Let’s just say Dublin is not the happiest of English hunting grounds right now. Leicester did at least avoid any red cards but, as with England in the Six Nations last month, there was never any danger of an eye-catching away win. Leinster are into the last four of the Champions Cup and now await either Toulouse or Sharks in the semi-finals.
If the stadium atmosphere was several notches down from the grand slam decider on St Patrick’s weekend, this remains a mighty tough place for opposing sides to come and two first-half tries and a quality all-round display from the excellent Garry Ringrose duly kept the Irish province on track for a dream home final on this same stretch of turf next month.
By the end it was merely a question of how many points Leinster would rack up, with tries from Scott Penny, Jimmy O’Brien and John McKee and 20 points from Ross Byrne’s boot ensuring a lopsided final scoreline massaged only slightly by consolation scores from Olly Cracknell and Harry Potter. Better opposition still awaits but Leinster, with home advantage all the way, are going to take some stopping.
Even in the absence of the injured Johnny Sexton, Josh van der Flier and Ronan Kelleher, there was no escape for a Leicester side who were comprehensively blown away in the last half hour. “We fought hard but if you give them a sniff they just kill you,” admitted the Leicester fly-half Handré Pollard. The South African has a World Cup winners’ medal and knows a top side when he sees one.
The portents were not good from the start, with Hugo Keenan rising highest to steal the opening kick-off from the experienced Mike Brown to allow Leinster to move slickly through the phases and put Ringrose over for the opening try after a mere 73 seconds. Leicester did have some momentary joy at an early scrum and Pollard kicked a relieving penalty but Leicester were already swimming against an ominous blue tide.
It was hardly a surprise when, direct from a lineout, Leinster reeled off another cute pre-planned move with O’Brien coming off his wing to provide Ringrose with a second knife-through-butter try. At 14-3 down, with over three-quarters of the match still left, it did not have the makings of a particularly good Friday from the perspective of Leicester’s midfield.
The Tigers’ only chance was to display similar commitment and resilience to that shown by their 500 travelling fans, many of whom had come over on the ferry from Holyhead and were due to catch the boat back again in the early hours of the morning. While Tommy Reffell and Julián Montoya were reliable irritants over the ball, Leinster’s deft handling and execution was on a different level.
Even the early departure of Ryan Baird and Caelan Doris’s redeployment to the No 7 jersey did little to disrupt Leinster’s rhythm. Byrne’s second penalty made it 17-3 and it was a considerable relief for the visitors when they were finally able to exert sufficient pressure close to their opponents’ line to allow a diving Anthony Watson to score an athletic try in the right corner.
A seven-point half-time deficit was far better than Leicester might have anticipated but they still had to negotiate the Irish rugby equivalent of Amen Corner. At this corresponding stage in last year’s tournament Leinster were already effectively home and hosed by the interval but there was slightly more work to do on this occasion.
The task momentarily looked in danger of becoming harder when an onrushing Jasper Wiese was caught high by Doris and the flanker was sent to the sin-bin. Playing with 14 men, though, seemed to reawaken Leinster and in Doris’s absence they won a raucously acclaimed scrum penalty and added 10 crucial points without reply, including another well-conceived try set up by Ringrose and finished by Jamison Gibson-Park. Even before Leicester conceded a penalty try and had their replacement hooker Charlie Clare sent to the bin, the game had already drifted away down the River Liffey.
