HARPIN' ON RUGBY

FRANCE v IRELAND - OFF

2012-02-11T22:00:00.001Z

LESHAMBLES

It'salmost 20 years since France were awarded the 1998 World Cup finalsby FIFA. Part of their bid was a promise to build a “state-of-the-art”stadium in Paris.

Youdon't need me to tell you that the French, particularly theParisians, take pride in their architecture. So it would be safe tosay that those in charge of getting the stadium built were not onlyrewarded handsomely for the project, the kudos from it also surelyled to plenty of future work.

Abit of weekend online research has led me to believe that somewherealong the line in the planning of the stadium, it must have beenbrought to the attention of the “brains trust” that since thechosen site lay on the grounds of an old gasworks, it would beextremely dangerous to install undersoil heating.

Pleasenote that the words “grounds of an old gasworks” makes me sorelytempted to go reaching for Scooby Doo references...if you knew meyou'd appreciate how hard it is for me to stay on the serious subjectmatter!

AlthoughI'm not an architect, I've still been at many a meeting and I'mpretty sure that at some stage in 1992 there was one where thedecision was taken to go ahead and build the thing without theheating or alternatively, find a site with less explosive issues. Somebody had to actually make that call.

Ultimately,THAT is the person to blame for what happened on Saturday night inParis. Because if there had been undersoil heating, there would havebeen a match, and I'd have actual rugby to write about this morning. In actual fact, they had a similar scare for one of the first games played in the stadium though that eventually went ahead.

Butof course I live in the real world, and despite the fact that so manyIrish fans were put out of pocket by the late decision, thedecision-maker I refer to will never be named, let alone sought afterfor recompense.

Ofcourse we must look at those involved when we place blame, but I justwanted to illustrate who is actually behind it all. And ok, fine, Ialso wanted the novelty of using the name of a cartoon character onmy rugby blog.

So...whowere the principal culprits in this Stade de Farce?

The IRB – the sport's overall governing body. By rights, they should be responsible for anything and everything to do with the sport, but although they “came out in support” of the decision to postpone, that's a lot different to actually taking responsibility.

Dave Pearson – Irish fans would of course love to take a pop at him! The man seems to be colour blind – not only could he not distinguish between red and yellow in the Aviva Stadium, seemingly white and green are hard to tell apart when it comes to a pitch! But seriously...I make him merely a bit player in this drama.

Kidney & St Andre – Much like the committee meeting from two decades ago I refer to above, we can only speculate what was said at that on-pitch conflab between the two coaches and the officials, though the word seems to be that Kidney wanted it called off while his French counterpart was leaning the other way. Whether player safety was the true consideration of either coach we'll never know.

France Télévisions – the French answer to Auntie Beeb, who have the rights to the Six Nations all the way to 2017, must surely have had a hand in the decision to play this match at the ludicrous local time of 9pm in February.

Six Nations Ltd – now we're getting closer to the top of the responsibility pyramid. This practically-masonic organisation is based in Dublin yet puts very little information about itself online, even on the official RBS Six Nations website. Perhaps their aim is to adjudicate over the tournament itself without being anywhere to be seen when serious answers are sought? Now they did put out an official statement shifting the blame to both the FFR and Pearson but in my book it raised as many questions as it answered.

FFR – I used to manage a sports shop. Whenever a customer bought a pair of runners there and they turned out to be faulty, they brought them back to me. And that made sense. Maybe the real folks to blame were Nike, or the manufacturers of the glue that held on the sole or maybe even the poorly-paid factory workers in South-East Asia who did the stitching. But from the customers' point of view, they bought them in my shop so it was up to me to deal with them and pass on the blame on my own time, not theirs. Same goes for the FFR with this match. The home union must be held responsible when it comes to compensating fans, and I would expect no less of the IRFU if the same thing happened in Dublin.

Now...weare clear that it's the fans who are the ones to be considered hereas hard done by, right?

BecauseI wouldn't be so sure when I look at the media over the weekend. There seemed to be a lot of concern over the perceived tragedy ofprofessional sportsmen playing – wait for it – FOUR MATCHES INFOUR WEEKS!!!! To use a uniquely Irish phrase : “would ye get awayoutta that!!!”

Anothermisconception people seem to have is that the fans wanted the matchto go ahead even with the frozen pitch. Many have gleefully postedgory pictures of their own various injuries incurred by playing insuch conditions. Eh, nobody with an ounce of common sense issuggesting the match should ever have gone ahead.

No...whatwent wrong in Paris was the protocols in place, or should I say thelack thereof.

See,we mere mortals don't think about such things until after theyhappen, and now that they have, all I can ask myself is this : Whynot inspect the pitch at least 48 hrs before the match AT THE PLANNEDKICKOFF TIME (not4pm the day before and 7pm the day of the match as what happened)then make a definitive decision that also takes weather forecastsinto account? Plus – shouldn't EVERY major sporting fixture have a sensible alternative date scheduled in advance just in case?

Butinstead, it came down to a last-minute decision - the match wascalled off as the brass band were on the pitch ready to no doubt makean absolute hames of Ireland's Call like every other country does.

Andit's not like there isn't recent precedent. Originally, thealternative date for the fixture was Friday, March 2^nd. This was even more bizarre for two reasons...one, it was yet anothernight-time kickoff, and two, Leinster were already scheduled to playin Aironi that night and some fans would have had tickets for bothmatches (itwas pointed out to me that these travelling numbers are relativelysmall, though I'm not sure what that has to do with anything).

Butwith an almost sinister irony, Aironi were due to play Munster, alsoin Viadana, last Sunday. Guess what – they found themselveswith a frozen pitch during the week. And guess what – theyactually HAD the stones to postpone the fixture.

Ofcourse, the numbers to attend the Pro12 fixture were nothing comparedto those attending the Six Nations one. But that's my point. Thedelay in the Paris decision was clearly down to fear of losing money. So rather than employ basic logic they let the fans travel, spendtheir hard-earned Euros in Paris, then feck off home without havingseen a match. But at “least” they have the “re-assurance”that once they retained their ticket (and though many were at pains to tell me they always keep theirs, we're talking about 80,000 people here and even if only a handful chucked their ticket, in my book they're still entitled to a refund due to the late announcement), they won't have to pay for anew one for the rematch whenever it may be (thoughat least it won't be a Friday night now by all accounts).

There'snot only the Irish travelling fans to consider. Rugby in France, aswe all know, is primarily popular around the southern coast, so nodoubt many made the not-insignificant journey north to see the matchand will be equally pissed off by their more metropolitan fellowcountrymen.

Soto summarise...this blog will always consider the fans' well-being asof the utmost importance in rugby matters like these. It's aprofessional game now, and this means that it can be nothing withoutthose same fans. And the ones who are willing to shell out goodmoney to follow their heroes from Ireland to Paris and/or Viadanashould be treated like royalty, yet by the events of the past week,they have been barely treated like peasants.

I'llbe waiting for some kind of assurance that not only will the fansfrom Saturday night be properly looked after, but also that planswill be put in place for “Le Shambles” not to happen again. Ihave a feeling there are rugby pitches in hell which will freeze overfirst. JLP

ALSOLAST WEEKEND...

FRANCEU20s 12-13 IRELAND U20s

Didn’tsee all of it, but what I did see was a monumental display from MikeRuddock's men, particularly on defence. Lansdowne's Foster Horan gotthe game's only try early in the 2nd half and it was down to JJHanrahan to kick the winning pen. The French seem to have crossed atthe death but the ref went upstairs and the TMO found itinconclusive. Super result for the Wolfpuppies!

ITALY15-19 ENGLAND

Forthe 2nd week in a row the reigning champions go into a Six Nationsmatch with little more than Owen Farrell's boot and a solid defenceand come out narrowly on top. Italy went into the break 15-6 to thegood after two fine tries but their lack of a decent 10 cost themdear and once again Hodgson got a try back from a blocked clearance.I doubt the Twickenham crowd would welcome this display.

FRANCE8-7 IRELAND (Women)

Clickhere for the match report from the IRFU website

WALES vSCOTLAND

Forme this match was decided either side of half time. The valiant Scotshad 20+ phases to snap a 3-3 deadlock to no avail before the break.Then a horrible error by Cusiter off 2nd half kickoff gave Walesattacking ball which they punished with a Cuthbert try. Then came acouple of Scottish yellows, followed by a couple of Halfpenny tries.Rennie & Hogg impressed for Scots but it wasn’t to be.

Leinster-42 Treviso-8

2012-02-09T21:00:00.000Z

Novelty : A Concise Eleven-Word Article

Isa, awesome.
Madigan, enterprising.
Youngsters, eager.
Bench, overpowering.
Fourteen points clear.

PS - In case you think this brief post was done out of laziness I also did a 700+word piece on the match for BlueMagic.ie - follow this link to read it

ALSO IN THIS ROUND
Thursday
Glasgow 19-14 Scarlets
Friday
Ulster 30-12 NG Dragons
Cardiff Blues 22-15 Connacht
Edinburgh 14-15 Ospreys
Sunday
Aironi v Munster - POSTPONED TO SUNDAY, MARCH 11

IRELAND-21 WALES-23

2012-02-05T18:00:00.000Z

NEMESIS

Duringthe week I read an article written by Welsh MP Owen Smith entitled“Regional rugby – time for change”.

OverallI felt it was a piece of populist pandering by a politician lookingto draw easy attention to himself and his agenda. But behind it all,I was fascinated by the idea that a nation so steeped in traditionwith the oval ball could consider anything less than offering fullsupport to its teams on the international stage whatever the level.

Yetwhen you look at the comparative performances of the Irish and Welshteams at Pro12 and Heineken Cup level, it suggests a massive gulf intalent between the respective pools of players.

Andnot even that...you could also suggest that since the IRFU movesmountains to keep players at home while their Welsh counterpartsvirtually put them on the plane to France, there should theoreticallybe a greater understanding and camaraderie in the Irish camp.

Sowith all those factors taken into account, it should be a given that when the twocountries pick sides to play each other, especially in Dublin,Ireland should be in the ascendancy. Since that didn't come anywherenear happening on Sunday, questions have to be asked.

First,though, we must eliminate the irrelevant questions.

Should O'Gara have started instead of Sexton? I know a large portion of the HarpinOnRugby ethos has been built via twitter, but every time either Leinster & Ireland are playing I tell myself I'll stay away from it while the match is actually on, yet every time I get sucked in. And sure enough even from the very first miss by Sexton the tweets were pouring in “Get ROG on!” People obviously forget who started in Wellington. But I must admit even I allow myself to be drawn into the pettiness...after a later miss the RTE director cut straight to O'Gara sitting on the bench and I reckon he knew he could be seen on the big screen as he said “that's a fucking waste”. Not that it wasn't of course, but my annoyance stems from the fact the same people who stick up for him go incredibly silent when he himself is less than perfect, which he can be, even in Sunday's cameo. Still, the fact remains, recent results against the Welsh prove the selection at outhalf makes absolutely no difference and we must look deeper.
Did the officials make the difference? Again with the social media, there was a worry that an “I Hate Wayne Barnes” Facebook page would have been set up much like the one against Alain Rolland. Thankfully while there were a few anti-Barnes pages already there, nothing new sprung up after Sunday, though there was plenty of blame being flung at him from individuals. As for the tip tackles, if he was guilty of anything it was trying too hard to be fair. Remember – he didn't see the first one by Davies, and Dave Pearson didn't see the second from Ferris. Had they both been called by the same official perhaps the massive difference between them would have been obvious and then reflected in the two punishments. But to actually answer the question, I have to say no. The way we were allowing the Welsh run onto us so easily we were giving them every chance to get the winning score even without that penalty. Barnes is far from my favourite man in the middle, but I could only blame him if I thought we took care of our own business when it counted and we certainly didn't.
Are Ireland lost without Brian O'Driscoll? For this I point to the Welsh display. They were missing a huge slice of their pack from the start, lost their inspirational skipper at halftime, and were a man short with ten minutes to go, yet still deservedly won. BOD is a legend of the Irish game, and has won test matches all on his own, but no team in any sport can put all their faith in one player and hope to achieve anything.

