Treviso 20 Leinster 30:JOE SCHMIDT was entitled to a wry smile at the end of this one. In last season's corresponding fixture his troops were on the receiving end of a 16-point defeat and as the vultures circled he found himself engaged in a joust he hadn't anticipated.
“I was asked if this was the beginning of the end of Leinster rugby,” he grinned from the press area of the same stadium where he was rebuked by one rather irate supporter.
Saturday’s post match duties were decidedly easier. A 10-point victory over the Benetton-backed Italians re-established a degree of terra firma in the Venetian outpost, and accordingly, the interrogation was more mundane.
“When you have lost 29-13 last year, I don’t think there was ever going be any question about our frame of mind going back there,” said Schmidt.
“We know how good Treviso can be, we were motivated by that fear, and I think that’s why we started so well.”
Leinster did indeed start well, very well. Leo Auva’a’s opening try arrived after just 46 seconds, whilst Fionn Carr added a second on eight minutes to leave the visitors with a 14-3 lead.
Gradually, Treviso clawed their way back into the game, mainly through the boot of Tobias Botes, who scored four penalties in the first half. At 17-12, Leinster’s half-time lead was scant reward for their efforts, and as Fergus McFadden and Botes traded penalties early in the second half, so too the flashbacks of last season’s meltdown began to intensify for the small pocket of travelling fans.
Indeed, they were upgraded to panic attacks when Manoa Vosawai’s 50th minute try levelled the scores. Leinster had enough in reserve to regain the initiative, however, and another McFadden penalty combined with Eoin O’Malley’s 65th minute try effectively put the game to bed.
Unlike like last season, there would be no nightmares to keep the management staff awake at night. “Sure I lost sleep over last season’s result, but I lose sleep whether we win or lose,” Schmidt explained. “After any match I will hardly sleep at all because there is lots of adrenalin flowing around.
“I don’t have an opportunity to physically wear myself out, like the players do. Even having won today, I’ll still fret tonight in bed about whether we got all the various components right, and whether we had the right strategy.
“I’m forever questioning myself, and I think that’s healthy to a point. It means you are always looking for perfection.”
Saturday’s offering was well short of perfection, and the confirmed snag list will bring up some causes for concern, such as a scrum which was largely outmanoeuvred, and the usual catalogue of soft penalties conceded.
The video analysis will prove especially discomforting for Shane Jennings who put his team-mates under a great deal of unnecessary pressure at the end by picking up a blatant yellow card.
But considering the youthful make-up of Leinster’s squad, the good vastly outweighed the bad, with the likes of O’Malley and Ian Madigan both coming in for praise.
“Eoin (O’Malley) did really well for his try in the second half today, he showed great awareness to spot the gap, and great acceleration to get through it,” said Schmidt. “Ian is another player who is growing all the time and I thought he managed the game pretty well.”
TREVISO: L McLean; B De Jager, T Benvenuti, A Sgarbi, B Williams; K Burton, T Botes; M Rizzo, E Ceccato , L Cittadini; A Pavanello, V Bernabò; P Derbyshire, A Zanni, R Barbieri. Replacements: F Semenzato for De Jager (39 mins), I Fernandez Rouyet for Rizzo, F Sbaraglini for Ceccato, M Vosawi for Barbieri (all 48 mins), M Muccignata for Cittadini (50 mins), F Minto for Pavanello (72 mins).
LEINSTER: L Fitzgerald; F McFadden, E O’Malley, G D’Arcy, F Carr; I Madigan, E Reddan; C Healy, S Cronin, J Hagan; D Browne, D Toner; R Ruddock, S Jennings, L Auva’a. Replacements: J Heaslip for Auva’a, N White for Hagan (both 50 mins), K McLaughlin for Browne, I Boss for Reddan (both 62 mins), J McGrath for Healy, B Macken for D’Arcy (both 73 mins).
Referee: G Clancy (IRFU)
