Leinster's classy performance in their victory over Toulon in Saturday's Champions Cup semi-final was disrupted by their own ill-discipline and sloppy execution.
Leo Cullen has expressed his dissatisfaction at some of the negative responses to his team's advances to the final of the competition. However some of those external concerns are very valid.
Leinster are a level above most of the opposition teams that they face. Despite this, they are allowing sides into a contest far more often than they should be. If that doesn’t worry the coach, then they might run into real trouble in the final, or in the closing stages of the United Rugby Championship.
Leinster opened the game against Toulon in dominant form. Their exits were efficient with Jamison Gibson-Park once again orchestrating proceedings against good quality French opposition. Their effectiveness in the Toulon half suggested Leinster would cruise to yet another final in this tournament.
But when Gibson-Park knocked the ball on as he scored his side’s second try, it was the start of a sloppy second quarter.
The reason why Leinster are receiving criticism is because they’re making errors that are usually uncharacteristic of the ruthless and dominant version of Cullen’s team that we’re used to.
Their defence suffocated Toulon, who endured some physical contacts across the opening quarter, before they began to solve the puzzle by carrying through the middle of the Leinster defence. Once they could avoid the big frame of an onrushing Joe McCarthy they seemed to find a softer channel to go forward.
As a result, Leinster got a couple of their defensive reads wrong. Garry Ringrose and Hugo Keenan both got their timing wrong to concede penalties which led to scores for Toulon. Their eagerness to rush off the line meant that they tackled the attacker fractions of a second before he received the ball.
Arguably, this is the fault of the defender inside them for not shutting the space early enough or by not going up field hard and fast enough to reduce the space that the defender has. Had the inside defender brought the same energy as Leinster’s Lions, they might have made dominant tackles and not penalty concessions.
These are the fine margins that top sides are operating at and the latter stages of the competition can be decided on small disconnected moments like that.
Leinster were also sanctioned for being offside, another symptom of eagerness in high line speed defensive teams. This led to a cascade of other discipline issues, including Caelan Doris’ unnecessarily competitive actions at the breakdown where he got on the wrong side of Luke Pearce.
"Many of the turning points in this game seemed to be in Leinster's control"
Andrew Porter was called for a high tackle where he received a yellow card, and soon after Harry Byrne’s offside penalty ensured that he joined Porter in the sin-bin, as Toulon hit back with a try of their own.
This made Leinster’s game much more difficult than it needed to be. Despite all this, they rallied once again, scoring with 13 players on the pitch just after half-time. They regained full control of the tie and cruised into a 29-11 lead.
For all intents and purposes, the game was over. And still, Leinster found themselves scrambling to shut down a speculative offload from Gael Drean following a Melvin Jaminet line break. After early celebrations, the coaching team watched on as their team nearly threw away two spells of dominance.
Leinster hung on for a hard-earned victory at Aviva Stadium. The reality is that Leinster were far superior to Toulon. Had they converted their own opportunities, they would have experienced a much more comfortable semi-final.
Pressure leads to defensive errors and moments of ill-discipline. Of course Toulon had a say on matters and they possess enough power and talent to cause trouble for teams of Leinster’s quality trouble. However, many of the turning points in this game seemed to be in Leinster’s control. They might not get away with the same lacklustre moments in the final round, which is why these errors get pointed out.
Leinster, by their standards, have been stuttering their way through certain periods of the season. And yet they’re in another Champions Cup final with control over their own destiny in the domestic league too.
The irony of this is that they’ve been in much stronger positions in past seasons and have lost. This season could be their return to winning ways in the top European competition. They won’t care how they achieve it, once they get over the line.
Tommy O’ Brien was hugely impressive for Leinster again. We know of his physicality in defence and kick chase, as well as his speed on the ball. The aspect of his game that has been most impressive is the improvements in his kicking game.
The variation and comfort at which he pulls off different style attacking kicks is very noticeable and symptomatic of a player that is working hard to improve his game. These improvements will come as no surprise to those that watch him behind the scenes.
Leinster will need guys like him to perform at their best if they’re to win another final. Jamison Gibson-Park is another that is at the very top of his game at the moment. Their lineout was comfortable, their scrum was dominant and their attacking game was varied with structure and organisation.
Better execution in the out-half position and a couple more top performances from the likes of Doris, Porter and Sheehan and Leinster will be in a very strong position to silence their doubters and finally achieve their fifth victory in a Champions Cup final.
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