Forme, we lost this match because we failed to perform in both the firstten minutes and the last.

Itwas all fire and passion from Ireland after the actual kickoff and wewon a penalty which if you'll recall, wasn't a million miles awayfrom where we got one early on in Wellington. Then, we kicked forthe corner but couldn't ram home the advantage. This time wecouldn't even get the bloody ball into touch! But should we havebeen going for it at all? Not so sure in either case.

Thencame that quick lineout. What is it about us with that set-pieceagainst this lot? I'm thinking the Welsh studied DVDs and noticedthat our players are getting too focused on their rehearsed drillsand calls, no matter who is throwing the ball in. Sure, we all knowwhat happened back in Cardiff but the fact remains we should havebeen wide to it. Same applied Sunday. Though I'm not totally soldthe ball went the full 5 metres, still Conor Murray and Mike Rosswere caught napping big time, and for me it's only thanks to a coupleof luckily-positioned Irish arses that the TMO couldn't see that atry was scored as a result.

Finallyon the 9-minute mark, even though we were 3 points to the good,Ireland got their first decent attacking position at midfield. Nomatter how a match is going I can't feel like I can make a properjudgement on how the sides are shaping up until I've seen both sideshave some good possession. Often I have seen Leinster not get anyfor up to 20 minutes yet still come out on top come full time, forexample.

Inthis case, the Welsh flung themselves at us in the breakdown,straight through the middle as well. Conor Murray got sucked in toone ruck when he should have been distributing the ball, thenMcFadden went to play scrum-half before getting sucked in himself,then we just lost it. I'm sorry but if you hope to win at Testlevel, I reckon you must at very least be able to advance the ballwith a decent series of phases on your first possession. We had noanswer to the Welsh pack's questions.

Butfor the middle portion of the match, we were able to dig deep and getsome points on the board thanks to some good individual performances. I couldn't write this article without acknowledging that it wasn'tall bad on the day. Jamie Heaslip and Paul O'Connell were strongthemselves at the breakdown. Andrew Trimble got key tackles in onhis flank. Rob Kearney has seemlessly carried his Leinster formthrough to this Six Nations and has the 15 jumper nailed down for theforeseeable future.

Andby God, what an attitude shown by Donnacha Ryan when he came on. Ifonly he could have bottled it and passed it around the matchday 22. O'Callaghan wasn't exactly a disaster, but for his sheer enthusiasmand focus alone Ryan has to start in Paris the way I see it.

Asfor our two tries themselves they were impressive, with our backscreating overlaps and exploiting them in each case. Yet even there Imust ask...were they the result of pre-match tactics or ratherexperienced professionals reacting to opportunities that presentedthemselves in the heat of battle? I'm leaning towards the latter.

Finally,we have the last ten minutes. Let's set the stage, shall we? As theclock ticked to 70, Ireland led by 6 points, had an extra manon the park, and won themselves a penalty a shade inside their ownhalf. This time, they chose to kick for the points.

OK– Sexton missed it by a mile, but come on...would the lineout nothave been the better option? We showed we could find a way to worktry scoring positions, and besides...the penalty was tricky for anykicker and all it did was take time off the Bradley sin-binning,whereas the lineout could have taken a decent chunk off the overalltime remaining. I personally think we got two key penalty callsarseways.

Andthen came a senseless penalty. No, I don't mean that of StephenFerris. I mean that of Sean O'Brien not releasing in the tackle. That allowed the Welsh come straight back at us to get their thirdtry – no mean feat on any away Six Nations outing - and if anyonein red deserved to get one it was the enigma that is GeorgeNorth...what a future that 19-year-old has ahead of him.

YetSTILL, even after that try, we had the lead as Halfpenny couldn'tquite add the conversion. It was still ours to lose, and withcomparative ease the Welsh marched all the way from within their own22 to the edge of ours.

Asmuch as I hate to say it, Ryle Nugent put it best when he said“Ireland are inviting Wales on by stepping back from the tackles”. Why on earth would anyone do this? The visitors had shownthroughout that they had yards in them AFTER the tackle, so why givethem yards before it?

Allof which adds up to one conclusion. The one thing Ireland needed forthis vital Six Nations opener was the correct preparation, and theywere found extremely wanting. There is only one door at which theblame can be laid, and it's a name I have yet to use in this piece.

DeclanKidney has masterminded some great results as a coach in his day,many of them for Ireland. But rugby is an ever-evolving sport, andsince he has been at Test level he has found a nemesis in WarrenGatland and after being out-strategised in yet another battle, has surely now lost the war.

Isit Kidney's inherent conservatism that's to blame? Partly. For all the hype and hooplaover rookies Peter O'Mahony and Dave Kearney being on the bench they never camewithin a sniff of getting on the park.

ButI believe it goes beyond that. Since we're not privy to what exactlyis going on behind the scenes, we can only call it an “X-factor”that's lacking in our coaching brains trust, but let's justsay this...Poland is looking like a much better destination forpreparation than Carlton House right now.

Soas Gatland plans for the next stage of his march towards a secondpersonal Grand Slam (not to mention the 2013 Lions tour as well), the Irish coach needs to realise his is nevergoing to come if things continue as they are. We will see how muchhe recognises this need with his selection for next Saturday eveningat the Stade de France.

Asmuch as I try to find a positive spin where Leinster and Ireland areconcerned, I have a feeling I'll need to stay far away from twitterwhile that particular match is on. Keeping sorrow-drowning potionsclose to hand, of course. JLP

ALSO LAST WEEKEND

IRELAND U20s 11-6 WALES U20s

A deserved victory for Mike Ruddock's men but despite having the edge in possession and territory throughout, needed two quick 2nd half DGs from Jackson & McGrath to see it home. Irish try came after strong break by JJ Hanrahan and fizzed pass to MotM Shane Layden for easy finish in 1st half. Jackson struggled from the kicking tee in the wind.

FRANCE 30-12 ITALY

Neither team ever really got out of 2nd gear yet the gulf in class was there for all to see. Clermont Auvergne provided most of the offence with Rougerie, Malzieu and debutante Fofana all crossing with Clerc adding his gazillionth 6Nations try. Truth be told most entertaining movement on the Stade de France pitch came from the pigeons. Still, France can only improve before next Saturday.

SCOTLAND 6-13 ENGLAND

If the French and Italians didnt get beyond 2nd gear, these two barely had their keys in the ignition. Never before has a reigning champion been more there for the taking in their opening match, yet the Scots just couldn't capitalize despite the valiant efforts of Cusiter & Denton. Dan Parks' shocker culminated in a blocked clearance which Charlie Hodgson turned into the winning try.

IRELAND'S 6 NATIONS CAMPAIGN 2012

2012-01-30T12:19:00.000Z

IS FÉIDIR LINN

BarackObama will be going for re-election this year but despite all he hasachieved in the past, he has his work cut outto get his fellow countrymen to believe in him all over again, and he's not the only one.

Notmany thought Ireland would win its first Grand Slam in a gazillionyears when the 2009 Six Nations kicked off, Declan Kidney's first stab at it no less. Not many thought Irelandhad a hope of denying England their own Grand Slam last March. Andeven fewer gave us a chance of beating Australia and winning our poolat the World Cup.

Yes,there have been many blips along the way as well, and we can't justclose our eyes and pretend they didn't happen. And it's also truethat many of us (myself included) believe that the squad chosen forthis latest instalment of the Six Nations does little to begin thejourney to the next World Cup finals.

Butfor the next seven weeks, no matter how much we want to blood youngplayers and plan for the future, our rugby minds are going to befocused on one thing and one thing only...our desire to see fivecountries have poorer records than ours when the curtain comes down.

Yetwhatever I may think about our squad from a developmental point ofview, one thing is for certain – I have no doubt in my mind thatthis is a squad of players who CAN win the Six Nations. Scratch that– I'm actually going to go further...we CAN win the Grand Slamincludinga win in Paris.

Doesthat mean we definitely will? Hell, no. For one thing, there's abucketful of variables. France and England in transition. Wales hitby injuries but still with quality in reserve. Scotland and Italychomping at the bit to break free from also-ran status in this greatcompetition.

Buton our side of the ball, which let's face it is the only thing we cancontrol, I do have faith in the Irish coaching staff when it comes togetting us in the right frame of mind to get the job done at LEASTnext Sunday at the Aviva Stadium. In fact, I'm not so sure they evenneed to do much more than show the players a replay of that fatefulday in Wellington last October.

Witha partisan crowd behind us and the right mental preparation, wedefinitely have the talent to lay down a marker in this year'stournament. I'm not going to get bogged down, in this piece anyway,over what selections we need to make...of course I have my own idealstarting XV but whatever pans out I'll be cheering on with my jerseyregardless on Sunday afternoon.

Onething I do know for sure...we can do it without Brian O'Driscoll. Look at what Leinster have achieved this season without him. But noteven that...you HAVE heard of the guy who's filling his captain'sshoes, right? He's the guy I've chosen to be in my lead blog photofor this year's Six Nations, Mr Paul O'Connell. If his mere presence on the park can't inspire his fourteenteam-mates then nothing can.

IfI were to have one reservation about our chances it would be overwhat we do with the momentum from victory over the Welsh should wemake it happen. Can Kidney & co keep their heads in the game forthe full seven weeks? Or will we hear about more ridiculous storiesabout people like Keith Earls dreaming about us winning the trophy? Ifit wasn't for England's dwarf-throwing & ferry-jumping thatinterview would have been a major facepalm for us, in fact I still thinkit was.

Butthat's for discussion next week. Right now, I'm not even tooconcerned about the XV Kidney announces to start this week. What Iwant to see is the mental attitude of the players when things kickoffon Sunday.

Isaw it last March from the Ireland players from the opening kickoffagainst England. I saw it from the Leinster players after the secondhalf kicked off in Cardiff last May. I saw it from the Munsterplayers for 100,000 phases at the death in Thomond Park last November. I saw it from the Ulster players at Ravenhill against theTigers. And even though they may not have much representation onthe park, we mustn't forget what we saw from Connacht against Quins afew short weeks ago.

Hopefullythe Ulster fans will forgive me for resorting to the Irish language by borrowing President Obama's words but I firmly believe my heading is a rallying cry that all four proud provinces can get behind. If you don't agree, that's fine, but thisIreland fan is going to enjoy every second of anticipation betweennow and next Sunday no matter what.

Youwith me? JLP

Leinster-25 Montpellier-3

2012-01-21T15:00:00.001Z

FIND YOUR INNER HOOK

Considering it was a full house at the RDS and the match was virtually over as a contest, the only word I can use to describe the atmosphere in the 2^nd half is “eerie”.

Even though there was still a bonus point try up for grabs which would have led to a top seeding in the quarterfinal draw, the crowd, and probably the Leinster players themselves, had been subdued by a nigh on perfect first half display all over the park.

Much as I hate to say so, it's at times like this when we Leinster fans need to find our inner George Hook and channel him like there's no tomorrow. It's pretty clear that if Joe Schmidt's men can maintain that level of intensity for 240 more Heineken Cup minutes it would take one hell of an effort to prevent us retaining the trophy.

Sure, the semifinal draw wasn't kind, and sure, the injury count from the Six Nations could go against us. But these are out of our control – what the squad CAN do is keep their heads level for the battles to come and in a perverse kind of way it's to our advantage that we have so many players with enough recent memories of that Wellington quarterfinal to help make sure that doesn't happen.

Whenever a match kicks off so early and a player makes a mistake, commentators are quick to suggest that he hadn't quite woken up yet. If that's the case, the Leo Cullen must be up at the crack of dawn bright as a button every day. Maybe it was Trinh-Duc who was a bit late getting up for his croissants but the Leinster skipper was the only one alive to the rules and made quite the opening statement for his team with that block-down even if it didn't actually lead to a score.

