Head coach Matt O’Connor said Leinster were lucky to hold on for a draw against Wasps in their final Champions Cup pool game but admitted they probably had not done enough to secure a home quarter-final.
“It was a very, very hard-fought encounter. It was probably a game of two halves,” said O'Connor after their 20-20 draw at the Ricoh Arena.
“I thought Wasps fought their way back into it brilliantly in the second half, and took their chances very well. We were lucky to hold on at the end.”
O’Connor said he had not been surprised that Wasps improved their performance in the second half, but that for the most part Leinster had contained the hosts.
"We couldn’t give a damn about the rest of them, to be honest"
“They’re a very dangerous side. I thought we managed their threat pretty well,” he said.
“They got a couple of opportunities late in the half, with lineout drives, and they took those. So we’ve got some work to do in relation to that, but by and large it was a pretty good performance.”
Asked whether Leinster had felt any weight of expectation given that they were the only Irish province with a chance of remaining in the competition, O’Connor was unequivocal.
“We couldn’t give a damn about the rest of them, to be honest,” he said, half-jokingly. “We were only interested in what happens to us. And the disappointment lies in not probably doing enough –potentially – to be at home in the quarter.”
Luke Fitzgerald echoed his coach’s disappointment at missing out on a home quarter-final. Speaking after the game, he said he was happy to be through, but that Leinster’s aim had been to win the game.
“I think the changing-room kind of told a story, in itself, in that I think everyone was really disappointed with the second-half performance.
“We let them control the game, albeit with [only 14 men during] that 10-minute period [after Kane Douglas received a yellow card]. I didn’t think we dealt the rest of the half very well.”
