Munster and Ulster eviscerated in Champions Cup as Leinster offer hope

It wasn't so much the results themselves, more the scale of them and the manner of them. Munster and Ulster, regulars in the last eight, weren't so much evicted from the European Champions Cup as eviscerated, conceding 33 and 60 points respectively, whereupon Leinster found their mojo to put a half-century on Castres.

However, with Johnny Sexton already ruled out for the first game in Rome, the weekend came at an almost predictable cost for Joe Schmidt as well, with the in-form Paddy Jackson almost certainly ruled out for the opening stages of the Six Nations after suffering a dislocated elbow.

Jackson had the elbow put back in place in a Toulon hospital after their heaviest defeat in European history, 60-22, by the rampant champions, and Ireland are now anxiously awaiting a second scan, but the likelihood is he will be sidelined for up to a couple of months. Ulster are also awaiting a scan on Stuart Olding’s ankle injury.

Connacht's Challenge Cup loss to Exeter in Galway yesterday by a scoreline of 33-24 was compounded by the ankle injury Robbie Henshaw suffered early on, even though he played on impressively.

“Robbie hurt his ankle and that’s a real concern too but he strapped it up and got through it,” said Pat Lam afterwards.

Entering next weekend’s European pool denouement, all roads lead to Coventry and Wasps’ new home at 1pm next Saturday for Leinster’s group decider. Wasps’ 23-3 opportunistic raid on the Stoop, winning with 30 per cent territory and 34 per cent possession, has changed the landscape in Pool Two to make this a winner-takes-all affair.

A losing bonus point might see Leinster squeeze through as one of the three best runners-up, but Toulouse’s 35-18 defeat at home to Bath yesterday, means Leinster know that a win over Wasps will guarantee them a home quarter-final.

With Marty Moore and Michael Bent making the scrum a weapon, and the line-out working well, Leinster had the platform to score off strike moves and generate quick ball as much of their familiar accuracy returned. Admittedly, Castres have been leaking like a sieve away from home and coughed up a bonus point by half-time, but, with momentum for next week in mind, the youthful Leinster bench maintained the tempo with three second-half tries.

Distinct plan

Comparing his side to the one which beat Wasps 25-20 in October, O’Connor commented: “We said it at the time, and no-one wanted to write it then, that we had a pretty distinct plan of what we want to achieve out of rounds one and two. We thought it was really important to make sure that we got two wins given the way the squad and the group was.”

“From that end, we weren’t overly disappointed with what we got out of the first two games. We got a lot of blokes back, another 14-15 games under our belt so from that end there’s a hell of a lot of training time and game minutes we can call on in Coventry.”

However, Wasps are also a much-changed side from the one beaten at the RDS in October. Buoyed by their move to the Ricoh Arena where they have won their two League games to date, 48-16 against London Irish and 41-16 against Sale, Saturday’s win was also their third in a row in the Cup.

Very good side

The one-time Leinster fullback and current Harlequins Director of Rugby, Conor O’Shea, warned: “Wasps are a very good side, strong backrow, great outside backs, a ‘10’ who controls the game well and a nine who is a threat. They are a good side and we played some fantastic rugby against them but just weren’t accurate in the first half.”

Whereas Leinster stay vibrantly alive, for another week at least, Munster face into a dead rubber at home to Sale next Sunday, with the Six Nations hiatus also offering a period of reflection after a demoralising 33-10 defeat to Saracens – their heaviest since the 60-19 loss away to Toulouse in the second season of the European Cup, in 1996-97.

A dejected Anthony Foley admitted this was the low point of the season so far.

“Yeah, because of what was on the line, because we knew that if we didn’t win we didn’t have a next week, and obviously we’re out of the competition and that’s the consequence, and what goes with that is that massive feeling of disappointment.”

Trying campaign

This is only the second time in 17 seasons that Munster have failed to reach the knock-out stages, which in turn makes an already trying campaign even more difficult.

“It is but we’ve got to refocus,” said Foley. “We’ve got to get back into our league in a month’s time and make sure that we’re right there; get a few broken bodes back onto their feet and see if we can launch an attack at the top of that table.”

Foley maintained they can remain competitive with the European big guns.

“Yeah, we can. We can’t be going into a key game with 16 of our squad unavailable due to injury for this week. Now, not all those players would play, but there’s a good chunk of them that would make the side and make the 23. So it’s about keeping fellas on their feet and making sure that if we get to the big games in the big competitions that we’ve the majority of our squad fit.”

The next few weeks are going to feel very hollow though.