And it wasn't long before the opening try did come. When I saw the lineups during the week I figured our back row might be up against it. Then I remembered what Sean Lineen said last week after our win in Glasgow : “They played like 15 loose forwards”. Sure enough it was crashing carries from our entire front row that led to Sean O'Brien planting the ball over the line.

Then while the crowd were still buzzing after that, Rob Kearney played himself into the highlight reels. Wasn't quite O'Driscoll v Wasps in 2009 but all throughout he played like a man determined to get on the scoresheet and it wasn't merely his fantastic finish from deep that earned him man of the match award.

Then came the game-defining moment. Did I say moment? It was actually seven minutes on the clock that in real time was closer to twenty.

Conventional rugby wisdom dictates that if a penalty is kickable and it will bring you to with 14 points of your opposition, especially if it's the first half and you're yet to trouble the scorers, you should take the three.

But there was clearly an extra component to consider for Montpellier – this was Leinster in their own backyard, and they’re always capable of finding a score. We're going to need the full seven points to have a hope of getting back into this one, skipper Ouedraogo must have thought.

And so the kick went into the corner, then shortly after they won a scrum, and thus it began. Phase upon phase upon phase upon phase on the Leinster line, with only the one transgression, Damien Browne's brainfart. He wasn't even level with the ruck he was so far off to the side when he dived in – even if the ball was available he had no business going near the thing and got himself ten-minute rest and a nasty-looking head wound for his trouble.

Overall though I wouldn't be too quick to criticise Browne...the aggression he brings to his game is badly needed by the squad after losing Nathan Hines, another who is known to see yellow once or six.

But even with a man down, we were able to hold the monstrous Montpellier forwards out. Rhys Ruddock, a player I was looking to for a good outing, was able to slot into the second row, and in the end it was Heineken Cup débutante Jamie Hagan who stole the ball back for his side and eventually the danger was cleared.

Whether they award bonus points for it or not, for me that goal-line stand was as good as a fourth try.

After that, I reckon the French outfit resigned themselves to focussing on their big home Top14 clash with Stade Francais next Friday and hope that the previous resident of the coach's box at the RDS will be more forthcoming.

The second half started brightly, sparked off by Isa Nacewa's desire to get in on the act by dancing his way forward about forty yards before a similar crash ball effort to the first try by the forwards saw Cian Healy over.

Then came the eeriness...a long period of play when the play was stuck in midfield, the home quarterfinal was assured, and the only reactions from the crowd were a cry for the TMO to be used to check Kearney's attempt at a second and an ironic cheer when Montpellier decided to take an easy three to banish the duck-egg from the scoreboard.

Perhaps the fans' apprehension was also to do with the fact that there were still four pools yet to be decided. Well, now they have all been put to bed and it seems once again our path to Heineken Cup glory involves the city of Cardiff.

Let's hope all our inner Hooks can keep things real between now and Easter weekend. JLP

Elsewhere in Europe

Say what you like about three provinces reaching the last eight for the first time, there was only one contender for top Irish performance of the weekend and that came in Galway. Finished scoring after just 15 minutes, and not setting a foot into the opposition half for the entire third quarter, I've never been happier for a rugby club other than Leinster than I was watching Eric Elwood's brave charges topple the Aviva Premiership leaders. As one tweeter claimed, this was Connacht’s “Alone It Stands” occasion – can't wait to see how they'll reproduce the infamous Galway Gust on stage once the inevitable play is written!

Then there was Ulster...but for a seriously dodgy try they too would have caused an upset in Clermont. I got a sense watching Les Jaunards that they feel they have some kind of sense of entitlement to success, whether its because it's their centenary year, or that they've brought in a host of top names or both. Well the Ulstermen certainly stood up to them and Vern Cotter’s men certainly won't find Saracens at Wembley an easy nut to crack.

Finally in the Heineken, if I feel Leinster needed a devil's advocate to prevent complacency from creeping in, I'm pretty sure Munster need one just as much, if not more. Cracking display running in five tries on foreign soil, no doubt about it. But if anyone is in a position to suggest a bit of caution, it may as well be me. First up, the Saints gave away a HUGE advantage switching the venue from Franklins Gardens. Second, the whole sordid Ashton business during the week had to rattle the side. Neither of those of course are Munster's fault, they had to play what was ahead of them. But I would be concerned about the concession of two penalty tries by a struggling scrum. Re-inventing yourself from past glory days (Zebo is certainly a breath of fresh air to the red back line) is one thing, but this is an area that cannot be ignored. I reckon Ulster would have nothing to fear anyway going down to Thomond in the quarterfinal but certainly Messrs Afoa, Best & Court will be taking several mental notes from Saturday evening's match in Milton Keynes. All that being said, it is genuinely great to see Munster back in the final eight of this great tournament where they belong.

Honourable mention must go to the Leinster A side who comfortably overcame Pontypridd 32-0 at Donnybrook on Sunday in the annoyingly-named British & Irish Cup (I’m trying to get it nicknamed The Bandie Cup (BandI) but no luck yet). Super display all round, with Clontarf outhalf Noel Reid's kicking from both hand and tee impressive to say the least. They join Munster A, Cornish Pirates (who seem to have a liking for this competition) and Cross Keys in the final four...no prizes for guessing which would be the most interesting semifinal opponent!

Glasgow-16 Leinster-23

2012-01-15T15:30:00.000Z

WHATEVER GETS THE JOB DONE

IfI'm a coach, doesn't matter for what team and doesn't matter in whatsport, I'd have to be asking myself just how does a team go as manyas fifteen games unbeaten at the highest level, winning fourteen ofthem?

EveryLeinster fan knows the run has to come to an end sometime, but evenif it does so as early as next week, it has been quite theachievement, and I reckon this match at Firhill had a little sampleof everything that has gone to take the streak this far...a tapas ofsecrets for success, if you will.

DOINGTHE UNEXPECTED – Leinster are the reigning Heineken Cup champions,and have healthy leads in both their pool this season and the Pro12. This, quite naturally, puts a giant target on their backs whereverthey go. If you thought for a second the Scots weren't going to doeverything they could to cause an upset in this match, you obviouslyhaven't seen Braveheart.

I'mpretty sure Joe Schmidt & Jonny Sexton have seen it, and so theyhad to come up with a plan that would confound Sean Lineen'spreparations. Well right off the bat we saw Sexton throw a dummydeep in his own 22 and before you could say “Quade Cooper”, hisside had an attacking lineout way down the other end of the pitch. Of course we ended up losing said lineout, and at first I thought itwas down to the Sean Cronin toss, but on second look I think it was an incorrect call to throw deep at that moment.

Anotherthing you wouldn't be expected to do on the narrow Firhill Park pitchis attempt a cross-field kick. So what does Sexton do on more thanone occasion? And more often than not, it paid off, spectacularly ofcourse in one case as it led to the game's first try courtesy of RobKearney.

LUCK– There's no doubting that a large slice of luck is required tostring so many good results together, that goes in any sport. Somemight say the Sexton kick to Kearney for the try got a fortunatebounce. However, I have a feeling that if a similar kick had gone fromO'Gara to Howlett (as it has in the past more than once) then Munsterfans would resort either to “he meant the kick to do that”or “you make your own luck”.

Andit has to be said that over the past few weeks Leinster have enjoyedtheir fair share of good fortune – not only Sunday's bounce butalso a gust of wind or two in Galway and Cardiff. I'll leave it toyourself to make of those what you will. Personally I'm tempted tosway towards divine intervention ;-)

COMPENSATIONFOR WEAK AREAS – Of the five front row players used by Leinster onthe day, there was plenty of World Cup, Heineken Cup final, even NPCfinal experience on show. Of the five Glasgow front rowers used, allwere Scottish (even though one was named Welsh) yet despite the factthat there's only two clubs to choose from, not even ONE of theplayers were in Andy Robinson's original Six Nations squad. Still, Leinsterstruggled in the scrum, not only losing penalties on severaloccasions, but also unforgivably losing one against the head from 5mout near the end of the first half.

Yetman of the match was awarded to Sean Cronin. Why? Because of anoutstanding performance in the loose that surely had the Glaswegianswondering if he was the other Sean in disguise. And Cian Healywasn't far behind him in the ground-gaining stakes, with abone-crunching tackle or two thrown in for good measure.

NOTRELYING ON STARS – The two names that would normally jump off theLeinster team-sheet, Sexton and Nacewa, were both happy to takeback-seat roles. Well, when I say “happy”, maybe not so much with ourNumber10. Schmidt said he got “grumpy” after he rolled hisankle, but he still chipped in a penalty shot from inside his ownhalf to level the scores. As for Isa, although he did give amasterclass in how to avoid being isolated after the tackle at onepoint, he won't be happy to see his name at the top of the Leinsterlist of turnovers conceded (4).

Buteven when they haven't been firing on all cylinders, not only wasthere Messrs Cronin & Healy in the forwards, much credit mustalso go to Devin Toner. Is it just me or did he play like he was thesenior lock on the day? Is the apprentice close to over-taking hismaster? Whatever it is I'm THIS close to reaching for some Star Warsmetaphors, but not just yet. Still, he owned a lineout that includedRichie Gray and wasn't shabby in the loose either.

DEPTHOF SQUAD – If the rumours are true and poor Luke Fitzgerald is outfor the season, that is of course a terrible blow for a chap whocan't seem to buy a slice of good fortune. But from Leinster'sperspective, they were still able to field David Kearney for hisfirst cap in this great competition, and although the lone Glasgowscore came on his wing, it couldn't have been much closer to thefurthest edge of the tryline (worth a look upstairs to confirm thegrounding I thought) and it was all he gave away.

Butone of the most embarrassing set of riches we have is at scrum-half. Back in Montpellier Isaac Boss didn't have his finest hour but EoinReddan was able to come on and steady the ship. This time the roleswere reversed, which in many ways is poor timing for Reddan with aSix Nations campaign on the horizon and Paul Marshall doing suchheroics at Ravenhill.

Andalthough the Glasgow try was scored seconds after Boss took thefield, the first time Leinster actually had possession for him to use (when Toner hauled in a Sexton 22 dropout), he not only marched us downthe field but actually got what proved to be the decisive score (mainpic). It was an excellent cameo all round from him, though I doubtit will be enough to get on Declan Kidney's radar.

ALWAYSHAVE A SCORE IN YOUR BACK POCKET – I actually have hard data toback this one up, but I decided to display it on my “#2amrugbyfact”feature on twitter – follow this link to see it, it's quite a stat to behold. Basically it means that every time Leinster fall behind they've been able to dig deep and turn things back around.

DEFENCE– Of course I had to save the best till last. Sean Lineen saidafterwards that Leinster defended “like 15 loose forwards”. Actually it was 14 for the crucial last 5 minutes after Sean O'Briendidn't realise what was meant by a tap on the back and some sternwords in a Welsh accent. Yet it was all the Warriors could do togain ground let alone get over our line, and whatever aboutLeinster's weaknesses this season and there have been several, you'dbe hard pressed to fault their performance when they don't have theball. And this a good year and a half after Kurt McQuilkin'sdeparture.

I'dlike to add one last contributory factor to the result from the day– although the Monday morning press is full of talk about the“valiant” Warriors display and this is true to an extent, youcan't deny they were found wanting in some key areas, not leastDuncan Weir's decision-making. No doubt he can boot a ball over thebar from every angle going, but he has a ways to go to show he canlead his team out of a Heineken Cup pool, let alone lead his countryat Murrayfield.

Sooverall, a third away win on the bounce for Leinster. None of themhave been pretty, but all of them have been satisfying. Now we havethree in a row to come at the RDS, before our next away day – atFirhill Park, Glasgow, no less. JLP

ELSEWHEREIN EUROPE

Lookingat the Heineken Cup tables after Round 5, the sight of Leinster asnumber one seed and Munster as only team with 100% record would haveyou thinking they're the big Irish story in the competition at themoment. You'd be wrong though.

