Leinster 38 Warriors 3:LEINSTER DULY secured themselves a home semi-final against Ulster at the RDS next Friday by maintaining their unblemished home record against Glasgow and for the season. It took them a while to overcome a spirited if strictly limited Warriors and the idiosyncrasies of Welsh referee James Jones, but they had staved off an away semi by the hour mark.
Glasgow brought little to the party other than spoiling, but could only do that for so long. A re-jigged Leinster were possibly guilty of being a bit too one-dimensional in shifting the ball along the line to isolated runners in the first period, but thereafter their work-rate off the ball and improved angles of running helped bring their offloading game into play.
With Jamie Heaslip leading the way, the forwards generated quicker attacking ball, and Leinster also put their trademark width into the game, and have juggled their resources while moving to within three knock-out games of an historic double.
Reflecting on that “dysfunctional” first half, Schmidt said: “I thought we were a little bit individual, which isn’t like us. I think what got us to this point is very much a collective effort, we just weren’t looking after the ball well enough and, to be honest, we weren’t looking after each other well enough.”
What particularly encouraged Schmidt about a much better second half was the contribution of the younger players, highlighting Jack McGrath’s scrummaging and Fergus McFadden’s energy, all the more so as he couldn’t envisage playing the same team or match day squad for the remaining two or three games.
Having Ulster next Friday at least gives them an eight-day run at the Heineken Cup final, although he added: “I think it’s going to be a really tough fixture. They must have done very well in the Dragons and Ulster will be smarting from the couple of losses they’ve had to us.
“There’s always a risk of complacency when you have had a couple of wins over an opponent and we’ve got to be guarding against that because they’re too good a side to give any sort of latitude to.”
As is customary in the majority of matches in this generally poorly refereed league, the breakdown quickly became a mess, while a couple of early chances for the officials to enforce the hindmost foot offside law were blithely ignored. For much of the first half therefore, any attempt at Leinster’s customary width was cut off in midfield, where Gordon D’Arcy and Eoin O’Malley invariably had to check back into contact.
Throw in four unforced handling errors by Leinster and three penalties against them at the breakdown when attacking, and a stop-start first 20 was punctuated only by a Duncan Weir penalty, a clever kick and catch by the lively Fergus McFadden and a dancing counter-attack and offload by Isa Nacewa before Leinster upped their intensity for McFadden to level.
Horgan had a try ruled out by the TMO but with Jones beginning to punish Glasgow’s spoiling at ruck time, McFadden pushed Leinster in front after Moray Louw was penalised a second time.
Leinster’s change of tack after the interval was clear from the outset as they sought to offload, and there was another McFadden three-pointer when Heaslip followed up a sharp tackle by Dominic Ryan after a laboured pick-up off the base by Johnnie Beattie – still a shadow of his former self after injury.
A set scrum move offered Leinster the chance to go wide to McFadden and when Warriors full-back Peter Murchie tackled Nacewa, standing in at scrumhalf, without the ball even Mr Jones lost patience and yellow-carded him.
Furthermore, Schmidt had obviously told Heaslip and co not to eschew any more three-pointers; McFadden nailing the angled penalty to push Leinster two scores clear.
But suddenly Leinster had space to exploit. Again they went wide left to McFadden, and after Ryan took it back up the middle, Ian Madigan perfectly weighted his kick to the right touchline for Horgan to gather at full tilt and score in the corner despite a brave covering tackle by DTH van der Merwe.
Within a minute and a half, Heaslip cleverly sprinted from a lineout when taking the ball off Toner and offloaded for O’Malley to score by the posts with a superb line up the middle; McFadden adding the extras. Now Schmidt could afford to ring the changes.
Ditto Glasgow, who even began to play a bit themselves, although Heaslip’s magnificent steal ended the brief siege. Leinster lost little in the way of brio with the introduction of their tyros, and Dave Kearney made two stunning breaks to first link with the fast supporting Heaslip before he was hauled down just short of the line and the second ending with Ryan pouncing on a loose ball for a try.
Although it was mere varnish, such is Leinster’s desire for tries and sharper cutting edge that they again struck from deep for the bonus point when Heaslip led the charge from a turnover, finding Ian McKinley in support. After McFadden was tackled short, the ball was recycled for Kevin McLaughlin, underlining his World Cup credentials as a lock on the night, to score.
Scoring sequence: 7 mins: Weir pen 0-3; 26 mins McFadden pen 3-3; 36 mins: McFadden pen 6-3; (half-time 6-3); 47 mins: McFadden pen 9-3; 52 mins: McFadden pen 12-3; 55 mins: Horgan try 17-3; 56 mins: O’Malley try, McFadden con 24-3; 72 mins: Ryan try, McFadden con 31-3; 76 mins: McLaughlin try, McFadden con 38-3.
LEINSTER: I Nacewa; S Horgan, E O’Malley, G D’Arcy, F McFadden; I Madigan, I Boss; J McGrath, R Strauss, S Wright, K McLaughlin, D Toner, D Ryan, S Jennings, J Heaslip (capt). Replacements: A Dundon for Strauss, C Healy for McGrath (both 48 mins), M Ross for Wright (53 mins), R Ruddock for Jennings (54 mins), D Kearney for Nacewa (58 mins), I McKinley for D’Arcy (59 mins), P O’Donohoe for Boss (68 mins). Not used: N Hines.
GLASGOW WARRIORS: P Murchie; F Aramburu, M Bennett, G Morrison (capt), DTH van der Merwe; D Weir, C Cusiter; R Grant, F Thomson, M Low, A Muldowney, T Ryder, J Eddie, R Vernon, J Beattie. Replacements: P Horne for Aramburu (37 mins), R Jackson for Weir (48 mins), C Fusaro for Vernon (54 mins), D Hall for Thomson, R Harley for Muldowney (both 58 mins), J Welsh for Grant (60 mins), C Gregor for Cusiter, K Tkachuk for Low (both 70 mins). Sinbinned: Murchie (52-62 mins), Referee: James Jones (Wales).
