Leinster kick ahead of Ospreys but lack options for Champions Cup

Leinster 18

Ospreys 12

The incessant aerial bombardment drew flak from the stands at the RDS. The plaintiff cries underlining a deep-seated frustration, an angst in watching Leinster fumble about before securing an 18-12 victory.

The aesthetics, in performance terms, are in the eye of the beholder. Some chose not to look past the result, while others are a little more finicky when deconstructing victories. For many weaned on the swashbuckling back play that accompanied two, if not all three, of the Leinster’s Heineken Cup triumphs, the current attacking patterns sit as comfortably as a hair shirt.

Leinster are presenting a pedestrian face to their opponents, where pressure is applied through territory, the conduit a kicking game. Leinster box-kicked, punted and hoofed to engineer position on the pitch but much of it was poorly executed.

The Ospreys too took to the skies but their impressive young outhalf Sam Davies offered more variation especially in his diagonal raking kicks that skimmed across the turf. The Ospreys won the kicking battle. When Leinster players dropped back to protect the corners, Davies stepped up to the gain-line and looked to use his runners, inside and outside.

Escaped to victory

Leinster escaped to victory against the Ospreys but a repeat of those levels won’t suffice against Harlequins, no matter how out-of-sorts they appear at present, when the European Champions Cup resumes at the weekend.

To win, the Irish province will have to score tries. To do so they’ll have to be creative. To manage that feat they’ll have to be more subtle and clever in their gambits and not rely on a cross-kick here and an inside pass there, a staple diet these days. Creativity, or the lack of it, represents a major ongoing issue. And if they do elect to kick, for the most part it’s got to come with a health warning for the catcher or be a huge “metre-muncher”.

Leinster cannot simply rely alone on the return of the remainder of their Ireland contingent to provide a panacea for an ailing game plan.

It should be acknowledged that turnover in personnel because of a ridiculously unfortunate injury list and international commitments isn’t conducive to building unit skills and that fluency has certainly been missing for the most part.

The Ospreys demonstrated time and again, that an aggressive line speed and solidity under the high ball, can make Leinster look a little ordinary when it comes to being constructive. Harlequins would have noted this but it’s not as if they haven’t had their own problems, the latest being a 25-6 defeat to Bath.

Leinster coach Matt O’Connor, though, pointed out that they will be regenerated by their England contingent. “Their form is a little bit irrelevant at the minute because they have class players and leaders away with England at the minute.

“They’re a very good side and they’ve shown that in the first two pool games against Wasps and Castres. If you’re a little bit inaccurate, they’re very hard to break down. We’ll have to bring our A game and be incredibly accurate across the board. We have the utmost respect for them. They will challenge you with ball in hand.

“It’s always good to get a hit-out of that standard against a very good Ospreys side, even down on personnel. They were abrasive, physical and they made us work very hard. There are some good review materials there.

“The main ones would be to put together a little more pressure in the opposition half, whether that would be exit strategy or executing from set-piece strategies. We probably didn’t put them under enough pressure, especially in the first-half when you need to get into their half.

‘Good opportunity’

“We need to control the ball a little better and force them to be more accurate in defending us. We knew there was a good opportunity coming into these three games and thankfully we got two wins and a draw.

“The season will be largely defined by the next two weekends and the group understands that. We need to make sure we control everything to make sure we’re in the right spot in two weeks’ time.”

He wants to refine certain aspects of the kicking and also accepted that Leinster need to be more direct, guaranteeing front-foot ball before going wide.

In their three Guinness Pro12 defeats this year, Leinster have scored a combined total of four tries, one a penalty, two from forwards, Jack McGrath and Tom Denton, and only one from a back, Darragh Fanning.

There was a commonality to the methods of the Irish province's conquerors, as the Glasgow Warriors, Connacht and Munster all caused Leinster problems up front and the latter couldn't pen an escape clause behind the scrum.

It wasn't all doom and gloom at the RDS, as Leinster demonstrated grit in eking out the win and also were inspired by an excellent performance from Jack Conan, and some high calibre efforts from Dominic Ryan, Dave Kearney and Fergus McFadden. But there is an appreciable journey to be negotiated from a performance perspective in a short timeframe.

Scoring sequence – 6 mins: Davies penalty, 0-3; 9: Madigan penalty, 3-3; 15: Madigan penalty, 6-3; 21: Madigan penalty, 9-3; 30: Davies penalty, 9-6; Davies penalty, 9-9. Half-time: 9-9; 52: Gopperth penalty, 12-9; 57: Davies penalty, 12-12; 72: Gopperth penalty, 15-12; 80: Gopperth penalty, 18-12.

LEINSTER: Z Kirchner; D Fanning, F McFadden, I Madigan, D Kearney; J Gopperth, E Reddan (capt); M Bent, B Byrne, T Furlong; T Denton, K Douglas; D Ryan, J Murphy, J Conan. Replacements: B Marshall for Denton (34 mins), G D'Arcy for Madigan (half-time), R Ruddock for Murphy (54 mins), J Hagan for Furlong (64 mins,) Murphy for Douglas (66 mins).

OSPREYS: D Evans; A Natoga, A Bishop, H Dirksen, T Grabham; S Davies, M Roberts; M Thomas, S Parry, D Arhip; L Peers (capt), T Ardron; J Bearman, S Lewis, D Baker. Replacements: I Jones for Baker (27 mins), R Bernardo for Lewis (30-36 mins), S Otten for Parry (58 mins), C Griffiths for Arhip (50 min), G Thomas for M Thomas (58 mins, D Howells 61 mins), J Matavesi for Dirksen (65 mins), Bernardo for Bearman (68 mins).

Referee: Maruis Mitrea (Italy).