Leinster get quest for a fourth Heineken Cup crown off to winning start

As momentum shifts go it was pretty seismic. Entering the 26th minute the Ospreys had a penalty five metres out after Richard Hibbard had been tackled short of the line with men outside as they explored a stand-offish fringe defence. Dave Kearney was pinged for not releasing after the tackle. The Ospreys had earned two full penalties and one indirect penalty from their first three scrums and with Mike Ross having departed in the 19th minute to be replaced by the Heineken Cup debutant, Martin Moore, they not unreasonably opted for a five-metre scrum.

It felt like both a seminal and ominous moment. It had been a bad day for Irish rugby until then. That bugbearer Wayne Barnes had been giving Leinster little against their bogey side, who were leading 6-3. The Ospreys had been pushing up hard, chopping low, getting the second man in over the ball and keeping the other 13 in a defensive line as they do, or else pouring into the breakdown with numbers.

They got down for the scrum and stayed down, as they looked for a maximum seven point reward. But not alone did Leinster stay rock solid, it was they who inched forward, with Moore getting inside Duncan Jones to push through between him and Richard Hibbard. Barnes signalled a penalty Leinster. This was probably the biggest moment of Moore’s career, and now it also felt even more like a seminal moment.

Maybe you had to be there but at a stroke, the mood in this strangely subdued ground changed. In what had seemed a forebodingly dark and chilly evening by the coast in south west Wales, the small but noisy band of Leinster supporters made their voices heard. They knew the significance of the moment.

It wasn't just that the Ospreys had been denied a significant psychological blow and a potential 10-point lead. So much of their game is predicated on their Lions' infused pack gaining ascendancy, first and foremost at scrum time. Take that pack, and especially scrum, superiority away from them, and you suddenly realise there isn't an awful lot more to them.

Drilled and focused
Looking superbly drilled and focused admittedly Leinster also defended better, ran harder, and broke more tackles in executing an assured and effective away-day game plan. As you expected they might, Leinster had learned the lessons from the sides' draw in the RDS four weeks ago by committing much more numbers, and more effectively to the breakdown.

They didn't let up for 80 minutes and there was no weak link in the chain. Matt O'Connor was fully vindicated in his selection of Isaac Boss and Jimmy Gopperth at halfback. The former's physicality around the fringes suited the needs of the day and along with him, by and large, Gopperth played the game in the right areas and was virtually flawless in all he did.

In the absence of such a core of leaders who had driven the Leinster machine over the last eight or nine years, it also felt like a baton had been passed on.

Jamie Heaslip and Seán O'Brien, and as you expected they would, along with Cian Healy and Rob Kearney, brought their A games to the Heineken Cup.

O’Brien was all force of nature physicality, outperforming Justin Tipuric and outmuscling any Osprey who came near him, whether barging them out of his path or ripping the ball from him, and Heaslip was at his best combination of athleticism and unstinting and effective workrate. Although Dan Biggar’s short restarts up the middle had plenty of hang time, Kearney augmented Leinster’s scores by rising to gobble them up as he does and helped Leinster have the better of the aerial exchanges.

Gordon D’Arcy, too, put his undistinguished afternoon in Thomond Park behind him with a strong carrying and tackling display. One of the team’s unsung heroes, Kevin McLaughlin, carried, tackled and cleared out with unremitting physicality and Mike McCarthy, typically, emptied himself for the 73 minutes he was on the pitch.

Within three minutes of 'Moore's scrum' (clearly it was a cumulative effort by the pack, and especially McCarthy behind him) came the other big moment of the half when the Ospreys went to Andrew Bishop in the outside channel on half-way. He looked set to break Heaslip's tackle and break upfield. Instead, when he broke clear of Heaslip, the latter had the ball, having ripped it from him and he charged upfield to put Leinster on the front foot.

Ospreys line
They kept going through the phases, Boss, D'Arcy and Rob Kearney making the hard yards before Seán Cronin took a sumptuous straight line to bust the Ospreys' line, swivel in the tackle and offload for O'Brien to display good hands in the tackle for a fine try.

It says everything about their focus, control and composure, that thereafter Leinster always looked likely winners. Gopperth was unerring, landing one massive, confidence-boosting penalty from inside his half and even when the Ospreys broke out to threaten one of their acts of escapology against Leinster, Gopperth superbly corralled Jeffrey Hassler.

To place Leinster’s victory in perspective, in the Ospreys’ 25 previous home games at this venue, they had only lost twice, to Leicester and Saracens, and even then managed at least the minor consolation of a bonus point.

Leinster's resolute march downfield and a late Gopperth penalty even denied the Ospreys that much. Some statement by Leinster. Some performance.
Scoring sequence: 3 mins Biggar pen 3-0; 9 mins Biggar pen 6-0; 15 mins Goppeth pen 6-3; 29 mins O'Brien try, Gopperth con 6-10; 35 mins Gopperth pen 6-13; (half-time 6-13); 45 mins Biggar pen 9-13; 49 mins Gopperth pen 9-16; 79 mins Gopperth pen 9-19.

OSPREYS: R Fussell; B John, A Bishop, A Beck, E Walker; D Biggar, T Tebaldi; D Jones, R Hibbard, A Jones, A W Jones (c), J King, R Jones, J Tipuric, J Bearman. Replacements: R Bevington for D Jones (51 mins), J Hassler for John (57 mins), T Habberfield for Tibaldi (59 mins), A Jarvis for A Jones, S Lewis for R Jones (both 63 mins), S Baldwin for Hibbard (70 mins), M Morgan for Beck (74 mins).

LEINSTER: R Kearney; F McFadden, B Macken, G D'Arcy, D Kearney; J Gopperth, I Boss; C Healy, S Cronin, M Ross, D Toner, M McCarthy, K McLaughlin, S O'Brien, J Heaslip (c). Replacements: M Moore for Ross (19 mins), J McGrath for Healy (63 mins), R Ruddock for McLaughlin, E Reddan for Boss, L Fitzgerald for Macken (all 69 mins), Q Roux for McCarthy (73 mins).

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England).