European Cup Quarter-finals/London Wasps 35 Leinster 13:This takes some explaining, because it took some believing. Watching it again, you still think Leinster were well into this match right up until half-time. But when they needed to up their intensity, they dropped it, once more being outmuscled by a team showing more hunger, before gradually imploding. The last quarter was simply horrendous to watch.
Not for the first time, Leinster came into a big knockout game with high hopes they had learnt from previous mistakes and had an improved big-game mentality. But not for the first time they fell short of their best and are obliged to conduct some soul-searching. You wonder how many psychological hits like this they can take.
A few marginal calls went against them. The opening two three-pointers for Alex King had a hometown hue to them, and there were a couple of big calls at scrumtime by Nigel Owens when Wasps were still without Lawrence Dallaglio and the score was still 20-10. But Leinster could have no excuses, not least given Owens had the strength of character to bin the iconic Wasps captain on half-time.
At that juncture Wasps had created little or nothing, Leinster defending physically and only coughing up a breakaway try to Eoin Reddan with an over-elaborate blindside move off an attacking scrum when perhaps a more eagle-eyed touch-judge would have spotted Fraser Waters knocking the ball forward out of Jamie Heaslip's hands into Reddan's.
A sniping try by the hard-working Chris Whitaker when his pass had been inadvertently cut off by Owens (it's rather laughable to suggest, as did one English scribe, that Owens was therefore the architect of it) had pushed them ahead.
Leinster hadn't been as accurate with the ball as they would have liked and had struggled when engulfed by Wasps' swarm defence, and Felipe Contepomi had missed a couple of penalties, one of which at least would normally be in his range. But when a 17-phase attack, featuring another clean break close in by Whitaker and countless fringe rumbles by the forwards, culminated in Dallaglio's binning and a Contepomi penalty, Leinster seemed well set.
Admittedly, this came with the rider that they probably had to score and take the lead, or else the psychic energy would have reverted to the home side when Dallaglio returned. At the very least, they had to recognise these were to be the championship minutes; they had to up their intensity, make their tackles, and be accurate in everything they did.
Instead, it was Wasps who did all of the above. It started with another missed touch-kick by Contepomi, compounded by a poor chase as Josh Lewsey countered infield as free as a bird, and after a few recycles Kieran Lewis was drawn onto Tom Palmer as he offloaded out of a despairing tackle by Malcolm O'Kelly for interval replacement James Haskell to plunge over.
Wasps, to their credit had decided to attack nearer to the breakdown, thereby drawing Leinster into more punishing combat - having felt during the interval the away side "were there for the taking". How right they were. After the Leinster pack's failure to control an attacking scrum, despite Wasps also having long since lost Tim Payne to a makeshift frontrow, and Owens's interpretation of their wheel on Leicester's put-in, back came Wasps through the phases. Their narrower approach duly created the space for Simon Shaw and Haskell to work Daniel Cipriani over in the corner. So, as King lined up an unsuccessful conversion, Dallaglio's menacing gallop back onto the field was hardly noticed. The die was cast, and Leinster were in unconvincing catch-up mode.
Contepomi and King exchanged penalties as Dominic Waldouck and O'Kelly were in turn binned, before Tom Rees pickpocketed Keith Gleeson - the biter being bit - for Haskell to come from deep and burst between Whitaker and Girvan Dempsey, the excellent Reddan running what he called a Shaun Edwards-inspired rugby league line to cross for his second try.
Bernard Jackman and Stephen Keogh carried well, but mentally and spiritually Leinster had been found wanting. It was indicative of their increasingly muddled thinking that, with Waldouck binned, rather than go for quick, off-the-top ball from O'Kelly they went for a lineout drive and turned over possession.
You couldn't fault a less-than-fully-fit Contepomi, but as with Munster the previous evening, you wondered about the leadership up front and the wisdom of saddling a place-kicking outhalf with the burden of captaincy.
Leinster seemed to simply run out of ideas, and it was surprising Contepomi did not unveil an odd grubber or chip, and that more was not made of inside runners such as Shane Horgan. One ventures he might have done had Brian O'Driscoll been present. But are Ireland and their European Cup contenders that dependent on their talismans?
In a tactical coup for Ian McGeechan and Edwards, Wasps were awesome in defence. They made something like 135 tackles, and so many were double hits to prevent the offload. No team this season has so successfully corralled the ever-willing Gordon D'Arcy. Dallaglio admitted it was their best performance of the season defensively, which is the rock of their game.
Wasps also made better use of what was, admittedly, a better bench, and the curious sight of Owen Finegan replacing Trevor Hogan instead of a ruddy-faced O'Kelly was almost a raising of the white flag. On the back of the Six Nations, perhaps both Irish provinces had demonstrated delusions of grandeur this weekend, but this was another reminder that first you have to win the scrap. Wasps did so, hands down.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 3 mins: King pen 3-0; 16: King pen 6-0; 24: Whitaker try, Contepomi con 6-7; 40: Reddan try, King con 13-7; 40 (+12): Contepomi pen 13-10 (half-time 13-10); 43: Haskell try 20-10; 53: Cipriani try 25-10; 63: Contepomi pen 25-13; 65: King pen 28-13; 69: Reddan try, King con 35-13.
LONDON WASPS: D Cipriani; J Lewsey, F Waters, D Waldouck, T Voyce; A King, E Reddan; T Payne, R Ibanez, P Vickery; S Shaw, T Palmer; J Worsley, T Rees, L Dallaglio (capt). Replacements: A Erinle for Waters (21-35 mins), P Bracken for Payne (37 mins), M van Gisbergen for King (40+4 mins to half-time, and 74 mins), J Haskell for Worsley (half-time), D Leo for Dallaglio (67 mins), J Ward for Ibanez (74 mins), M McMillan for Reddan (81 mins). Sinbinned: Dallaglio (40+11 mins), Waldouck (60 mins).
LEINSTER: G Dempsey; S Horgan, K Lewis, G D'Arcy, D Hickie; F Contepomi (capt), C Whitaker; S Wright, B Jackman, W Green; T Hogan, M O'Kelly; S Keogh, K Gleeson, J Heaslip. Replacements: B Blaney for Jackman (56 mins), O Finegan for Hogan (64 mins), C Jowitt for Keogh (74 mins), C Warner for Lewis, R Kearney for Dempsey (both 79 mins). Not used: R Corrigan, G Easterby. Sinbinned: O'Kelly (65-75 mins).
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales).