Thehistory boffins can say all they want about what has happened in thepast – Ulster still had quite the job to do in Ravenhill on Fridaynight and boy, did they do it. Top notch displays all over the parknot least from Andrew Trimble, who by logic should have played hisway into contention for a starting jumper against Wales somewhere onthe park. That's providing logic is used in the decision-makingprocess.

Itwasn't only him though...Ferris was more of an animal than usual ifthat's possible, Ruan Pienaar paid back half of the worth of his newcontract with the ink barely dry and Paul Marshall's cameo could leadto his name being read out by Kidney on Wednesday. Sure, the Tigerswere found wanting in many areas but still would have run a lesserside close...hopefully the Ulstermen can do enough in Clermont nextweek to get out of the pool because they definitely deserve it.

Meanwhileat Thomond Park...have you ever heard the crowd there more subduedwhen their heroes have won a match? The Castres XV, certainlynowhere near their first choice selection, didn't come to make up the numbers but still werecomfortably dispatched, but whether it's the standards laid down byhistory or the continued success of the brethren at the other end ofthe N7 that's demanding more, I'm not sure. With the NorthamptonSaints on a high after their win in Llanelli you can be sure they'llhave a hostile reception ready for Paul O'Connell & co next week,though perhaps the hostility would be a little stronger if it wasactually at Franklins Gardens and not Milton Keynes.

Thenthere's Connacht. Never really had a chance in Toulouse did they. But they were praised by Guy Noves afterwards, and by all accounts broughta following with them that did them proud. There's no doubt thatit's an enormous flaw in the qualification system that Aironi,thumped 82-0 at home, are guaranteed a spot in next year's tournamentwhile Eric Elwood's men have to resort to prayer for one of the otherIrish provinces to taste European success to get back to the toptable.

Cardiff Blues-19 Leinster-23

2012-01-07T21:00:00.001Z

THE CUSHION

IfI had to sum up this match in a dozen words, I'd have to saysomething like “Leinster got an early cushion then did enough tobring it home”.

Butsince this blog is built around a weekly writeup of closer than 1000words, I have to expand on the words “did enough” and when Ilook to do that, a bit of a can of worms gets opened.

Firstof all, though his missed kicks would have ultimately won thecontest, I can't lay blame at Leigh Halfpenny's door for this resultin any way, at least nowhere near to the way you'd blame Matt Jarvisand Miah Nikora for Connacht's defeat on New Year's Day. For onething it was his pressure on David Kearney that led to the 5m scrumfrom which came the lone Cardiff “try” (more on that later), plushe's a quality performer who has had terrible luck with injuries andI have no doubt he could live up to his billing as the “next ShaneWilliams”.

Next,the Italian referee Marius Mitrea has to enter the equation. Ireally, really hate moaning about the officiating after matches. Itgets boring when you have to do it every time, and the Laws of the Game have so many grey areas that it's prettymuch inevitable that there will be disputed calls on any given day.

Butalthough Mitrea's calls were at best inconsistent and at worstdownright wrong throughout the 80 minutes, I believe we have toafford him a bit of leeway. This is a league that spans fournations, and it needs officials from all of them to work it. If we wereto suggest refs like him shouldn't be given matches like this itwould be like saying we don't want trainee doctors examining us or tohave our kids being taught by trainee teachers.

If we don't expect Aironi & Treviso to be pushing for top four places for a few years, maybe we should afford the same cushion to Italian referees as well. For now.

WhereI DO find fault with the men in the middle is with the nationalitymakeup of the officiating team as a whole. Sure, the league may savea few bob by backing up the ref with local touch judges & TMOsbut the awarding of the Jenkins try was evidence that they should atleast spring for the airfare for a neutral guy in the booth.

Ihave done a long rant on this before but to put it simply, I'm notsuggesting that Neil Ballard said “you may award the try” purelybecause he is Welsh, rather I believe it's wrong to have him in thatposition in the first place. But as you can see from this photo, youcannot see the ball being grounded, so at least if the same call hadbeen may by, say, an Italian, all we would have to point to isincompetence. The way it turned out, there's enough blame left overfor the league itself.

Finally,I can write about the Leinster performance! Offensively, we had itspot on, and this was borne out by crossing the line twice in theopening ten minutes. Clearly Joe Schmidt & co didn't rate thehome defensive set up down the middle and the reverse pass inside wasreaping rich rewards throughout. Plus the quick offloading wastaking the likes of Warburton out of the game more often than not.

Itcould be argued that we butchered a couple of try-scoringopportunities early in the second half to put the game beyond reach -particularly when you consider the phrase “thwarted by a Dan Parkstackle” can be used not once but twice – but when all is said anddone I was happy with what we were doing when we had the ball.

Buteven the most optimistic Leinster fan wouldn't be happy with an early14-0 lead. Let's be clear – Cardiff are a quality outfit and theXV they had on the park were streets ahead of the one they sent to Dublin. There was still a lot of work to be done to keep them fromgetting back into the contest – I'm pretty sure they don't lead theleague in try bonus points purely from dodgy TMO calls.

Andthough it is to our credit that our defensive display limited them tojust the one decent attacking opportunity in our own 22, I still findit worrying that we managed to give away so many needless penaltiesin point-scoring areas, particularly as we had a healthy cushion toprotect. I found it even more worrying that it was more experiencednames like Heaslip, Healy and O'Brien that were the ones giving themaway.

Idon't understand why we take unnecessary risks for the first 70-oddminutes yet when it comes to the final ten the required disciplinesuddenly comes to the surface. Sure, if the scoreline is close thenby all means chance your arm with a spot of breakdown treachery butparticularly if you KNOW the ref is a loose cannon with his whistle,don't give him the opportunity to use it!

Iwas impressed by a number of youngsters on show for Leinster...DevinToner, despite having 83 Leinster caps, was in the unusual positionof being the senior lock to his cousin Mark Flanagan, and I felt both did wellin the loose, while together with Kevin McLaughlin they caused plentyof havoc on the Cardiff lineout.

Alsoat the risk of being accused of being as biased as the TMO I felt Rock boys Andrew Conway and Jordi Murphy applied themselves well. More oftenthan not, the only wobbly touches seemed to come from moreexperienced heads, dare I say it even Isa himself had his moments.

Andso I close the can of worms. All in all, it was an away win, onethat completed the “double” over a team being hailed as the Welsh“Galacticos”, and after results elsewhere it leaves us with anine-point cushion at the top and more crucially a ten-point cushionover Munster in third place for a home semifinal.

AllSchmidt & co need to do from here on in is make sure that ifanyone makes that cushion less comfortable, it isn't someone wearingLeinster blue. JLP

Connacht-13 Leinster-15

2012-01-01T20:00:00.001Z

O BROTHER, HOW ART THOU?

TheConnacht marketing gurus settled on the slogan “Front Up Rise Up”for this historic season.

Whilethere's no doubting Eric Elwood's men have shown the ability to getthe first half of that pledge done, sadly the second has eluded themand if ever there was a single match that highlighted thedifficulties they're facing it was this one on New Year's Day.

Evenmore sadly, there's not much evidence to show that 2012 will be anydifferent for them.

Iknow the remit of HarpinOnRugby is to be a Leinster blog, but Ireally can't write about this match without making Connacht thefocus. Besides...it's a special relationship we have with ourWestern cousins...it's almost like they're our “little brother”in that we always want them to do well so long as, of course, theynever actually upstage us.

Thatmay sound horribly patronising, but the truth is that's how theprovincial system has been set up in the professional era. A look atthe two team sheets proves it. On the Leinster side, names likeHagan, Cronin and Carr, all of whom went in one direction with theircareers on the up...on the other, names like O'Donoghue and Tonetti,who went the other way and may not necessarily be on a down slope butare sideways at best.

Andthe focus of my negative attention has to be the scrum-half PaulO'Donoghue. I was really impressed with what I saw of him when atClontarf, but last season when he was called upon by Leinster I nevergot the sense he was up to the pace the level demanded. While Ihaven't seen every Connacht outing this season, I really don'tunderstand why Elwood insists on picking him ahead of Frank Murphyfor the big matches.

Nowjust so we're clear, it wasn't all bad for the home side on Sunday,far from it – they should have won the match (as should London Irish & Clermont have in 2010 - we really do get lucky when it comes to opposing kickers don't we?), and it was largelydue to the contributions of prospects like Tiernan O'Halloran. Butyou see that's exactly where their problem lies – even though theyoungster is a locally-born talent you can't help presuming that hewill be snapped up by one of the “big brothers” before long if he continues with the line-breaking and the try-getting.

Inevery aspect, Connacht just could not catch a break on the day. Actually that's an unfortunate choice of words, poor Brian Tuohy suffered abroken leg. The chronically poor kicking of Matt Jarvis (verytempted to make my headline “Jarvis Cockup” but that's not something onedoes to one's little brother is it) and Miah Nikora didn't help themmuch either. And yes, I'm counting the last-minute attempted ROG impression as a poor kick.

Whilewe're on the subject of kicking, what can be said about Isa Nacewathat hasn't already been said. Actually, quite a bit.

Asif the blustery conditions & the banana-skin nature of thecontest weren't enough pressure, he had to deal with “The ElephantOn The Pitch”™that was the recently-announced IRFU dictat which basically told himhe was no longer welcome on these shores.

Yetconsummate professional that he is, the man somehow managed to slotall five penalties on a day when he'd be forgiven for missing atleast two. Whereas other Leinster players, skipper Leo Cullenincluded, seemed hell bent on handing victory to the opposition, withthis display alone Nacewa probably tacked another 10% onto his askingprice when the Top 14 or Super Rugby inevitably come a-knocking.

Elsewhereon the Leinster side of things, there was huffing and puffing butlet's face it – as an offensive unit they played like they were upwell past the singing of Auld Lang Syne the night before. I'd haveto single out Rhys Ruddock not just for his unnecessary coughing upof the ball on the Connacht line towards the end but for overallinvisibility. I'm seriously questioning the wisdom of handing himthe captain's armband during the World Cup, a time that could havebeen better spent letting him focus on the three different positionshe was asked to play.

Ofcourse it's churlish of me to moan about our performance since wereturned to Dublin with the spoils AND a renewed 6-point lead in theleague, but with a tricky trip to Cardiff around the corner wheremostly fringe players will be selected, there will be many wishing toleave their cobweb-filled displays at the Sportsground.

Butgoing back to the home side, I really hope they can get out of thisrut they're in. When normally coaches would look to rest key playersfor a match, especially one that's away from home, that comes a week before a Heineken Cup series, I wonder if Eric Elwood can afford to dothis when they travel to Viadana next Saturday – the losing streakreally needs to be halted at 12 and no offence intended butwhen it comes to brotherly relationships Aironi are the Fredo toTreviso's Michael Corleone in Italian rugby so this has to be seen asan opportunity to turn the tide.

You'dreally like to think that even with a few injuries, with their bestavailable XV Connacht can go over there, win 2 tries to nil for thesecond week running, only this time finishing ahead on the scoreboardthat matters. I'd wish nothing less for our little brother andhopefully it can spur them on to an improvement on their two Europeanpool points and then they can "rise up" the Pro12 table down the line.

Becauseif things don't improve, whatever deals have been done recently,there's always the danger that Daddy will banish him fromthe house altogether. JLP

Leinster-42 Ulster-13

2011-12-26T20:00:00.000Z

MEN VS BOYS

Giventhat I went on such a rant when Cardiff sent an inexperienced team tothe RDS a few weeks ago, you'd be forgiven for thinking I was goingto do similar for this match.

Butwhile I wasn't averse to a mischievous tweet or two before kickoff, Idon't hold Ulster's selection against them this time round – infact, I think there may have been multiple methods in their madness.

