A first Leinster game since January 20th was not the sole contributory factor to the back-to-school atmosphere on Saturday afternoon. A first outing at the RDS since New Year’s Day plus the return of Ross Byrne at outhalf, his first game since suffering an arm injury against Munster in November, added to the feeling of familiarity.
The elder Byrne brother was a solid hand on the tiller during his 70 minutes on the pitch. His pullback pass to Tommy O’Brien set up a strike move for Liam Turner’s first-half try, while a kick in behind in the second half eventually set up Ben Murphy’s score.
“It’s not just what you see in the 80 minutes, it’s how Ross runs the week,” said Leo Cullen. “That’s the bit you don’t see. He’s very good in terms of the control of the group. I thought he was excellent.”
While Byrne was steady, Leinster’s other returnee from a lengthy injury, Jamie Osborne, was outstanding — a deserved player of the match. The Naas centre had not played since picking up a shoulder injury against Connacht before Christmas. Not for the first time, he stood out with Leinster’s internationals otherwise engaged.
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“Even though Jamie’s incredibly young, he has a lot of experience now and he’s definitely one for the future,” said Cullen.
“I was watching that Netflix documentary and you see when there’s a clip, they’re getting off the bus I think they’re in Portugal, Jamie’s there. He’s in the Six Nations group last year. He’s just unlucky, he got injured in round seven, he doesn’t get to play in those big games, four Champions Cup games, a couple of interpros over Christmas. Jamie will kick on now, hopefully, we’ll see him in big games.”
After playing fullback for Ireland at under-20 level and lining out across the backline for Leinster in recent years, Osborne looks settled at 12. It is a clogged position for both province and country with Robbie Henshaw, Bundee Aki and Stuart McCloskey all ahead of the 22-year-old, but time is on his side.
On Saturday, Osborne reprised the James Lowe role, using his left boot to advance Leinster up the park. He showed off the best of his kicking game when pinning Benetton inside their own 22, executing a beautiful kick on the turn after sprinting into the backfield. A mistake while clearing gifted Leinster a lineout close to the line, Scott Penny crashing over to level proceedings after poor defence out wide had earlier allowed Ignacio Mendy to open the scoring.
“He looks comfortable at 12,” said Cullen of his young centre. “It’s trying to play to his strength, yes, [he has] that big left boot but he’s skilful as well. The role of the 12, depending on what personnel are involved, who’s winning the gain line so to speak, you need to have a collision winner somewhere in your backline. He has very good skills, very good decision-making close to the line, and that kicking game.”
Osborne and a handful of others aside, Leinster were sloppy. First-half errors allowed Benetton to keep in touch, a spill from Ross Molony off a kick-off leading to another Mendy score via a delicate offload from Marco Zanon.
Yet the scrum excelled, dominating the Benetton frontrow. To go with the efforts of Penny and Turner, McGrath added another first-half score after deft handling from Osborne. All the while Benetton kept in touch, Jacob Umaga kicking two penalties to narrow the gap to 21-18 at the break.
Upon the restart, Leinster dominated. Their rush defence was tested, bending without breaking while down the other end, the province added 26 unanswered points.
Jason Jenkins crashed over from close range, Murphy crossed as Alessandro Garbisi made a mess of scooping a loose ball, while Brian Deeny and Penny added further scores off the back of the province’s stylish offloading game.
The win took Leinster back to the top of the table, their next URC outing not coming until the upcoming Six Nations down week on March 2nd. Next week, an exhibition game against Saracens awaits to plug the gap while a similar outing versus Bath is also on the cards.
“For a lot of our young guys to understand the nuances of not just our defensive systems but all our game is important,” said Cullen. “Trying to set young guys up to succeed for whenever they do get that opportunity, that’s the challenge the world over.”
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