As a contest it was never less than riveting, containing tries galore, 13 in total, a bagful of spice, a red card, and wonderful rugby throughout. A crowd of 17,600 lapped up the thrills if not the spills, offering a passionate, spiky, rollicking soundtrack.
This was a proper game to which the Sharks contributed handsomely. They scored five tries including three doozies, tore into the collisions with relish but equally demonstrated cutting edge back play in picking apart Leinster with two cracking first-phase tries, the schematics of which no doubt devised by their backs coach Noel McNamara, once of the Leinster parish.
The only downside from a Leinster perspective was the body count, losing Rhys Ruddock (HIA), Jordan Larmour (leg), Luke McGrath (HIA) and Ryan Baird (HIA), the latter on a stretcher following an awkward fall. In triage terms, Larmour’s is the most serious and will require a scan to ascertain the extent of the damage.
Jack Conan was a late withdrawal, replaced by Ruddock, but he lasted just four minutes before departing with a head injury. Martin Moloney, who wasn’t in the 23 at the start of the day, produced a top-class performance in the circumstances, alongside Will Connors and Ryan Baird, both of whom excelled across multiple aspects of the game.
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Johnny Sexton, when not immersed in a running dialogue with referee Craig Evans, produced a masterful performance in his first outing of the season, his link play, passing, placekicking and decision-making first rate.
Garry Ringrose was another standout contributor on his arrival for the injured Larmour, encompassing so much more than the two tries he scored. He made light of the positional requirements of playing on the wing.
Robbie Henshaw and Charlie Ngatai got Leinster over a gainline populated with big men, the frontrow took on a sizeable physical workload, Ross Molony was outstanding, relentless in his work-rate, so too Jason Jenkins, while Rob Russell was a lively presence, becoming more assured as the game went on and making better choices. Matches of that ilk will fast-track his apprenticeship.
It was a cracking encounter, even the incessant whistling of Evans failed, for the most part, to impair a thoroughly enjoyable spectacle, liberally sprinkled with brilliant attacking rugby. Leinster will rue their indiscipline and failure to react to Evans’s interpretation, whether right or wrong he is the sole arbiter of fact for the 80 minutes.
There were several incidents that merit a second look. Leinster head coach Leo Cullen explained: “There are so many pieces of the game flashing through my mind at the moment from some of the [refereeing] decisions, some of our play, both good and patchy bits as well, but we scored some great tries.
“We had attacking intent, that’s the way you want to play the game, isn’t it? That’s what the crowd want to come and see, so hopefully people got value for money from the contest.”
A breathless first half produced six tries, three apiece, Ringrose crossing for a brace to supplement one from Jenkins, while the Sharks responded through their fleet-footed back three of Aphelele Fassi, Werner Kok and Thaakir Abrahams. Leinster led 21-20 at the interval but needed to improve their discipline, especially at the breakdown.
Cullen admitted: “You’ve got to be able to deal with that on the day, so can we control certain actions better ourselves? The message at half-time was a bit more around composure. We knew we were in for a game at half-time, so it was just making sure we stuck to our plan. We couldn’t quite get into our flow, trying to go in and get a bit of tempo and it was just disjointed.
“The Sharks came into the game, attacked well, and took us around the fringes, and they’ve got some great speed as well in their backs. They’ve got that good balance.”
Leinster scored five tries after the break, recognising that the Sharks’ wingers were playing high and so finding space by employing the cross-kick or long cut-out pass to good effect. Andrew Porter, Henshaw, Russell, Sexton and John McKee all crossing the line; the enterprise and build-up play excellent, with Sexton generally as playmaker and facilitator.
Fassi and Abrahams scored second tries to ensure a bonus point that the visitors thoroughly deserved. There was time for a few all-in skirmishes, one of which was provoked by some head hunting from Sharks centre Rohan Jense van Rensburg for which he received a red card, for a shoulder to the head of Ross Byrne.
A six-day turnaround to the Connacht game in the Sportsground next Friday night will be trickier given the injuries and also the fact that the Leinster contingent in the Emerging Ireland won’t be back in Dublin until Tuesday and therefore not likely to take any part in the game in Galway.