Theparty line was that they were prioritizing the clash with Munster,coming as it did with a tight four-day turnaround. That's a decentexcuse on its own, but when Simon Danielli pulled out at the lastminute and it left Bryan McLaughlin's starting XV completely withhome-grown players, I wondered if it was also a wee statement aboutthe recently-announced IRFU ~~province-strangling~~ player-managing initiative?

Nodoubt we'll never know. But I have to say, even if referee PeterFitzgibbon did appear to be helping the youngsters out whenever hecould, they certainly made a good fist of it for the first threequarters, and but for a crucial steal by Shane Jennings close to hisown line, could have gotten to within a point going into the closingstages and after then who knows what may have happened.

TheUlsterman who stood up most in my book was Paul Marshall, who surelymust be knocking on the door of the national squad despite thelengthy queue for the position. It was also an impressive line &finish from Chris Cochrane for their try early in the second halfwhich made things interesting.

Butit wasn't to be and although Leinster's World Cup prop pairing hadtheir perceived troubles in the first half, it was fitting that theirsuperior technique helped secure the bonus point at the 67^thmin via a penalty try.

Alot of fans noted the absence of our furry masot on the night...washe visiting relatives in the Serengeti for Christmas or perhaps theIRFU have also placed a cap on the amount of Leo's who can be ondisplay for a given match?

Ifthe latter, then I'm more than happy that Mr Auva'a got the nodMonday evening as he really is right at home at this level. He givesplenty of bang for the buck and thoroughly deserved his try at theend of the first period.

Andalthough Ian Madigan had the odd slip up I have to draw attention toa vital weapon in his arsenal...the quick long sizzling pass, whichhelped set up both Leinster's first two tries on the night.

I'dalso like to give a thumbs up to Shane Jennings for his captaincyhaving been a critic in the past...it was the right decision to kickfor territory in the first half and it eventually led to our openingscore plus he rightly got in Peter Fitzgibbon's face about hisinterpretation of Mike Ross' scrummaging.

Honourablemention must also go to two stars hoping to stay on the radar for SixNations selection...Gordon D'Arcy was once again solid and although Istill don't feel he's right at full-back, had Luke been wearing alonger stud he could have helped himself to a try or two.

Allin all yet another satisfying result for the Leinster faithful. Backat the beginning of September after we lost 27-3 to the Ospreys toopen the season I ended my write-up with this :

“Ireckon we have the right man at the helm to turn things around evenmore quickly than he did last year”

Leinsterended 2010 in charge of their Heineken Cup pool yet behind Munster inthe Celtic League. This year they lead both with a six-pointcushion. 'Nuff said. Here's to an even better 2012 - Happy New Year to you all. JLP

Leinster-52 Bath-27

2011-12-17T21:00:00.000Z

BATH'ED IN GLORY

Isuppose you can forgive the Irish for being a bit glass-half-emptythese days.

Allyou hear in the news is words like “austerity” & “recession”,the euro is seemingly on the brink of armageddon and just a few shortweeks before Christmas we've been hit with a budget that was nevergoing to be good news.

Still– I can't quite get my head around those who find fault with thisresult. If it wasn't fans bemoaning the fact that Leinster lost thefinal quarter 21-7, it was the Indo picking up on one missed lineout. I even saw one comment on social media that harked back tothe previous week's “transgressions” at the Rec. I just don't know.

Anothertarget for post-match bad-mouthing, of course, was referee RomanPoite, but you could be pretty sure that was always going to happenanyway so it doesn't really count.

Now– as for coach Joe Schmidt's reaction, well, I certainly can'tblame HIM for being cautious. Clearly his squad are the form team inthe tournament, yet after two more pool games in January he has tosit back and pray his top players get through the Six Nationsunscathed.

Butthat's all the negativity out of the way for this piece. Truth betold, there really shouldn't be any at all. I mean, come on...52points, seven tries, total domination when it mattered, all leavingus as number one seeds after four rounds.

IKNOW there's a long way to go, I KNOW the fat lady is yet to sing,and I KNOW all the other similar clichés. Just forgive me forsaying I'm happy about Leinster's standing right now, ok?

Themain source of the moaning from the Rec was that Leinster didn'tfinish their chances. And guess what, with our very first bout ofpossession on Saturday, we win a penalty, get a slice of luck with ithitting the post and falling perfectly for Devin Toner (you could sayit was karma from Florian Fritz' try last April) but then once wehave it under control we power over the line courtesy of Rob Kearney.

Thenduring the halftime break most fans were wondering if the bonus pointtry would be hard to get...well, again right from the kickoff, we gotour answer, with a scintillating move from our own 22 that led toLuke's second five-pointer.

Man-of-the-matchwas a relatively easy choice. Sexton's improbable drop-goal,preceded by a bit of “will-I-Won't-I” before a stunningexecution, was reminiscent of the one he got at Murrayfield in 2009and showed just how comfortable he is playing in this greatcompetition, as did his long pass to McFadden in that opening backline move.

Still,there's a case to be made for Devin Toner to get the bubbly from thismatch. Even though his height played a part in his taking thatrebound he still needed composure to turn it into decent attackingball, and if that's not enough composure for you, how about the cheekydummy & offload that led to Luke's first try? All that on top ofthe quality lineout platforms he was providing surely must be makinghim close to undroppable.

Elsewherearound the park, it was hard to pick out individuals as it was suchan accomplished team performance that took full advantage of the gulfbetween the two sides. I really doubt that if Bath had players likeLewis Moody available the outcome would have been any different.

Thevisitors did all they could to create opportunities but just couldnot find a way round the ultra-organised Leinster defence which, ifyou're still willing to put aside the final quarter, has been theirmost consistent area throughout the four matches.

Simplyput, if Leinster can keep the injuries to a minimum (bit of concernabout Cian Healy) then their chances of getting to another finalcould rest with the semifinal draw towards the end of January, andeven if that goes against them, they're playing with a level ofconfidence that will make no team want to face them.

Oncethings for sure...when I'm looking for something to feel good aboutthese days, I turn to the fact that my favourite province isliterally number one in every sense possible. What happens in thefuture will happen. Right now, bravo Joe Schmidt & LeinsterRugby. JLP

Elsewherein Europe...

Biggeststat for me from the weekend was that if the pool stages were to endafter round 4, the top three quarterfinal seeds would be (in thisorder) Leinster, Munster & Ulster.

EvenConnacht deserve a mention as they came so close to causing an upsetat Kingsholm. They have definitely had their share of misfortuneover their four matches and perhaps could have a better return thanjust two points, but I'm not sure if Eric Elwood would see it thatway. Still, the competition was always going to be an experience forthem and who's to say they won't get a second crack at it next yearcourtesy of one of the other provinces?

Ulsterhad a readily-definable task over the past two weeks, and you can'tfault them for achieving it. Plus, the head-to-head betweenLeicester and Clermont fell perfectly for them. If BryanMcLaughlin's men can get five pool points from their remaining twomatches they weill put themselves right in the mix for qualification.

Andof course finally there was Munster, who did enough to complete thedouble over the Scarlets and become the tournament's only team with100% record. With Northampton's destruction of Castres one can onlyassume the French will be in a similar mood when they come to Thomondin January, which means the pool should be well sewn up for PaulO'Connell & co when they visit a Franklin's Gardens that willhardly be welcoming in the final series.

Whilewe're bigging up the top Irish provinces we mustn't forget thethree “A” sides, all of whom got through to the knockout stagesof the British & Irish Cup. I was raging I couldn't makeLeinster's 24-all draw with London Welsh at Donnybrook when alast-gasp drop goal from Cathal Marsh could have won it, but stillthey got their home quarterfinal so it really was a perfect weekendall round.

Bath-13 Leinster-18

2011-12-11T16:00:00.000Z

KEEP IT ON THE DOWN-LOUW

Normallysporting clichés annoy me because by their very nature they get usedway too often by commentators lacking in imagination.

Butone in particular would always get my goat for a different reason : “Agreat team always finds a way to win even when they're playingpoorly”.

Followingsoccer through the 80s this would often be said about Liverpool FC. Then through the 90s and 2000s it was Manchester United. You willhave heard it used in rugby once or twice as well, about Munsterduring their successful Heineken Cup spell for example.

Ah,so THAT'S why it got my goat! Because it was being applied to teamsI don't support (come on you Spurs)! That must be the reason, becauseI'm more than happy to use it for Leinster's display at the Recyesterday.

Who'sto say what would've happened if Francois Louw hadn't lost all senseof reason at the breakdown under his own posts with the clock runningdown. The reigning champions were piling on the pressure and couldvery well have scored anyway. But there's no denying that the SouthAfrican cost his team their chance at an upset and pretty muchcancelled out what had been an excellent personal display up to then.

There'sno doubting that Joe Schmidt's Leinster can be described as a “greatteam”, but on yesterday's evidence they're still not the finishedarticle. All that is needed, it seems, is for his players to realisethat now and again it's ok to do the simple thing.

Imean, more often than not you'd back Sean O'Brien to beat two men from five metres anyway, but when there's three unmarked team-matesoutside him there is only one option – and if he didn't know theywere there, he should have done.

Butif ever there's a “good” way to have a bad day at the office,Leinster found it. And it's not the first time their problems have comefrom turning quality possession into points.

Troublewas, that quality possession wasn't available until the second half, andthat is of immense credit to the home side. I'd say they threw the“kitchen sink” at us for the first forty minutes, except given who we wereplaying, it was more like a tub (apologies...but you surely didn't expect me to avoid a bath pun, did you?).

Yetwhat was the score going into the break? Just 6-3. And why wasthat? Because we tackled like demons for the duration, led in themost part by man-of-the-match Jonathan Sexton.

You'dthink by the mainstream media headlines that his award came frombooting six out of seven placekicks. But when Bath had the ball hischannel was closed for business and he clearly demonstrated how anouthalf can be an asset to his team for the entire 80 minutes, notjust the final five.

Anddespite the failures on the offensive front there were moreimpressive displays around the park. Our back three were unlucky toget on the scoresheet and came within a bounce of a ball (or a turnof Rob Kearney's head the other way) of producing several YouTubemoments. Gordon D'Arcy has come in for a lot of stick of late(mostly deserved) yet I felt he earned himself a thumbs up on the daywith some powerful running.

Upfront we never really dominated but that being said the forwardsdeserve much credit for keeping the first half penalty count down. Truth be told, the score at the break could easily have been anythingup to 21-0 to the home side on a different day.

Theonly real blip in Leinster's defensive display, I'm afraid to say,came when Sean Cronin took to the field. After his heroics inMontpellier I'm loathe to single him out plus it was super work byLouw to strip the ball off him – but such are the standards at theprovince these days that when you cough up possession like that andit leads to a try, the spotlight must fall on you. He didn't help hiscause with a wayward dart moments later either.

Butalthough the Sky commentary team were doing all they could to jinxthe visitors, I have to credit Leinster for their composure en route to regaining the lead. There was definitely nopanic to be seen, and when you look at the displays going all the wayback to the quarterfinal with Leicester last season I'd almost saythey're a better team when they fall behind!

That'snot a description Joe Schmidt will enjoy reading, however. What heneeds to do it teach his players to take the “x-factor” rugby andfind a way to bottle it until they can establish a decent lead. Ifthere's always six or seven points in the bag, I'd much rather havethem on the board instead.

Becauseremember – this is a team that's being considered one of thefavourites to win this competition, and going by those standards,just take a look at what Toulouse did on Friday night. They also wonaway from home, but did so much more comfortably against a clubthat's having a slightly better season than Bath are.

Soto summarise, I'll take the four points until the cows come home, andthree points clear with two out of three games left at home is aposition any team would be delighted with. Plus the tries aren'texactly flying in elsewhere in the competition – despite the factwe've drawn a match we're just one point behind the pace across thepools so it's all to play for in the return next Saturday.

Here'shoping I can use another cliché in my writeup for that match : “Atruly great team makes winning look easy”. JLP

Elsewherein Europe...

