Maintaining a recurring theme from the opening weekend of the European Champions Cup, Leinster began brightly against English opposition, lost their way and fell 20-8 behind in the first-half before then mounting a stirring comeback. Unlike Ulster, who fell just short, but emulating Munster if not with quite the same dramatic denouement, Leinster scored 14 unanswered points against Wasps in the second half to begin their campaign with a hard-earned 25-20 win; and with that the management, squad, and majority of the 17,558 crowd alike heaved a collective sigh of relief.
Ultimately, it was a good win (as the TV pundit Brian O'Driscoll, for one, maintained) not least after an intercept try and a stunning finish by the flying Christian Wade contrived to leave an injury-ravaged and heretofore somewhat out-of-sorts Leinster a dozen points adrift.
A second try by Darragh Fanning and one by Dominic Ryan pushed them 25-20 in front with 18 minutes, but although Leinster might rue not adding a fourth for a bonus point and thus denying wasps a losing bonus point, Matt O'Connor was pleased to have emerged from a trying week and day with a win.
“We didn’t manage those big moments,” he lamented, of the intercept try by Alapati Leiua and Wade’s superlative effort when beating the entire Leinster back three in a narrow corridor along the touchline. “It’s frustrating because we talked about those things all week. But the composure to fight your way back and keep going back to drill and process and build that intensity in the game was really pleasing. And the fans were huge. To be running down the hill at home, with everyone on their feet, was really positive.”
As Munster and the All Blacks had shown, it helps when come-from-behind wins are in a team’s DNA. “Success is huge in that regard,” admitted O’Connor. “It gives guys a hell of a lot of belief and it gives you somewhere to go when things are tough. We weren’t being outplayed. We weren’t being beaten up, so from that end it gives the guys the confidence to back the process and to keep doing the things we do in training. And from that end it was very, very pleasing. We didn’t go off-script, we didn’t chase the game, we just kept doing what we do.”
In all aspects Leinster were led from the front by Jamie Heaslip, who must be a coach's dream. "He was outstanding," said O'Connor. "His involvements across the game week on week are outstanding. It was a fantastic captain's knock, really, he led us all week and was outstanding all week against a good back-row, a physical side who have played some fantastic rugby and will beat a lot of sides. The back-row's performance was right up there.
“He’s a fantastic voice in the environment and probably hadn’t got the recognition he deserves really, because he’s a fantastic leader in our environment and he delivers every day in training, every game he’s phenomenal.”
Leinster should also have Mike Ross and Rob Kearney back to strengthen their hand for next week's trek to France and a reprise of last season's meeting with Castres, when Leinster were obliged to recover from a 14-0 deficit. Castres' 25-9 defeat away to Harlequins was their seventh in 10 games of an alarming season so far.
“You don’t want to get ambushed. We probably let ourselves down in the first 20 minutes of the game there last year. We went down 14-0 really early in the game. We’e got to make sure we manage those minutes. They’ll be very, very hungry to kick start their season against Leinster and I think they’ll be looking for that a a building block for the Top 14 and we’re going to have to make sure that we’re very, very good next week.”
In all probability, the three Irish provinces also emerged from the newish tournament’s first weekend with the bare minimum requirement. Given Saracens visit Thomond Park next Friday night for another classic Anglo-Irish tussle, and both the London club and Clermont emerged with bonus points from Saracens’ 30-23 victory over Clermont at Allianz Park, Munster assuredly needed to complete their last act of Euro escapology away to Sale on Saturday from a 23-7 half-time deficit to give themselves a massive lift courtesy of their 27-26 win.
"He's taken a big step forward in his career today," Anthony Foley said of match-winner Ian Keatley, and also confirmed that Munster had no issues injury-wise, although he also accepted they must improve. "We need to be a lot better with the ball. There are opportunities out there when we can make things a lot easier for us. We don't have to take collisions all the time. We need to look at the alternatives."
Lamenting the cheap turnovers which gave Sale too much possession too easily, Foley said: “You can’t concede 27 points in a first half of rugby away from home every week and expect to win the match.”
Ulster could at least take solace from sealing a bonus point from their comeback away to Leicester after trailing 22-3 early in the second-half before losing 25-18, and denying them one, before they host the champions Toulon (who were restricted to a three-try, 28-18 win by the Scarlets yesterday) next Saturday in a must-win game.
Jared Payne is following concussion protocols since Saturday's game and they had no other injury worries, although Luke Marshall may have suffered a serious knee injury playing for the Ravens, and will be assessed again today.
