A mixture of poor passing, slack protection at rucks and ill Harlequins behaviour combine to hobble Leinster
The tone for torpor was set in the opening two minutes of the match as Leinster took 11 phases to get exactly nowhere before George Robson’s indiscipline gave them a handy penalty. Incredibly, Eoin Reddan manages four inaccurate passes in 44 seconds during the phase of play.
The scrum-half’s opening error sees him skitter a pass along the grass to Jamie Heaslip. Devin Toner had got his team on the front-foot moments earlier with a line break but Leinster (as we can see from the clip below) are not set across the backline.
Reddan’s next two passes are above Mike McCarthy’s head and at Gordon D’Arcy’s toes. Both are held but prevent any attacking flow to develop. Play comes back from right to left and Sean Cronin is hit as a strike-runner. But, as previously, there are no options out wide (highlighted in yellow) and Quins can commit two players to halt Cronin in his tracks.
Reddan fails to locate Gopperth as Leinster retain possession but Darragh Fanning keeps the move alive. After 11 phases, Robson goes off his feet and Kearney – on a shot to nothing – misses a drop goal. Ian Madigan lands the resulting penalty to put Leinster ahead but Harlequins would have been delighted to repel the early attacks and drive the blue lines back.
Leinster’s next foray into the Harlequins 22 arrives on 10 minutes as Joe Marler knocks on under pressure from D’Arcy. Gopperth spies an ocean of unguarded grass and hacks forward but Danny Care is first to slid on the ball.
Fanning, Isaac Boss (on for HIA-assessed Reddan) and Rhys Ruddock are quick on the scene but, in their haste, they lose track of themselves. All three go off their feet and a penalty out is awarded.
The Blues’ best phase of play arrived just after the 20-minute mark when both Mike Ross and Jack McGrath pass the gainline. With the hosts on the back-foot, Leinster spin wide and fashion a 3-on-2 but centre Matt Hooper takes a gamble and rushes out of the line to press Kearney. It pays off as the flick on to D’Arcy careens out of play.
Gopperth – the leading out-half for clean breaks in the Guinness PRO12 this season – evades the Harlequins defence five minutes later and finds Luke Fitzgerald in support. Reddan, under pressure, cannot get a clean pass off but Leinster are saved when Quins go off their feet again.
Ian Madigan tells SportsJOE, ‘The few times we put good attacking plays together, they were quite cynical in stopping our momentum by giving away a penalty. It affected our flow and it is something we will have to be ready for this weekend.’
The final break of the half features Gopperth as he burns Tim Swiel and evades Chris Robshaw. His off-load to Cronin is spilled as the English captain dives back to get a crucial deflection.
Slim pickings
Despite Madigan’s 47th minute penalty to make it 12-9, the second half has fewer moments for the travelling Leinster supporters to get excited about. Rhys Ruddock makes a powerful burst from Quins’ restart but Leinster lose a kicking duel soon after and end up back in their own half with a line-out.
The game-changer arrives in the 59th minute and is instigated by Kearney and, unfortunately, features the fullback again as attack switches to hopeless defence. Kearney’s punt flummoxes Marland Yarde and is picked up on the charge by the daring Fanning.
Reddan – offered little protection by team-mates around the ruck – finds himself rushed again as Leinster worked the phases. He consequently goes high and low with passes, stunting any set plays. Still, Quins commit men to rucks and, for a change, are not giving away penalties. Their chance to test the hosts out wide comes seven phases in. Heaslip receives a Reddan pass and Kearney, having spotted a 2-on-1, screams for the ball. Kearney and Zane Kirchner (out of shot) are represented by the yellow arrows below. Heaslip, however, opts to truck forward into contact.
Reddan arrives on the scene and flings another high pass that Madigan jumps to control. By the time the ball eventually finds Kearney, Quins have drifted across and the fullback’s attempt to find Kirchner is picked off by Aseli Tikoirotuma.
Leinster do not need us to tell them they need to be more clinical in and around the opposition 22 – their video review, which Madigan describes as ‘not much fun’, will have seen to that.
What they do need is a referee that punishes teams, on both sides, for deliberately dipping into illegality to halt attacks. French official Romain Poite will be the man in the middle this Saturday. Reddan, if selected, also needs to up his game and give cleaner ball. His team-mates must do a better job of protecting him.
Ruddock says, ‘We need to have a huge focus on giving Eoin a bit more of an arm-chair ride. It’s not right that he’s getting banged up and tackled at the base of the ruck; forced to make passes too early.
‘If we can get good quality set-pieces to launch off – get over the gainline a bit better – it all has a knock-on effect.’