It'sthree out of three for Munster but my God were they given an earlyChristmas present at Parc y Scarlets. The home side had shown goodform in the opening rounds and were clear favourites here but somehowcould not manage to get their act together, and it's not as thoughthey didn't have the chances. The difference was Rhys Priestland whowas a shadow of his World Cup self. Having said that, you can onlyplay the opposition that faces you and Tony McGahan's men were solidon defence and should comfortably see themselves into thequarterfinals from here.

Asfor Ulster, well I'd love to know how many of their fans would havebeen willing to watch their match with Aironi on the telly, butapparently Sky didn't think it was enough to send a camera team toRavenhill. Still, they got the job done, and if they can manage arepeat performance in Italy next weekend and somehow Leicester canreverse their defeat to Clermont, they'll be right in the mix comeJanuary.

Thenthere's poor, poor, Connacht. I'm absolutely gutted for them, butmore so for their fans. There is just no way of putting a positivespin on four defeats in four home matches in four successive weeks. Can't be done. I mean – you can only stretch the whole “we'rehappy to be in the Heineken Cup at all” adage so far...I can'timagine that's any consolation for Eric Elwood at this rate. Tiniestcrumb of a silver lining could be the display of Dave McSharry at 12– having penned a deal to stay at the province during the week hecould well make some headlines for the province – before beingsnapped up by a different one, of course!

Finallythe Leinster 1st's score in Bath was bettered by the A team by just apoint as they ran out 19-13 winners in Llanelli to put them on theverge of the quarter-finals of the British & Irish Cup. LeoAuv'a just can't stop scoring tries this weather and Noel Reid had agreat day with the boot – a solid outing at Donnybrook againstLondon Welsh next week should see them through.

Leinster-52 Cardiff Blues-9

2011-12-02T22:00:00.000Z

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BLUES TRAGIC

Tosome that headline may seem a bit harsh. Sorry if you feel that waybut it seems fine to me.

Asmuch as I enjoy seeing Irish teams doing well in theCeltic/Magners/Rabo League/Pro12 thingy, knowing that other nationsaren't taking it anywhere near as seriously makes me hopping mad. Though in their defence, having such a ridiculous name doesn'texactly help in the “taking seriously” department.

But joking aside, it has to be said that the current “league table”of nations when it comes to giving a jot about this competition (oneI might add that has produced 4 of the last 6 Heineken Cup champions)reads thus : 1. Ireland 2. Italy 3. Scotland and a very distant 4.Wales. The Scots won themselves a few extra ranking points bytempting Rory Lamont back to Glasgow last week.

Iwas having serious problems as it was with league matches beingplayed during international windows, but by scheduling another test outside them, no matter who is retiring, one that even some Welsh fans think was unnecessary, basically means the WRU aresticking their finger up at the league for the sake of a quick buck.

Whilewe're on the subject of a quick buck – I'm not going to take thetime to do the maths*, but I'm pretty confident that if you total uphome attendances at Irish provinces so far this season and subtractthe equivalent from the Welsh regions, you'll get a figure not amillion miles from the 69,000 that were at the Millenium Stadium onSaturday.

Andit's not as though the regions themselves are innocent victims either– taking part in the Anglo-Welsh LV Cup doesn't exactly display aglowing endorsement of the Celtic competition.

What'sthat? Am I going to write about the actual match in question at anypoint? Really – why should I? And why should I even mention the quality names that were missing from the visitor's lineup since we weren't allowed to see them do what they do best?

I mean – when you strip away allthe media hype this was little more than a glorified trainingsession, even though there were officially over 16,000 souls missinga chunk of the Toy Show for it.

TakeIan Madigan's display for example. For the first quarter he waspassing the ball whenever he got it. Then, and I kid you not, thevery second the clock hit 20 minutes (rightafter Sweeney hit his second pen to make it 13-6),suddenly the tactic of choice was to kick for territory. This phasedidn't go so well for the lad.

Cuehalf-time, and from the start of the second period, the passing andthe kicking have gone out the window and now Mads is in his comfort zone, ie dropping his shoulder and running against thegrain. Ironically it was a similar move by him that earned us a bonus point last season against the same opposition and in many wayspropelled him into the Leinster spotlight.

Hewas doing so well with it that he helped himself to a try rightbefore giving way for Sexton's clearly-scheduled last-quarter cameo. Overallit was a good run-out for the Blackrock College youngster, but youcan't help feeling that if he was able to make decisions based on the situation rather than the time elapsedthen he'd be better prepared should he be neededagainst Bath over the next couple of weeks.

Ofcourse there were other memorable moments, like Nathan White'sdetermination to reach the line, Sexton's deft little chip to KearneyThe Younger (whohad been screaming “Sexy!” at the top of his lungs momentsbefore),the improbable success rate of Fergus McFadden's “dead-duck”style of placekicking, and of course the sight of the scoreboardticking over the 50 mark. Still – part of me wanted to run overand stick a giant asterisk beside it.

Normally I write over1,000 words about Leinster & Ireland matches. This time, I'mgoing to leave it around the 700 mark because delighted and all as Iwas with the maximum points and first place on the league tablethrough Christmas, I'm going to leave my readers feeling asshort-changed as I felt on Friday night.

Of course the next time Cardiff send a decent team to Dublin and get a victory, assumingthere is a next time, no doubt I'll have a lot more to say. JLP

* = on second thoughts, I will try and do the maths Monday evening and will publish the results as the "#2amrugbyfact" on both Twitter and Facebook overnight.

Benetton Treviso-20 Leinster-30

2011-11-26T18:00:00.000Z

THREE FOR TWO

Leinster'sperformance was a lot like Fergus McFadden's placekicks on the day atthe Stadio Comunale di Monigo – not exactly conventional, butdefinitely enough to get the job done.

Alsothe final score has a symmetry about it as it reflects theprogression of the match, since for every two points Treviso put onthe board, their Heieneken Cup winning guests were comfortably ableto find three.

It'sinteresting to see how the rugby community treats the Italian teamssince they joined the league last season. In many ways it's similarto how we dealt with their national team joining the Six Nations –everyone wants them to do well and compete, but nobody wants to loseto them.

Soyou could see why RTEs commentators Ryle Nugent and Donal “Tremenjus”Lenihan were so keen to talk up the home side before the match, andone of the things they pointed out was the way Italian teams weretrying to get away from their traditional comfort zone of aforwards-based game and adopting a more “expansive” style.

Wellmaybe that was true, but from the kickoff in this match anyway, theword expansive could also be applied to their defence as the openingtry from Leo Auva'a after a mere 30 seconds of play was made lookway, way too easy.

Andeven though the home side did manage to draw level in the secondhalf, much like the match against Edinburgh a few weeks ago, youalways knew Leinster would be able to find an extra gear and get thelead back again, this time with a scintillating line run by my clearfavourite for the province's Player of the Month, Eoin O'Malley, which earned him the decisive try.

Still,you have to say Treviso had their tactical plan right in thatthey did their best to starve us of the ball – the only problemwas, they weren't good enough defensively to keep us out on the fewoccasions we did have it.

Onething that did baffle me about the home side was the fact that theyhad their South African-born scrum half Tobias Botes doing theplace-kicking when their number 10 Kris Burton was also playing andlying 3^rdin the RaboDirectPRO12 overall scoring charts. It reminded me ofBrock James' shocker in the RDS for Clermont in 2010 when MorganParra was on the pitch having just kicked France to a Grand Slam.

Boteswas perfect in the first half from the tee but after the confusionsurrounding the conversion of the Italians' lone try (surelyat this level every place-kicker should know the rules? He could havestarted his routine from the beginning)his confidence was shattered and had he made the relatively easy 8ptshe missed in the second half the last ten minutes could've been a lothairier for the visitors.

Butany four points on the road are welcome – even though we got twoearly tries you certainly won't hear me moaning about a missed bonus. There were, however, a few below-par performances to mention.

First,there was Jamie Hagan. His first scrum was a shocker, he got his wayback into the game, but then his first scrum in the second half wasalso a shocker. Sorry to be picky, but standards at the province aresuch that you don't really have the luxury of a scrum or two tosettle in – I'm not sure the Toulouse pack would have allowed himto “get his way back into the game”. Nathan White's experiencewas needed and a huge defensive effort turned over a scrum on 71minutes that virtually sealed the win.

Idon't want to be too hard on Hagan however. Mike Ross didn't exactlyblaze a trail in his first year at Leinster, and I think Joe Schmidtknew what he was doing bringing the former Waikato skipper up fromNew Zealand. I'd be happy for now to keep Jamie down the peckingorder, giving him starts with the As together with some seniorappearances during the Six Nations with a view to launching anassault on the first team next season. Oh, and it wouldn't hurt togrow the beard back.

Nexton my list for finger-wagging is Ian Madigan. Again, it wasn'tentirely his fault as his opportunities were limited thanks to theTreviso gameplan, but also again, the bar is set so high at Leinsterthese days you can't afford to be wasting restarts and penalties theway he did.

Afew players weren't bad, but disappointingly quiet. Good and all asit was to see Fergus McFadden back from his dead leg, having seen himexcel in the centre he really did seem lost on the wing, though itwould have been harsh on O'Malley to drop him.

Inthe pack, Rhys Ruddock seemed to find the going tough and was way,way too slow reacting to the ball emerging from the scrum that led tothe Treviso try. On the other side of the scrum I didn't see much tochange my opinion that Shane Jennings is uncomfortable with thecaptain's armband either (a75^thminute yellow card in a relatively tight encounter isn't exactly whatyou want from your skipper) .

Therewere some more good displays in blue – Leo Auva'a has been a breathof fresh air to our back row play and Devin Toner owned the fewlineouts there were on the day. Finally I felt this was easily FionnCarr's best display for us since he rejoined. Although he wasrenowned at Connacht as a “flying winger”, he seems to be makingthe right adjustments to his game to suit our style, and is evenfinding the tackles easier to manage to boot.

All in all a satisfying result for Leinster fans - still joint top of the league, and with both Ospreys and Friday's visitors to the RDS the Cardiff Blues set to be deprived of many stars thanks to the "rogue" Wales v Wallabies international next weekend, there's every chance we can be sole occupiers of 1st place going into the crucial Heineken Cup home-and-away series with Bath.

Reading back over that last paragraph it looks like the arrogance I spoke of last week is rubbing off on me! I suppose six league wins on the bounce will do that to you. JLP

Leinster-38 Glasgow-13

2011-11-20T15:00:00.000Z

BRIAN WHO?

When Leinster Rugby revealed the design of their jersey for this season, there was much debate among fans over the wisdom of adding the two stars above the crest to represent their Heineken Cup triumphs.

The main concern of the doubters was that it may suggest an air of cockiness about the club. Now that may be true, but if that can be matched by the performances on the pitch, and more to the point if those performances produce the right results, then I say the decision to add the stars was absolutely right.

At the RDS on Sunday, for the first half at least, Joe Schmidt's men played with a level of arrogance that was beyond belief. As a Leinster fan, I'm certainly not complaining, even if it does make the rest of the continent grow to hate us in the way the “ABU” brigade has evolved in soccer.

I mean take our second try. You're leading by just four points, you've had a man sent to the bin, and you win a penalty directly in front of the posts. Absolutely positively the sensible call to make would be to go for the easy placekick, soaking up every available second on the clock in the process.

But not Leinster. We've got two stars on our jersey, you know. And you're in our house. We're going to back ourselves to score a try. We've got Luke Fitzgerald. And if he doesn't get over we’ve got Sean O'Brien. And if he doesn't get over we’ve got Isa Nacewa. And if he doesn't get over we’ve got Jamie Heaslip. And if none of them make it, there's a chap you may not have heard of, one Eoin O'Malley.

