United Rugby Championship round six: Leinster 24 Emirates Lions 6
At last, a blemish. Leinster came up short of a sixth bonus-point win out of six against an obdurate Lions’ side, although a haul of 29 points out of 30 still represents a statement start to the URC season and ensures a six-point lead going into the November break.
In truth, they were made to roll up their sleeves on an increasingly sodden night at the Aviva and to work hard for every point. The bonus point never came into view this time as their tries didn’t come until around the half-hour and hour mark before another with the game’s last play.
In some respects, having rotated heavily again in making nine changes and bringing the number of players used in six games to 47, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen will be happy that his reconfigured and relatively inexperienced side found a way on a trying night.
This particularly applied to Sam Prendergast, who displayed some lovely touches in a flawed performance, unfortunately missing one try-scoring pass on the edge, but most of Leinster’s best rugby, particularly in the third quarter, was with the young outhalf pulling the strings, before he was surprisingly removed for the last quarter.
The suspicion had lurked that the Lions went into this game in a slightly false position by occupying second place, given the quality of their beaten opponents. But after just missing out on the playoffs in ninth place in the last two seasons it looks as if they will be even more competitive this season, not least with classy 23-year-old Kade Wolhuter earning an injury-free run of form.
They were unlucky in that the loss of Lions fullback Quan Horn to an early head knock resulted in Edwill van der Merwe losing a couple of kicking duels with James Lowe, the first of which led to the breakthrough try by Caelan Doris. Indeed without their talismanic Number 8 and captain, Leinster would have been even harder pressed to wear down these Lions.
The visitors’ set piece lived up to their reputation, they didn’t dilly dally in their own half or over play their hand and maintained their defensive shape to slow down Leinster ball.
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Many in the 22,000-plus crowd were in large part motivated by the desire to see RG Snyman and didn’t take long for the double World Cup winning lock to make his mark – less than a minute actually. He threatened a charge down at the first recycle, blocked Morne van den Berg’s attempted box kick from the next, and then won a penalty when extending his long levers over the ball for Prendergast to open the scoring.
And Prendergast briefly became centre stage as first Robbie Henshaw, Max Deegan and Caelan Doris all made inroads off the outhalf’s varied and cleverly delayed passes before Hugo Keenan was held up over the line.
The Lions may not have any players in the Springboks’ for their end-of-year tour but they began to show what a good team they are. After Andrew Osborne sliced a touch finder, there was the rare sight of the Lions sub Erich Cronje berating an attempted tackle of Doris and then Asenathi Ntlabakanye bounced Michael Milne.
The latter was pinged for holding on when JC Pretorius latched over the ball for Wolhuter to level the scores and when Keenan’s footwork earned Leinster their first foothold Luke McGrath took his eye off the ball at the base.
Hence, when Snyman retrieved his own attempted offload to McGrath from an offside position, Wolhuter landed a penalty from almost halfway with plenty to spare, although the young outhalf was then wide from inside his own half.
The Lions further underlined their intent when Rabah Slimani was pinged after being turned inside at the game’s first scrum by Juan Schoeman. Leinster needed a huge relieving kick by James Lowe to earn a territorial foothold, and although Francke Horn nicked Gus McCarthy’s throw, the hooker and Deegan forced a five-metre scrum.
Cue the power game, Doris charging through scrumhalf Morne van den Berg and after pick-and-goes by Milne and Ryan Baird, McCarthy popped the ball to Josh van der Flier, who burrowed over.
Fast line speed and a good tackle by Hugh Cooney, on his full competitive Leinster debut, enabled Lowe to win a turnover penalty but the Lions responded with two strong defensive sets and finished the first period on the attack. They were not going away.
The first-half statistics confirmed this was a very evenly contested game, save for Craig Evans’ 9-4 penalty count against Leinster in the opening half, reviving memories of his 13-6 penalty count against them over 80 minutes in Treviso. Leinster are entitled to feel the Welsh official doesn’t like them much.
On the resumption, Lowe’s pass to Deegan on the edge was forward and though Leinster had the shove at successive put-ins, with Ntlabakanye twisted inside as Slimani had been, but Evans first ordered a reset and then pinged Porter again, as he had done in Treviso.
So, there were ironic cheers when the Lions’ frontrow was penalised for collapsing at the next scrum as Leinster began to hold onto the ball and probe more and more. Doris pumped his legs from the lineout to give the ensuing attack momentum but Prendergast’s long pass for Andrew Osborne to finish on the edge was slightly forward.
Lowe was brilliantly denied a try from Prendergast’s deftly weighted grubber by Henco van Wyk’s covering before Doris ran back the goal line restart. Van der Flier made inroads off Prendergast’s lovely pass and from McCarthy’s tap penalty, Doris charged onto Van der Flier’s pass to score with a little help from Porter and Thomas Clarkson.
The increasingly heavy and swirling rain making the ball greasier and Leinster just couldn’t generate the kind of quick ball or red zone attacking opportunities that are their life blood until the final play of the match.
Belatedly finding some favour with Evans, Ross Byrne kicked a scrum penalty into the corner and, just after coming on for his home debut, Stephen Smyth located Snyman for one of his trademark, one-handed takes for the maul to rumble over the line.
Porter lifted Smyth into the air as the sub hooker was mobbed but by then Evans had already trotted toward the posts to award a penalty try.
Scoring sequence: 3 mins Prendergast pen 3-0; 13 Wolhuter pen 3-3; 18 Wolhuter pen 3-6; 32 Van der Flier try, Prendergast 10-6; Half-time 10-6; 58 Doris try, Prendergast con 17-6; 82 penalty try 24-6.
LEINSTER: Hugo Keenan, Andrew Osborne, Hugh Cooney, Robbie Henshaw, James Lowe, Sam Prendergast, Luke McGrath, Michael Milne, Gus McCarthy, Rabah Slimani, RG Snyman, Ryan Baird, Max Deegan, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt).
Replacements: Andrew Porter for Milne, Thomas Clarkson for Slimani (both 46 mins), Cormac Foley for McGrath, Ross Byrne for Prendergast (both 64), Brian Deeny for Baird (67), James Culhane for Deegan (69), Stephen Smyth for McCarthy, Charlie Tector for Henshaw (both 79).
EMIRATES LIONS: Quan Horn, Richard Kriel, Henco van Wyk, Rynhardt Jonker, Edwill van der Merwe; Kade Wolhuter, Morne van den Berg; Juan Schoeman, PJ Botha, Asenathi Ntlabakanye, Ruben Schoeman, Reinhard Nothnagel, JC Pretorius, Jarod Cairns, Francke Horn (capt).
Replacements: Erich Cronje for Horn (11 mins), Franco Marais for Botha, Ruan Delport for Juan Schoeman, Marius Louw for Jonker (all 59), Heiko Pohlmann for Juan Schoeman, RF Schoeman for Ntlabakanye, Sanele Nohamba for van den Berg (all 68), Renzo du Plessis for Pretoris (70).
Referee: Craig Evans (WRU).
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