The Champions Cup semi-finals served up two major surprises as Northampton Saints and Bordeaux Begles rewrote the script to advance to the final in Cardiff.
On the week of the British & Irish Lions team announcement, Leinster are the team that have been making the headlines, and for all the wrong reasons.
Maybe it's right that they're the ones being spoken about, considering theirs was an underperformance of the highest magnitude.
However, the team that should be catching all the attention is Northampton Saints, under the guidance of Phil Dowson and crucially Sam Vesty coaching their attack.
On paper, their talent seemed incomparable to Leinster. They were written off and objectively there was little chance for them to progress to the final.
Yet sport and human performance has a funny way of operating between the black and white, in the grey area where players can find a different edge, harnessing their collective talent and taking exception to the public narrative.
Not to be reactive or overly responsive to one result, but Northampton could find themselves with a minimum of four British & Irish Lions selections, maybe even three Test starters, and they have a final of the biggest club competition to look forward to.
We knew about the talents of Northampton individuals, but maybe they’ve been disrespected once too often.
It’s no surprise to see Alex Mitchell controlling a game with accurate kicking and great decision making. His partner Fin Smith is really proving his worth as the most exciting young half-back in the northern hemisphere and Tommy Freeman is clearly an athletic and powerful finisher on the wing.
The real hype is all about Henry Pollock (above). He was the best back-row player on the pitch last weekend. Josh Van Der Flier had a really positive game for Leinster and Doris always has big moments, despite having to leave the pitch early last Saturday with a worrying shoulder injury. However, Pollock showed something absolutely unique. His energy is almost as impressive as his confidence. His athleticism is frightening.
For a guy his age to run as quickly and carry as well as he did for his try in the first half, he mixes it with the doggedness of a traditional openside flanker.
You can argue that back-row depth is at an all-time high, and a really experienced international player could lose out if Pollock was selected for the British and Irish Lions tour. But, when I think of Lions tours in the past, there’s something special about the youngest player being parachuted into the biggest international test. We’ve seen young Lions like Louis Rees-Zammit, Keith Earls, Luke Fitzgerald and Leigh Halfpenny among others.
After playing a starring role in Northampton’s semi-final win last weekend, Henry Pollock would be really unlucky if he misses out. The expectation around his selection has soared following last week’s dismantling of Leinster. He can barely be considered a 'bolter' at this stage.
There were many other Northampton players that contributed big moments to their win over Leinster, whether they are Lions hopefuls or not.
James Ramm was outstanding for Saints, and Alex Coles had huge moments for Dowson’s side, regardless of his legality.
Kemeny at blindside flanker turned over a crucial lineout near his own line, picking up an ankle injury in the process. Freeman and Smith delivered a balance between destructive running and a deft kick-through, leading to a Northampton lineout and eventually three points. It was a huge swing in the game at the start of the second quarter.
That sequence from Leinster’s perspective included a missed lineout deep in the opposition 22 and four missed tackles on Freeman (above) from key players. Snyman was first to fall off Freeman, despite the obvious difference in size, Porter and Doris fell over each other trying to stop the powerful winger, and Prendergast slid along the ground with a feeble ankle-tap.
Leinster had around 40 missed tackles throughout the game. The missed tackle stat doesn’t always give you an accurate representation of tackle quality. Often, we see Garry Ringrose with high missed tackle stats, yet it can be a result of his high line speed forcing players back inside to where the Leinster defence is strong and shutting down the opposition attack.
Unfortunately for Leinster, these weren’t those types of missed tackles. There were some absolute howlers in the game that nobody would like to watch back. It’s astonishing, considering Jacques Nienaber’s personal approach to defence, pitting players against their opposite number and creating an imaginary line where the opposition player wins or loses. Their defence suffered because of Northampton’s tactics.
Despite being potent in attack, Northampton set their attack up well by kicking the ball often. They kicked just as much as Leinster but with much less possession, meaning their kicking ratio was higher than Leinster, which went a long way to providing a platform to win the game. The variety of those kicks from Smith, despite not always being well-executed, disrupted Leinster’s defensive rhythm.
Objectively, it’s great for the Champions Cup to have two underdog finalists, if you could consider Bordeaux an underdog. The main point is that both teams with the biggest player budgets and unbelievable talent systems haven’t made it to the final day.
It’s not great for Irish rugby, and revelling in Leinster’s failure isn’t useful. They’re the best team that Ireland has to offer to the Champions Cup, with an international side bolstered by top international talent.
Failing to secure a final spot this year will go down as their biggest failure yet. It will undoubtedly affect rugby in Ireland and has already highlighted the lopsided Irish system.
I’m not sure where Leinster will go from here. It is essential that they go on to win the BKT URC, but to wash this loss off with a reflection and regroup for next year would not represent the magnitude of the loss.
As previously mentioned, Northampton deserve the limelight and it would be a great end to their story if they can go on and beat Bordeaux in Cardiff in three weeks.