Towards the end of July I went to the Leinster open training session in Tallaght Stadium. One of the pictures I took was of O'Malley as he was having a headshot taken by a professional. Here's what I posted as a caption : “The photographer had to be told this was Eoin O'Malley. I have a feeling in a couple of years everyone will know his name.”

Scratch that, it's more like a couple of months. And when your THIRD choice outside centre can bag a couple of tries whilst making absolutely no difference to the potency of your backline's attacking force, then by all means, be as arrogant as you want!

Now just in case you think I was in any way über-confident upon my arrival to the RDS then you can think again.

I knew we had offensive issues from our visit to Montpellier last week. I knew the visitors were on a high not only from their last-gasp win over Bath but also their triumph at the very same Ballsbridge venue last September.

But as it turned out, the contest was to resemble more the meeting of the two sides back in May when Duncan Weir opened the scoring with an early penalty only to see his side swept aside from that moment onwards.

Jamie Heaslip won the man-of-the-match award and I was delighted to see him do so – no doubting this was his best display since the Toulouse semifinal in the Aviva. But although he was a powerhouse throughout (especially in the lineouts where we were totally spoiled for choice re: jumpers), I'd rather draw attention to some other cracking displays around the pitch because you don't clinch a bonus point victory before halftime in this tournament without a phenomenal team effort.

To go back to O'Malley for a moment, despite his two tries his real strength, for me anyway, is in the tackle. And whatever people might say about Gordon D'Arcy's form of late, it was of no harm to the youngster to have the Lion inside him.

And what about our back bloody three? All of them were immense. I was worried we might go back to the “wraparound hell” we were experiencing in Montpellier but instead Messrs Fitzgerald, Kearney and Nacewa were breaking the gainline with consummate ease and to be honest my headline for this writeup could easily have been “Shane who?”.

At scrum half while I was glad to see Isaac Boss get another try I felt the improved backline rhythm was down to Reddan starting and I reckon that is the order that they should play for us in this competition from here on in should they both remain fit.

Of course we must not forget our out-half. Took the game by the scruff of the neck and didn't let go. And still his restart radar is reaping rich rewards. Those first two tries came almost instantly after Glasgow's two first-half penalties were converted.

Now...for those who wish to pour scorn over the second half performance, I say...does that really matter? Rugby is a sport where you always have to have half a mind on the battles to come and if the five points are in the bag at the interval, then only a lunatic would expect the intensity to continue, and anyone who wants to call Joe Schmidt a lunatic will have to answer to me!

However...there was one moment when I thought our arrogance may cost us...Sexton got up gingerly after being crunched in a tackle in mid-second half yet stayed on the park. Wrong move in my book. Wrap him up, give Madigan some prolonged game time. He's another one I feel is ready for this stage. By leaving our starter on longer I am now anxiously awaiting the early-week “squad update” on the Leinster site when perhaps I don't need to.

So where does this leave Leinster? Let's see...joint top of the RaboDirectPRO12, top of their Heineken Cup pool, and all without O'Driscoll, Horgan & Berquist among others.

The home-and-away series with Bath to come in December won't be easy by any stretch of the imagination, but if Schmidt can somehow bottle Sunday’s arrogance and bring it over to the Rec, we may well show them why we have one more star above our crest than they do. JLP

Elsewhere in Europe…

First up, Galway may be a party town but seemingly Toulouse were fully intent on spoiling it for poor Connacht. I didn’t get to watch the game fully, and according to some accounts the home side “paid their visitors too much respect”. But I will say this…I remember last season, when my favourite soccer team Spurs reached the Champions League for the first time, they added to their squad with quality players like Rafa Van der Vaart. They certainly didn’t ship a bunch of their best players to neighbouring clubs. Not only did Connacht have to lose Cronin, Keatley, Hagan and Carr over the off-season, in a cruel twist of irony only one of those actually played a significant role in their new team’s opening two Heineken Cup matches. It was always going to be an uphill battle for them, and let’s hope they can get something from Gloucester in December.

As for Ulster, well they were also unlucky to be missing key players. Paul Marshall may have had a good outing at Welford Road but you’d have a hard time convincing me they wouldn’t have been better off with Pienaar. John Afoa as well could have added something to their front row but the biggest weakness was at full back where Danielli appeared all at sea and Jared Payne was badly needed. Once the Tigers worked out how effective the garryowen would be it was curtains for the Ulstermen. Though I haven’t seen that much of them this season, I would have thought D’Arcy would have been the better option to start in the 15 jersey but I could well be wrong.

And once again, we have those last-gasp ROG heroics. And once again, I have to tip my hat to him. I can’t think of an outhalf I’d rather have in that position when the clock goes red. Now…for the real question. Have Munster showed Heineken Cup-winning form yet? The answer is no, and in actual fact, none of the 24 teams have for the full 160 minutes each has played in the first two rounds. If I had to pick a form team, it would have to be the Scarlets, and guess who Tony McGahan’s men play in their next two matches? Should both teams reproduce their form from rounds 1 & 2 in December then O’Gara’s cool 11th hour temperament won’t be of any use. But still, two wins out of two is not to be sneezed at (it’s more than my arrogant Leinster have!) and you wouldn’t bet against them using those two incredible finishes as a springboard - I certainly wouldn’t put money on them failing to get out of that pool just yet.

Montpellier-16 Leinster-16

2011-11-12T15:00:00.000Z

SWEET SIXTEEN

Ifyou ask young rugby fans what kind of player they'd like to bewhen they grow up, I doubt there's many who would say their wish wasto be a “quality impact sub”.

Yetas Sean Cronin demonstrated at the Stade de la Mosson, in the moderngame that can be one of the most important roles in a squad. I wouldstill select Richardt Strauss over the former Connacht hooker everytime, but his grit and determination to get over the lineshowed he has much to offer in that number 16 jumper.

WouldI have been happy with a draw before the match? Absolutely not. Butwas I happy with it afterwards? Absolutely so. And although itwasn't exactly a classic display from the reigning champions, I'm notas concerned as perhaps I should be.

Mycontention is that if your problems lie on the offensive side of thegame, they can be fixed a lot easier than if your defence isn't up toscratch. And it's hard to argue that we had pretty good control ofthings defensively on Saturday.

Justlook at the try Montpellier scored. It happened after a breakdown ofan attack of ours deep in their half when our defence wasn't anywherenear set. For the rest of the contest, even with the gargantuanGorgodzilla in full flow, the French outfit were unable to seriouslythreaten our line.

Sowhat was going wrong on the offensive side of things? Well for onething it was hardly Isaac Boss' best outing. It's a shame for him inthat he thoroughly earned his starting position but considering thequality of his competition you have to think that Reddan will startnext Sunday against Glasgow. The box kicks weren't working, the ballwas going unprotected after the tackle too often, it was just a badday at the office for Boss, but he'll be back.

Anotherselection that didn't work out was Damien Browne. I understand thathe has experience playing in France but I'm not altogether surethat's what was needed. Devin Toner has been impressive in the Pro12and once he came on we absolutely terrorized the Montpellierline-outs.

Honourablemention should go to our back three, particularly Luke Fitzgerald. The Sky commentators fixated on his missed tackle on Nagusa but thatwas a harsh way of looking at it – first, the former Ulster wingerwas deep in his own 22 plus Luke got enough of him to allow the restof the defence to set and he didn't really get much further. OverallI thought Fitzgerald had a sound display and is well on the road backto his best.

Briefparagraph on the ref – many give out about Dave Pearson and it'strue he's hardly the best out there, but I really don't think heplayed a part in the actual result, even though the French TVdirector seemed to differ with his incessant replays of missedforward passes. Funny how the replay machine was broken when itseemed to be a Montpellier transgression!

Youdon't think I've forgotten about a certain Mr Sexton I hope! Wellmuch like his last-minute effort that sealed the draw, I'm going todeal with him last. The only mark against him the way I saw it wasthat he went for the complex back-line manoeuvres a bit too often. It's a powerful weapon and when used at the right time will do someserious damage, but it seemed at times that it was confusing ourplayers as much as it was the opposition, and that can't be good.

Butwhat about that final kick? Follow this link to see the YouTube clip. As if the pressure from the match situation and the booing ofthe crowd wasn't enough, I doubt the sight of his own face on the bigscreen perfectly framed by the goalposts didn't help, yet he struckit true. And let's not forget his conversion of the Cronin try whichwas even closer to the touchline. They were all world-classplacekicks and there were even question marks over the one he missed– we either need to allow coaches request a TMO or just get highergoalposts in those situations.

Allin all you have to be happy to come away from a French trip withsomething, although if Leinster are to be seriously considering areturn to glory in this competiton, they'll need a convicing win nextSunday to get back on track. If you fancy a flutter, you could do alot worse than back Mr Cronin for another try off the bench in theprocess.

Elsewherein Europe...

Allthe mainstream headlines will be taken by “that” finish down atThomond, so just for divilment allow me to start this mini-roundupelsewhere, namely Leinster's Pool Three, where Glasgow delivered afairytale ending of their own thanks to the Bath defence fallingasleep after Duncan Weir's last-gasp drop goal effort. For me,that's a good result for Leinster in that should we defeat the Scotsnext weekend at the RDS, given that the French rarely travel well wecould be the only side in the pool with a duck-egg in the loss columnafter two games.

Andif the Irish headlines weren't about Munster, they'd probably beabout Connacht instead so again I'm going to be different and offerprops to the Ulstermen at Ravenhill for sticking it to their critics(myself included) by seeing off their illustrious visitors. It was amonumental performance and Stephen Ferris showed that had he beenavailable last April Leinster's Heineken Cup final opponents may wellhave been different.

Nowfor the Connacht men. Didn't they do themselves proud? Sure, theygave away too many silly penalties but given the formbook going intothe match for that to be their top complaint is quite theachievement. I'm telling you, however many stars are on their crest,Toulouse won't have things their own way in Galway next weekend,that's for sure!

Let'snot forget the Leinster A lads led by Dominic Ryan, who securedthemselves a comfortable bonus-point win in Esher to kickoff theirB&I Cup campaign. Seemingly outhalf Noel Reid was impressivewith the boot and I'll be looking forward to seeing them in actionnext Saturday in Donnybrook against Melrose.

Lastand certainly not least, that amazing finish at Thomond. No doubt myblue blood will be cited for what I'm about to say, but I really dobelieve too much is being made of this “41 phases” craic. Infact, the way I see it, you're actually doing Munster a dis-serviceif you show surprise that they can retain possession that many timesagainst an opposition that is doing absolutely nothing to competeafter the tackle. For me, the amazing thing about that finish wasthe O'Gara drop goal itself – an absolutely heroic effort for sure. But Tony McGahan's men need to show they can win on the road inthis competition again and when you take the 80 minutes of Saturday evening's matchthey'll have their work cut out to get full points from their threetrips in that pool. The final match in January against the Saints inMilton Keynes could well decide their fate.

Great to have the HCup back, innit? JLP

Leinster-24 Munster-19

2011-11-04T23:00:00.000Z

RESTARTING OVER

You know, just once I'd like to see these two great clubs face each other without knowing an asterix would need to be put beside the final scoreline.

Normally, as was the case this time round, the derby is played the week before Heineken Cup matches – either the crucial opening series, or the even more crucial quarterfinal stage (not to mention right after a gruelling Six Nations campaign).

Even the Magners League final from last May, although having nothing right after it, was preceded by a weekend when Munster had their feet up watching their nemesis come back from the dead to grab a famous victory in a slightly more important competition.

So I guess the best we can ever hope to expect from this fixture for the immediate future is a tough contest for 60 minutes before the cotton wool gets produced and everything afterwards is pretty much pot luck.

And that's exactly what we got at the Aviva Stadium on Friday night. Basically Munster played with the same fire they brought to the table last May only this time we were able to not only match them but pretty much oust them at every position on the park and hold the lead from the 21^st minute right to the end.

