Better and better. That’s Leinster as their season’s push for silverware gathers considerable substance.
Before the weekend, they were favourites for the Heineken Cup but there was some doubt about them in the Magners League and whether they would figure in the knock-out stages.
The way they dismissed Ulster at the RDS and ensured their bonus point before half-time left no one in any doubt.
Indeed, it’s possible there will be a repeat of this mismatch against Ulster in a few weeks with an inevitability that it will lead to Leinster’s place in the final and another head-to-head against Munster.
For those most anxious to lower the colours of the boys in blue the problem is that they have reserve talent to burn.
Should either Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon Darcy, or both, have to drop out Eoin O’Malley and Fergus McFadden are equipped to stand in. Joe Schmidt can’t decide between Eoin Reddan and Isaac Boss at scrum-half. Both are in a rich vein of form, so either way, he can hardly go wrong.
Shane Horgan’s return after injury has been hugely impressive and his second score on Saturday has to be a very strong candidate for try of the season. David Kearney, Ian Madigan and Andrew Conway aren’t too shabby either.
Schmidt is absolutely spoiled for talent in the back-row with Jamie Heaslip, Sean O’Brien, Kevin McLaughlin, Shane Jennings and Dominic Ryan. They don’t come much more solid in the second-row than Leo Cullen and Nathan Hines and the front-row of Cian Healy, Mike Ross and Richardt Strauss.
Interestingly Munster attacked Leinster’s try line a fortnight ago without success. But when the defence held out, legally or otherwise, referee Nigel Owens decided against applying advantage and instead awarded a penalty. Munster would clearly have preferred to go for a seven pointer but it wasn’t to be.
At the RDS on Saturday night, it happened again when Ulster held out some hope of making a match of it. True, the outcome was only too apparent from the opening 15 minutes but when Ulster roused themselves, the Leinster defence stood firm and just conceded a penalty.
Crucially, though, Leinster didn’t have a player banished to the sin bin in either game. Slowing down possession or obstructing it altogether is as much an art of rugby as any other and I suspect Leinster have it off to perfection.
That’s one good reason why they are very much on course for a magnificent double.
Munster’s performance in Llanelli provided considerable hope that the younger players, as the management have frequently insisted, would be equal to requirement when the need arose.
Even then, though, you were once again left to rue the decision to allow Paul Warwick to fly the nest Michael Cheika’s Stade Francais, Peter Stringer wasn’t too far away from calling it a day and that Alan Quinlan would be a thing of the past at the end of the season.
Warwick started at full-back, moved to out-half at half time and didn’t put a foot wrong in either role. Stringer’s passing was at least as good as it’s ever been and, boy, is that saying something. As for his ability to reach the break down sooner that anyone else, well, that is already a part of legend while the tackle he put in on one bruising Scarlets forward when it looked the Welsh were sure to score typified so many similar efforts that he has come up with over the years.
Nothing should be allowed to detract from a fine Munster performance but the Scarlets were poor and left you wondering what people like the great out-half of former days, Phil Bennett, thought of it all.
The TV cameras caught him looking on from a sparsely populated stand and the way he held his head in his hands told its own story.
Llanelli is the capital of West Wales rugby, it has achieved legendary deeds on behalf of the game in this very proud bastion of the game but on this evidence they are going absolutely nowhere.
The Ospreys are leaking players left, right and centre. Lee Byrne, James Hook and Mike Phillips, three of the best backs in the game, are on their way at the end of the season but they will make a fair shot at retaining their Magners trophy.
It would help their cause if they could dispose of another under strength Munster side at the Liberty Stadium next weekend although either way the likelihood right now is that they or Cardiff Blues will be rolling up at Thomond Park for a semi-final clash with Munster on April 13/14.
Nothing wrong with that. The season for Leinster and Munster fans still has a whole lot to offer.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/sWaSCOh2Q-0/post.aspx
Moscow Taxonomy Tesco Cultural trips Household bills Global terrorism
Walang komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento