Dan Leavy is starting to show just what he’s capable of when given a shot.
The Leinster back-row was rightly named man of the match on Saturday night for his stunning performance in a 24-13 victory over Connacht in the Guinness PRO12.
Leavy was brilliant from the breakdown throughout and his disciplined doggedness led many, chief among them legendary Ireland centre Brian O’Driscoll, to suggest that the 22-year-old is not all that far off a call-up into Joe Schmidt’s squad.
Dan Leavy on this form should be in contention internationally.
— Brian O'Driscoll (@BrianODriscoll) October 29, 2016
Tries from Adam Byrne and Barry Daly, combined with Isa Nacewa’s tally via the boot, got the all-important points on the board but Leavy’s defensive contribution was not lost on impressed spectators.
“We knew that Connacht liked to attack very wide and they showed that in first 20 minutes,” Leavy said after the game. “They absolutely ripped us apart to put it frankly. It took us a while to build into the game but we started getting our patterns together and our defence got a lot better. Towards the end we were absolutely loving it.
“Maybe they fell off their game a bit but we were starting to build a bit of momentum and we’re absolutely delighted with it.
“All week we’ve been working on keeping width in our defence,” he continued. “They’ve got a lot of danger-men, Cian Kelleher on the wing who left us unfortunately, and Tiernan O’Halloran. They’ve got a lot of pace out wide and we just had to target them and after the first 20 minutes we weathered the storm and built into the game very well.”
O’Driscoll wasn’t the only keen admirer of Leavy’s dutiful work as the academy product was singled out for praise by almost all watching the game.
Leavy 3 steals. Motm for Leinster.
— Tom Coleman (@LeinsterRoyalty) October 29, 2016
https://twitter.com/RobertJacob25/status/792412503875657732
Dan Leavy having a great season. Super turn over. #LEIvCON
— Mark C (@ColemanwithaC) October 29, 2016
https://twitter.com/BamburyBookie/status/792426903743365120
The #GUINNESSPRO12 Man of the Match is Dan Leavy of @leinsterrugby presented by Padraig Fox of GUINNESS! #LEIvCON pic.twitter.com/jjanmQo03P
— BKT United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial) October 29, 2016
Dan Leavy outstanding for Leinster. Surely national honours can't be too far away
— Peter Burke (@peterburke_) October 29, 2016
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