Leinster kept pressure on Toulouse at the top of Pool 1 with a convincing 42-15 win over Bath at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
Leinster ran in six tries to two as they cleared the 40-point mark for the second time in four European games this season as Leinster’s attack continues to fire on all cylinders.
One of their tries came through centre and man of the match Rory O’Loughlin after some great work from Jordan Larmour and Johnny Sexton.
Leinster went for their patented loop play in the build up to the try, a move that has been virtually perfected by Johnny Sexton with both Leinster and Ireland, and former Munster winger Barry Murphy breaks down why the move works so well for Sexton’s teams.
“The accuracy for what they have in the microplays is so key for Leinster in what they do,” Murphy said on the latest episode of Baz & Andrew’s House of Rugby.
“On the O’Loughlin try Sexton did the little loop with Ringrose and obviously it’s textbook Leinster, textbook Sexton. [It’s a] Wrap around but when you look at it, and Brian O’Driscoll broke it down on BT Sport, with how Bath put eight defenders in that area. A lot of teams wouldn’t have tried to break them down.
“They would have just carried into the belly of them. Just recreate some more phases but Ringrose took such a good line and with such intent it gave the Bath defenders a little nudge.
“Sexton does a quick wrap and he’s through the gap and you’re talking inches. If there was an inch off either one of them there would have been a scrag somewhere or the ball might not have been as crisp.
“Ringrose throws the pass, Sexton goes through the loop and they flood the line with support runners.
“Larmour beats a couple of defenders and then a brilliant offload and again great support lines.
Co-host Andrew Trimble said that Ringrose’ decision to pick off defenders was key in the play and that the idea behind the play can have as much to do with creating confusion at the line as to trying to create an overlap.
“I think there’s a misconception in what they are trying to do there in that they are trying to get an extra man to beat them on the edge, which I don’t think is always the case,” added Trimble.
“Occasionally it will be, but on that occasion, what you’re doing is you’re trying to get the defender to change his man, confusing things at the line, especially with Johnny.
“What Ringrose did well was that he didn’t get too wide off Johnny when he got the pass. He narrowed up and instead of struggling to sit down that defender he went ‘I’ll comfortably sit down this defender’. He sits him down, gets a little bump in the line, calls in a disconnect and Johnny just goes through. It was really perfectly executed.
“Johnny has been doing that for years.”