Most of the talk pre-match, quite naturally, was about the outhalf battle and few could argue that Sexton won it hands down and has definitely put his World Cup demons to bed. He really is a different player wearing a blue jersey, and you have to wonder if this is because when he has it on, he knows for sure that everyone supporting his side wants him to have it.

He won man of the match for three reasons – first, of course, was the return of his kicking mojo. But given the fact that Munster had us under the kosh in the final quarter, the match-winning moment had to be his forced turnover when they were pressing our line. A try at that moment could very well have produced a different result and although O'Gara didn't have a bad night by any means, you certainly wouldn't ever expect a similar contribution from him at the other end of the pitch.

However what needs to be highlighted most in Sexton's game is his restarts. He is key part of an evolution of rugby union's halfway-line kickoff from a lottery to a set-piece similar to a scrum or a lineout, ie if a side begins with the ball in their hands they should also come out with it.

That is what had Leinster leading after the first quarter. Winning the ball back from your own kickoff obviously puts immense pressure on the opposing team, and what's more, whatever about missing O'Driscoll, we still had a powerful centre combination who were able to combine to turn possession on the restart line into possession on the 22 in double quick time – and once we got there, Munster had to summon every ounce of their strength to keep us out.

And although the visitor's defence was solid (it's only proper for me to keep track of our tryless streak in this fixture, which now stands at 219 minutes) the only reason it remained so was that they had to give away penalties around their 22, often ones so sensless (like Niall Ronan's “I think I'm as invisible as Richie McCaw” moment in the first half) that even the most diehard Munster fan couldn't argue with the call.

Of course Leinster had to give away the odd dodgy penalty themselves, like Healy's at the start of the second half (we'll call that karma after Jacobsen's similar action in Edinburgh last week) and of course the penalty try, the second in a row we've conceded against the same opposition with a makeshift scrum combination.

The lineouts were a good contest throughout the night with the odd steal for both sides but most of all solid, and you have to say Devin Toner held his own very well given his was on the pitch with the three leading Irish test locks. Got me thinking maybe Declan Kidney could consider leaving Leo with Leinster for the Six Nations and giving Devin some time with his squad? If he impresses in the four European matches to come it has to be an option.

Actually it could be argued that the biggest difference in the match was the backrow. Munster fans on twitter were confused when Ronan got the start at 7 and this was proven right – they were much better going forward when O'Mahony and Coughlan were on the pitch, although to be fair they did have an extra forward at that stage.

I also have a little query about the Munster coaching brains trust...why on EARTH did they send on John Hayes when they did? I'm not talking about his playing ability, I'm more talking about the fact they were still in the match and the clock was ticking down and he's not exactly Mr Speedy Gonzales when it comes to getting into position?

Actually I think the biggest difference between the two sides was at centre. While D'Arcy and particularly McFadden kept making inroads, you could see that Mafi and Chambers had the talent but just not the ease with each other that will no doubt come over time. And that time really needs to be now for them, with two very tough opening Heineken Cup matches on the horizon.

And back to Leinster's 12 & 13, I anticipated O'Malley's introduction, coming for D'Arcy and going to 13 with Fergus moving to inside, but I thought the 73^rd minute was too late. Should BOD be unavailable, starting with the centre like we did then making that exact same switch at the 60^th minute could be a formidable weapon in the upcoming Heineken Cup campaign, given O'Malley's proven tackling abilities.

Then there was Leinster's back three. Yes, we actually had one. Did Munster put up even one garryowen on the night? I'm pretty sure that despite the fact that they lost, the coaches at Bath, Montpellier and Glasgow will be thinking along the same lines...you put the ball in the air against Isa, Rob and Luke and you'll come to regret it, so apart from tackling and of course that Kearney drop goal, they were pretty much kept quiet on the night.

That does give me concerns about Isa being on the wing in that he'll be virtually neutered as an attacking threat, but you'd like to think that the three will mix things up in the coming weeks despite the numbers on their backs.

And mention must also go to the competing scrum halves. Has Isaac Boss done enough to earn the starting jersey in Montpellier? I think he may very well have.

His opposite number Conor Murray didn't do too badly, though in many ways he's like an “O'Leary 2.0” in that he's a strong carrier of the ball but actually CAN box-kick. Still, there was the odd question mark about his distribution. And the less said about O'Leary 1.0's cameo, the better, I find!

Overall, yes, I know I'm biased, but I still think the right side won this match. Given we had just one win from our first three matches, I can't have too many complaints about being joint top of the Pro12 table as we kick off Pool3, even if it is with a trip to France.

Oh, and one last thing...well done to the stadium announcer for the way he shouted the Leinster scoreline and mumbled the Munster one. Not just because of my allegiance either...I'd have a laugh if the guy at Thomond did the opposite. These are all little things that clubs can do to add to the entertainment – bring on more of it, I say. JLP

Edinburgh-28 Leinster-36

2011-10-28T23:30:00.000+01:00

***PLEASE DONATE AND/OR HELP ME SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT MY "UNRIGGABLE RAFFLE" FOR THE LEINSTER V MUNSTER MATCH THIS FRIDAY; EITHER SCROLL DOWN OR CLICK THIS LINK FOR DETAILS***

COMFORT ZONE

It's not often in sport, especially at the top, when you can watch your team fall behind four different times in a match yet still call the victory "comfortable", but you definitely can for this one.

Because even though your average irrationally-superstitious Leinster fan would never have said it out loud, even when they lost the lead you always had a sense at the back of your mind that they were going to pull it back with interest, and sure enough they did every time.

And perhaps if the referee Leighton Hodges, who seemed to be barely out of nappies when it comes to officiating at this level, knew what was meant by the term "professional foul", the contest would've been wrapped up a lot sooner.

If you look at the picture leading off this post you will see Rob Kearney on an early break - it actually looked as though he'd score but he didn't quite make the try line. Also right in the middle of the shot you'll see the rather, er, portly figure of Embra & Scotland prop Allan Jacobsen chugging along trying to keep up with the play.

Well when our full back was tackled and a ruck formed, Mr Jacobsen was able to catch up and, er, take part in the ruck. And of course in his book "taking part in" meant walking around the side and picking up the ball coughing up the pen when he knew damn well it prevented a try. Mr Hodges reaction? Penalty to the visiting side, and not even so much as a warning to the home one.

And later in the half there was a lesser case for a yellow when Tim Visser deliberately knocked on. For here you can use the sporting cliché "I've seen them given". And if the Dutch-born soon-to-be Scottish-qualified winger had gone to the bin, he wouldn't have scored his first try and Sean Cronin's blushes would've been spared with his missed tackle.

Because although I use the word "comfortable" for this triumph, it was by no means perfect. Visser's second try had three times the missed tackles as the slippery eel got past both Kearney brothers and Sexton to keep up his impressive record of five-pointers in this league.

It wasn't just the tackling either - sadly Cronin's darts were unsteady much like they were when he was with the Irish squad, and coach Schmidt was quite right afterwards to describe his returning World Cup stars as "rusty". But hey, if you can be rusty and still win by 8 points on the road in this league, then you can't really complain.

In patches, Michael Bradley's new charges looked impressive going forward but it has to be said Leinster rarely needed to move out of second let alone third gear to win this one, and the ease with which our two tries were scored will give him a lot to say in the DVD sessions during the week to come. He won't be too happy with the penalty count either - you'd like to think outscoring your opponents by 3 tries to 2 at home would at least get you a losing bonus!

So when you consider that the areas in which we were rusty (to which you can possibly include Sexton's placing of the ball on the tee though he of course had a super night with the boot overall) can all be easily rectified on the training ground, you definitely feel a lot better about this Leinster team going into our first clash with the old enemy than we did last year!

Now it's opinion time - with the World Cup stars now back and hopefully de-rusted, what Heineken Cup XV would I pick? Well for me the areas of contention are at 5, 7, 12, 15 and pretty much the entire bench.

Let's start at lock shall we. Devin Toner seems to have brushed off the cobwebs he showed last season and added some much-needed aggression to his game. Even though Steven Sykes will be pushing him hard for his spot I'd still go for the Irishman as the more time he spends on the pitch with Leo Cullen the more he'll learn.

Next...do we want the experience of Jennings at 7 or the promise of Ryan? Tough one. Ireland badly needs some upcoming talent at this position so if you were to make selections on that basis you'd plump for Ryan. But I'd like to think the coaches are allowed to pick their best available XVs for the HCup and I have a feeling that Jenno will get the nod for now. Ryan getting the captain's armband for the As against Ulster last week supports this view.

Then at 12 - sorry Gordon, but I see no alternative but to start Fergus McFadden. He is clearly the player in form and frankly if you leave him out after a display like that in Murrayfield, you make him more likely to listen to the offers to move elsewhere he surely must be getting behind the scenes.

Elsewhere among the replacements, the fact that Rhys Ruddock has started two matches each at 6, 7 and 8 as well as wearing the captain's armband tells me he's a shoo-in. Other calls I'd go for are Strauss over Cronin and despite Boss' impressive showed in Edinburgh, Reddan gets my nod at 9.

And finally we have the big elephant in the room. Who do you play at full-back for Leinster in the matches that matter? Rob Kearney has been in fine form since his return. But you simply cannot drop Isa. My solution? Isa at 15, Rob at 14. Imagine a back three of Luke, Rob & Isa. And I'm doing my best not to imagine what to do when Shaggy gets back from injury!

So, here's my Leinster 23 for the big matches to come. Let me know either in the comments or via Facebook & Twitter what you think...

15 Nacewa 14 R Kearney 13 O'Driscoll 12 McFadden 11 Fitzgerald 10 Sexton 9 Reddan 1 Healy 2 Strauss 3 Ross 4 Cullen 5 Toner 6 O'Brien 7 Jennings 8 Heaslip
bench : 16 Cronin 17 Van Der Merwe 18 White 19 Sykes 20 Ruddock 21 Boss 22 Madigan 23 D'Arcy

Thanks for reading down this far, hope to see you at the Aviva on Friday night, and please enter the "unriggable raffle" if you can. JLP

LEINSTER v MUNSTER "unriggable raffle"

2011-10-28T17:51:00.000+01:00

What's that jersey doing on my blog? I hear you cry.

Well, a good friend of mine won one in a competition, and he wants to make the most out of it, namely to raise funds for his daughter's school, Glasnevin Educate Together.

So what I want to do is run another "unriggable raffle" for the upcoming "Fever In The Aviva 2" only this time looking for a few bob for the squares and hopefully get some valuable wedge for G.E.T. that way.

Click the following link to see the *** fundraising page on mycharity.ie *** which shows it's all above board :-) and the funds will go directly to the Educate Together account.

All you have to do is be one of the first 100 to donate a minimum of €5 on the page and you're in the competition.

Then, just like the recent Emerald Rugby competition, the 100 names will go on a new grid and the winner will be determined by the result of Leinster v Munster next Friday evening.

That winner will then receive the Munster jersey which has been signed by stars such as Paul O'Connell and Keith Earls.

YES - I KNOW THIS IS A LEINSTER FAN SITE...but surely even if your loyalty is blue you must know SOMEONE who would appreciate the jersey?

So have a go at the raffle if you can, it's for a school, always a worthy cause. Also, please spread the word by one of the buttons below - you can email, Facebook, tweet, Google+ - the only button I couldn't find to add to this post was one for carrier pigeon! JLP

#ZambiaTrip

2011-10-22T18:51:00.004+01:00

Folks, I'd like to draw your attention to a very worthy cause.

Ciaran Kelly is an avid HarpinOnRugby reader, an extremely avid Leinster & Ireland rugby fan, and he also won a gold medal for Ireland at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics in the shot put.

OK, I may have made one of those up.

But I'm definitely not making up the fact that he and his friend Alan Burnell are heading to Zambia next June to help with Brent Pope's Rugby Legends Foundation as they build homes for the Habitat for Humanity project.

If you'd like to make even a small donation to help them out please follow this link and click the "sponsor me now" button!

Much appreciated! Please help spread the word! JLP