match.

He said: “We started well, got ourselves into a bit of trouble with some of our own exits, so there’s still parts of that first half we can definitely be better. I thought the intent, particularly with all of the bench guys coming on, was excellent, playing right to the end.

“Hopefully we’ll have a few guys back next week as well from an injury point of view,” a reference to the potential return of Garry Ringrose, Hugo Keenan and Will Connors, the latter a late withdrawal from the Ospreys game.

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Cullen continued: “You need that fresh energy this time of year, we need to rely on the squad to get us to where we want to get to in two competitions. It was a positive outing for us in the end, there were parts in the first half that needs to be looked at, but if you’d offered us this at the start of the game, we’d have been very happy, yes.

“Ospreys are a dogged team and make life difficult, you could see that in the first half. Again, we just needed to keep a decent tempo in the game and there would probably be some rewards maybe later on in the game, which was pleasing.”

Leinster closed the gap on the league leaders Glasgow Warriors to a single point. Lamour’s hat-trick of tries was a reward for a sharp, lively work ethic, Jimmy O’Brien was adjudged the man-of-the-match laurels and had some lovely touches, but Tadhg Furlong, Robbie Henshaw and Jason Jenkins would have been worthy winners of that accolade.

Jamie Osborne enjoyed some lovely moments, while captain Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier and Rónan Kelleher in particular, and in truth the entire pack, fronted up physically. Cullen was asked about Jenkins and Furlong. “I thought he [Jenkins] was excellent, trained well this week.

“That is what you want, all the players, playing pretty close to their potential at this time of the season. It is timely form for Jason. [It was] good to see his [Furlong’s] cultured left boot as well, sliding one through; an all-court game from our tighthead.”

The first half was a microcosm of Leinster’s recent performances, when they were good, they produced some cracking rugby, coherent, fluent, and potent, but when they switched off, guilty of the more basic errors, many of them, simple handling mistakes.

It would be wrong to suggest that the home side’s travails were all their own making – the Ospreys produced some fine attacking passages – but both the tries they conceded were disappointingly soft.

Leinster started brightly, Jimmy O’Brien’s try on two minutes, beautifully constructed and finished. Ciarán Frawley’s long cutout pass found Kelleher on the wing, O’Brien looped outside the hooker, the timing of his run and the pass to him perfectly in sync and he then had the wheels to outpace Luke Morgan down the touchline. Ross Byrne was foot perfect all game off the tee.

Tadhg Furlong played like a boss in the first 40 minutes, a little show-and-go and outward arc in the build-up to the second try, finished emphatically by Ross Molony, his first try since January 2022. The secondrow powered through a couple of tackles on a short-side switch back from a ruck on the line.

Furlong would pop up every now and again to provide moments of quality, a thumping tackle, a big scrum, and a kick through that drew admiring gasps; deservedly so.

Leinster conceded two soft tries on foot of general sloppiness, the first to Owen Watkin who brushed aside some brittle tackling and the second when Ciarán Frawley tackled Ospreys wing Luke Morgan in the air in the in-goal area, the upshot a penalty try and a yellow card for the Leinster fullback.

Larmour pounced on a mistake from Max Nagy for his first try before the interval and Leinster had the bonus point 56 seconds after the restart when Jenkins finished off a flowing attack. Cullen went to his bench, and they gave the home side a more piquant attacking flavour.

Larmour added another brace, while Osborne, Charlie Ngatai, and Tommy O’Brien kept the scoreboard spinning like the barrels on a slot machine. The home support will have thoroughly enjoyed their night at the RDS. Tougher days lie ahead starting with a trip to Belfast next weekend but for now the satisfaction of the latest win will suffice.

Scoring sequence: 2 mins: O’Brien try, Byrne conversion, 7-0; 10: Molony try, Byrne conversion, 14-0; 15: Watkin try, Edwards conversion, 14-7; 18: Penalty try, conversion, 14-14; 26: Larmour try, Byrne conversion, 21-14. Half-time: 21-14. 41: Jenkins try, Byrne conversion, 28-14; 53: Larmour try, R Byrne conversion, 35-14; 69: Osborne try, Frawley conversion, 42-14; 74: Ngatai try, Frawley conversion, 49-14; 76: Larmour try, 54-14; 79: T O’Brien try, Frawley conversion, 61-14.

Leinster: C Frawley: J Larmour, J Osborne, R Henshaw, J O’Brien; R Byrne, L McGrath; A Porter, R Kelleher, T Furlong; R Molony, J Jenkins; R Baird, J van der Flier, C Doris (capt). Replacements: D Sheehan for Kelleher 51 mins; J Conan for Molony 51 mins; J Gibson-Park for McGrath 51 mins; M Milne for Porter 55 mins; T Clarkson for Furlong 55 mins; C Ngatai for R Byrne 57 mins; T O’Brien for Henshaw 57 mins; S Penny for Doris 70 mins.

Ospreys: M Nagy; L Morgan, O Watkin, K Williams, K Giles; D Edwards, R Morgan-Williams; N Smith, D Lake, R Henry: J Ratti, H Sutton; H Deaves, J Tipuric (capt), M Morris. Replacements:, G Thomas for Smith 52 mins; T Botha for Henry 56 mins; S Parry for Lake 58 mins; J Morgan for Deaves 58 mins; J Walsh for Edwards 58 mins; V Sekekete for Sutton 70 mins; E Boshoff for Williams 70 mins.

Referee: S Grove-White (Scotland)

Yellow card: C Frawley (Leinster) 18 mins. E Boshoff (Ospreys) 76 mins.

John O'Sullivan

John O'Sullivan

John O'Sullivan is an Irish Times sports writer

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