RUGBY/Ospreys 19 Leinster 17:The difficulties of obtaining an away win were graphically illustrated in the Liberty Stadium in Swansea last night when the Ospreys duly went through the season unbeaten at their new fortress to eat into Leinster's lead atop the Magners Celtic League. They now trail Leinster by two points but with a game in hand, and though they play three games on the road, they have the bit between their teeth after six league wins on the spin.
Although this was the Ospreys' second game in four nights, thanks in part again to clever juggling by Lyn Jones, underlining the Ospreys' much stronger bench and squad system, as well as the comforts of home, they looked the fresher side. They controlled the ball for far longer, their backrow bruisers Ryan Jones and Filo Tiatia had a profound influence on the game, and though Justin Marshall's service was slow they always looked dangerous out wide.
Yet for all their possession and territory they only scored one try.
Leinster didn't help their cause by sloppy work at restarts and set-pieces, while their clearing out and intensity seemed to wane. Leinster's own line speed in defence seemed faster but in the face of the Ospreys' blitz defence they were obliged to kick or rely on wit and individualism.
There was occasional magic from Felipe Contepomi, Luke Fitzgerald and co, while Girvan Dempsey came up with some big plays but the backs lacked cohesion. Ultimately, a 13-5 penalty count magnified the odds against them, and a title decider deserved better than referee Paul Allen.
Indeed, Leinster were friendless among the 10,702 crowd in the impressively compact yet comfortable 25,000 all-seater. When the Leinster supporters were invited to make themselves heard before kick-off, the silence prompted the PA announcer to deduce: "Oh dear, they're all sitting at home and watching it on the telly."
Leinster were quite prepared to kick for territory in a cagey, scoreless opening quarter featuring plenty of aerial ping-pong, which they generally had the patience and accuracy to win, but the second of two wrong lineout calls by Nigel Owens to the home side resulted in Marshall scooting through the middle off a ricochet and Chris Whitaker being warned and penalised for not rolling away after the tackle.
Contepomi cancelled out Connor's short-range penalty with one from 45 metres, but in a near replica of the prelude to the post-interval try by Wasps a month ago, the Ospreys outflanked the advancing blue line by using the full width of the pitch in counterattacking off a long Contepomi drop out. Fitzgerald was then caught out on the blindside when Connor offloaded inside to Tiatia and Marshall picked up his offload to race in for the game's opening try; Connor converting.
Try-saving tackles by Dempsey and Gordon D'Arcy denied Andrew Bishop and Connor as the Ospreys recycled ad nauseam. A brilliant support line by Dempsey from Shane Horgan's offload lifted the siege but Marshall wasted the ensuing turnover ball when passing straight to Horgan, who had gambled on cutting out the huge overlap and turned to skate in beside the posts. Contepomi's conversion levelled it with the last kick of the half.
Michael Cheika now gambled on a double substitution to his frontrow and Leinster were immediately heartened by Fitzgerald's searing break and the support run of Bernard Jackman - only for the other replacement, Stanley Wright to get in the way of the recycle and Allen to ping Whitaker for a crooked feed under the posts.
Even so, Rob Kearney brilliantly retrieved his own skewed up-and-under inside halfway and calmly waited for Contepomi's support run up the touchline. The Puma maestro still had some work to do, but stepped inside and wriggled free from Shane Williams and Stefan Terblanche to reach out for the line, adding the conversion for good measure.
Cue the introduction of wonderboy James Hook and Duncan Jones after their midweek exertions, the latter earning a penalty from his first scrum off Wright for Hook to bring up his 100th Celtic League point with a 45-metre penalty. He soon had another, when Allen decreed Leinster's defensive line was ahead of the hindmost foot - amusing given the Ospreys rarely observed the same law, yet weren't penalised once.
Heaslip was binned for not rolling away after a huge hit on Tiatia. Hook missed that penalty from half-way but was afforded an easier opportunity when Owens flagged supposed obstruction by Horgan on Williams after a huge roar from the crowd; who were now influencing the officials hugely. It is such moments that make this league a joke.
In desperation, Leinster ran and recycled repeatedly but from deep, and they looked jaded by the end.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 25 mins: Connor pen 3-0; 27: Contepomi pen 3-3; 31: Marshall try, Connor con 10-3; 40: Horgan try, Contepomi con 10-10 (half-time 10-10); 48: Contepomi try and con 10-17; 58: Hook pen 13-17; 67: Hook pen 16-17; 75: Hook pen 19-17.
OSPREYS: S Terblanche; N Walker, S Parker, A Bishop, S Williams; S Connor, J Marshall; P James (capt), H Bennett, A Jones; A W Jones, J Thomas; R Jones, R Pugh, F Tiatia. Replacements: J Hook for Connor (52 mins), D Jones for James (55 mins), R Hibbard for Bennett, L Byrne for Terblanche (both 60 mins), James for D Jones (76 mins). Not used: M Powell, L Beach, M Roberts.
LEINSTER: G Dempsey; L Fitzgerald, G D'Arcy, S Horgan, L Fitzgerald; F Contepomi (capt), C Whitaker; R Corrigan, B Blaney, W Green; T Hogan, M O'Kelly; S Keogh, K Gleeson, J Heaslip. Replacements: S Wright for Green, B Jackman for Blaney (both half-time), K Lewis for Fitzgerald (66 mins), C Jowitt for Corrigan (76 mins). Not used: O Finegan, C Jowitt, G Easterby, C Warner, K Lewis.
Referee: Peter Allan (SRU).
