RUGBY: The way to expose the bully is to keep the ball moving away from contact

AS LEINSTER completed their warm-up, Coldplay’s Viva la Vida was belting out: I used to rule the world, Seas would rise when I gave the word, Now in the morning I sleep alone, Sweep the streets I used to own. After yet another titanic battle I’m still at slight odds as to why Leicester win so many trophies.

That, however, is with my nerd hat on. Their lineout and their scrum, to a lesser extent, provided no tangible platform. Their attacking play is almost neanderthal in ambition and execution. The idea of counter-attack has yet to reach them. Yet, but for Ed Slater’s butter-fingers and a shocking Toby Flood miss, this extraordinary bunch of “winners” could have pipped Leinster.

From the very warm-up you’re always looking for signs/omens. We had to wait only two minutes to spot one. The highly regarded Ben Youngs, at scrumhalf, launched his first box-kick of the day down Shane Horgan’s wing. Still very excited by the fixture, I was soaking up all the information. As the ball departed Youngs’ boot, Brian O’Driscoll, loitering in midfield, turned his back on the proceedings and headed for the far touchline. With the ball still powering up, O’Driscoll continued moving away. As the ball began to drop from the skies the counter-attack was primed for launch, with Horgan the receiver, and Isa Nacewa and Luke Fitzgerald in midfield and O’Driscoll miles away on the far touchline. Horgan passed to Nacewa who found the Kango-hammer Fitzgerald running a hard line. Taking it back from him completed the transfer of the ball pitch-wide. This brings us to O’Driscoll, who redirected the desperate Leicester wide defenders by his simple presence. Nacewa, carrying in both hands, powered on down the far touchline.

What ODriscoll and Nacewa did leading to that point is almost unteachable. Leicester, the kings of England, currently don’t have it. The loss of Geordan Murphy is hugely significant in their loss on Saturday.

Thankfully, the English Premiership and the Heineken Cup are miles apart. Leicester needed Murphy like never before. The contrasting styles of Scott Hamilton and Nacewa highlight the gulf between them.

So what is so special about Leicester? Our military history, culminating in the guerrilla warfare of the early 1900s, blended our lack of resources with a sharpness of wit that caused untold mayhem to the established forces. Meanwhile, Europe was at war and the Russians were throwing thousands of troops into the front lines with little tactical nous.

Leicester were relentless on Saturday, wave after wave kept arriving at the breakdown and gain line. Wherever the slightest sniff of a turnover was on they hurled bodies at the chance. If there was a glimmer that Leinster were to steal the ball then another wave would arrive. When in doubt, Leicester would err on the side of power and contact and sheer misery. They appear truly happy when in abject pain and misery, even happier if their opposition are feeling the same.

To overcome that relentlessness, Leinster had to manage the game as never before. In this both Jonny Sexton and Nacewa shone. Clearly the way to expose the bully is to keep the ball moving away from contact, offloading to clever running angles.

It would have been easy to become a slave to this, forcing it. The aforementioned impressed because they chose with precision when not to do the natural, high-tempo plays. Such things champions are made from.

This becomes very important as the pendulum swings away from you, as it did in the second quarter and for vast swaths of the second half. Leicester began their ad nauseam game of passing to the player beside them and the waves began to flow. As fatiguing as it was for Leinster, this 20-minute test was physical, not mental. Leicester couldn’t break the drift defence. Patience was key for the Blues.

Leinster elected for several short lineouts, mostly off the top to a variety of targets. O’Driscoll swapped with D’Arcy in midfield. Seán O’Brien carried, as did Jamie Heaslip, but two big plays of the day bookended the Leinster second quarter and it unsettled the Leicester defence. Twenty-three minutes in and another off-the-top lineout arrived into midfield with O’Brien, unusually, starting way out on the far touchline. The Leinster set-up sucked two defenders out of the line and, crucially, one was the kid Manu Tuilagi, who shot up. Thirteen minutes later a fantastic lineout steel from Kevin McLaughlin set the magnificent Richardt Strauss away and Alesana Tuilagi, predictably, fell off the inside tackle. Sexton then brings the score to 9-3.

For nearly 20 minutes Leinster were under huge pressure, conceded nothing and sniffed out a half chance. Championship minutes!

After 70 exhausting minutes along came Thomas the Tank engine Waldron, who taps a penalty 15 metres from his line (madness), from which Flood kicks terribly to Fitzgerald whose counter kick pushes Leicester back to their five-metre line. A brilliant steal at the tail by Heaslip and Sexton secures another three points. Good man Waldron: game management.

The second half is barely open and, just when you think all’s quiet on the Serengeti, along came the predators led ably by Alesana Tuilagi and the skin of a thigh was what saved Leinster. To counter, Leinster elected for buckets of rewinds and consistently attacked the narrow channel, but their notorious offloading game fell silent for vast periods.

When pressure and fatigue began to take their toll in Brive and Dublin, muscle had its memory, providing both Munster and Leinster with enough knowledge from previous battles to get them over the line. Northampton similarly learnt from their mauling in Thomond Park last year; a lesson that Ulster had yet to learn. Having managed their way into a great position yesterday, Ulster began to creak, creating errors in the lineout, the scrum and breakdown and the crucial penalty count in that last quarter. “Men stumble over pebbles, never mountains.”

Character is one thing but muscle memory is equally important. When they are together, as both Munster and Leicester have proven over the years, anything is possible. Ulster are building and Leinster have arrived.

Or, as Coldplay sing, “Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!”