I don’t often nod along when Luke Fitzgerald is talking but thought he made a very good point on the Left Wing yesterday
For some reason I didn’t think of it this way although it seems obvious - that spell when Leinster were down to 13 players. For the next 30 mins or so they were excellent. Like perfect knock out rugby especially in the circumstances, some of the best stuff I’ve ever seen them play
But that 10 mins down to 13 isn’t free, that comes back to bite. Understandable that legs were a bit fried at that point and they’d put in a huge shift to be 3 scores up
Doesn’t mean that’s okay, the last 10 were still poor, but it is very very understandable when you put it like that
Also all the talk pre match was how much lighter Leinsters bench is with the injuries while Toulon have a very good bench, so we would need to ensure we were up by a few scores when the benches were empty. We did exactly that but I haven’t heard anyone go back and mention this after the fact
The one thing that does look odd especially retrospectively is Frawley not on the bench. But even then Henshaw going off so early means Osbourne is on early at 12, which then means Sam has to cover fullback. To be fair in the group stage Sam had some good performances there against big French teams so you can see the logic. Notice how he never puts Harry out of position. In that way it feels like Sam has regressed since the 6Ns which is probably a bit of a mental thing. I do think though now Frawley has to be there for the final
And not the drag it back to the Leo interview but while I’m making some points - the media are incredibly harsh on Leinster, not always deserved. Last week I was listening to the independent podcast and Ruaidhri O’Connor said he thought Toulon would win the game. You’re entitled to your opinion but I remember saying ffs out loud
Anyway I could talk all day about the vibe around Leinster this year being so negative but I leave it there as I’m trying to take more of a positive stance with this post. Once again Bordeaux are having as shaky a season as Leinster in the league, both teams have won all their games in Europe, but only one team gets the hate