United Rugby Championship: Leinster 34 Sharks 13
An hour before the World Cup final kicked off on Saturday evening, Leo Cullen was asked about his soon-to-be colleague, South Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber. Now that the 51-year-old has earned a second World Cup winner’s medal, his attention will soon turn to defence coach duties in Ballsbridge.
When Leinster will see their new defensive mastermind, though, is another question. “I’ve been back and forth quite a bit with Jacques about this,” said Cullen after his charges beat the Sharks 34-13.
“He’s got to the end [of the World Cup], so we’ll see what happens after that. We’re pretty flexible for him, the big thing is he has to savour the moment he’s in, it’s a pretty special time.”
Savouring the moment sounds more time consuming than drowning one’s sorrows, the alternative if Nienaber and South Africa had lost to the All Blacks on Saturday.
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Despite regular contact, Cullen insists he has only discussed timings with Nienaber; no videos of training have been shared. “I just let him focus on doing his thing at the moment.”
If during his World Cup celebration Nienaber does manage to watch back to see how his new charges performed defensively at the RDS, he should be reasonably happy. After shipping 40-plus points in Glasgow last week, Leinster held the Sharks away from their try line until the dying embers of an already-decided game. Though the visitors made their fair share of line breaks (eight) and beat a healthy number of defenders (20), Leinster’s attitude in their last-ditch defence remained praiseworthy.
No less than Sam Prendergast pilfering a ball at the breakdown under the shadow of his own posts – one of 11 turnovers won by Leinster – or Ciarán Frawley holding up opposition wing Werner Kok over the line. “I thought [we showed] some really good scramble at stages,” said Cullen. “You can see, talking about Jacques there, some of the way the South African guys were talking about him, [the importance] of having that mindset in defence.”
Defence wasn’t the only improvement that helped Leinster’s comfortable win. The scrum which creaked so badly last week held firm. The narrow attacking game which saw a number of carriers held up over the line in Glasgow was replaced with more variety in the 22 on Saturday.
Jordan Larmour opened Leinster’s account thanks to a wide, flat and fast pass from scrumhalf Cormac Foley after the forwards failed to barge over the line. Later kicks inside the 22 from Charlie Ngatai and Foley himself were clever options to surprise a defence expecting a more direct approach. Unfortunate bounces meant those attacks went unrewarded.
“I thought we were in our shells a little bit,” said Cullen of last week’s poorer attacking display. “When you’re like that, your focus gets a little bit too narrow and you’re not seeing where the space is. We ran into traffic a load of times, last week. It [Saturday] was definitely a lot better, a much more composed performance.”
For all that inventiveness, though, Leinster scored their second try thanks to a close-range carry from Max Deegan. Propelled by two team-mates latching on to him, he marked his 100th Leinster appearance with a score and a player of the match display.
Leinster survived errors creeping into the game, particularly Lee Barron’s sinbinning for a high tackle early in the second half, to register three more tries, and the bonus point.
Rob Russell scored with his first touch off a lineout attack after Jamie Osborne’s delicate 50:22 kick. Another moment of magic with the boot, this time from Prendergast, then sent Tommy O’Brien over in the corner, just reward for a display in which the wing beat six defenders and made five line breaks.
The final try was a gift for Russell, the man who can’t stop scoring, pouncing on a Sharks mistake in their own 22 to dive over and wrap up a comfortable Leinster victory.
SCORING SEQUENCE – 2 mins: Bosch pen 0-3; 5: Larmour try 5-3; 10: Bosch pen 5-6; 22: Deegan try, Byrne con 12-6; Half-time 12-6; 49: Byrne pen 15-6; 54: Russell try, Byrne con 22-6; 67: O’Brien try 27-6; 80: Richardson try, Chamberlain con 27-13; 80 Russell try, Prendergast con 34-13.
LEINSTER: Ciarán Frawley; Tommy O’Brien, Jamie Osborne, Charlie Ngatai, Jordan Larmour; Harry Byrne, Cormac Foley; Jack Boyle, Lee Barron, Michael Ala’alatoa; Ross Molony, Jason Jenkins; Rhys Ruddock, Scott Penny (capt), Max Deegan. Replacements: Will Connors for Penny (blood, 26-29 mins); Connors for Ruddock, Rob Russell for Ngatai (both 53); Brian Deeny for Jenkins (59); Paddy McCarthy for Boyle, Rory McGuire for Ala’alatoa (both 60), Sam Prendergast for Byrne, Ben Murphy for Foley (both 62), Dylan Donnellan for Barron (68). Yellow card: Barron (43 mins).
SHARKS: Aphelele Fassi; Werner Kok, Francois Venter (capt), Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Marnus Potgieter; Curwin Bosch, Cameron Wright; Ntuthuko Mchunu, Kerron van Vuuren, Hanro Jacobs; Corne Rahl, Emile van Heerden; James Venter, Vincent Tshituka, Phepsi Buthelezi. Replacements: George Cronje for Tshituka (36 mins); Aphiwe Dyantyi for Potgieter (53); Dylan Richardson for van Vuuren, Dian Bleuler for Mchunu, Khwezi Mona for Jacobs, Zee Mkhabela for Wright (all 60 mins); Hyron Andrews for Rahl, Boeta Chamberlain for Bosch (both 69).
Referee: Federico Vedovelli (FIR).
