We had a beautiful evening in Galway and a full house at The Sportsground for the first instalment in the Connacht-Leinster trilogy, which involves the provinces meeting three times in the space of four weeks. It should have been riveting but instead it was a horrible anti-climax as yet another spectacle was ruined by an early red card for a high shot.
On this occasion it was Tom Daly who was sent on his way for a shoulder charge into Ciaran Frawley’s neck with barely two minutes on the clock. You were reminded of Ireland’s game at Twickenham as Connacht found a way to minimise the damage. As at Twickenham, there was a time when the team with 14 men looked like they might do the unthinkable.
That was at half-time, when Connacht led 8-7 thanks to a mixture of opportunism and furiously aggressive defence. Leinster looked decidedly rattled with their two midfield playmakers, Ross Byrne and Ciaran Frawley, both requiring attention for knocks to the head.
But the stadium was eerily becalmed during the second half as Connacht tired and Leinster ran in six unanswered tries to put a serious and probably terminal dent in Connacht’s chances of making the last eight of the United Rugby Championship.
The good news for them, a little perversely, was the performance of David Hawkshaw, who joins them next season after making just a handful of appearances for his native province. The 22-year-old fly-half suffered a few early jitters after replacing Ross Byrne just before the break but it was his score in the third quarter that wrested back the initiative for Leinster; his energy and vision that kept them relentlessly hammering away.
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We should have known that there would be fireworks at the start, not just because of the trilogy angle but also because this was Connacht’s first outing since their 56-point embarrassment in Edinburgh three weeks ago. But what transpired must surely prompt coaches everywhere to guard against the over-arousal of players ahead of kick-off.
Here we had two players off inside the space of three minutes because of poor technique in contact — Tommy O’Brien for hitting Niall Murray in the air directly from the kick-off, and then Daly departing two minutes later.
It was Leinster who settled quicker, even allowing for the high error-count. Ross Byrne perhaps realised the futility of sending runners into kamikaze tacklers and managed to find touch in Connacht’s 22 with a beautifully judged diagonal. When David Heffernan’s throw was crooked, Leinster had an attacking platform and they cashed in with impressive efficiency.
By the time James Tracy threw into the corner lineout, the visitors were back to 15, and while they attacked narrowly at first, eventually they made the extra number count. First Tracy spun away from the maul to set up a series of pick-and-jams, before Byrne chose his moment to pull the trigger. His smart pass beat the rush, and sent Rory O’Loughlin over in the left corner.
For the next 25 minutes, Connacht had the better of the contest. They tore into Leinster at every opportunity, messed them up at the set-piece, and caused Luke McGrath no end of bother at the base. Jack Carty’s penalty, mid-way through the half, was a welcome boost.
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They also had the wit to go hard when Leinster were suddenly disarmed, with both Byrne and Frawley struggling following a clash of heads. From a scrum under the posts, Connacht punched close repeatedly before Carty emulated Byrne quite brilliantly, this time floating a 20-metre pass over the top for Tiernan O’Halloran to score.
Carty missed the conversion, but Connacht were a point ahead, and the Sportsground had gone into overdrive. Could they kick on after the break?
They couldn’t. The only fuel for Connacht’s support was the scrambling of their team in defence, by Leinster’s occasionally stuttering efforts to regain the lead. But it soon became evident that Connacht had been drained by the first half. Tackles were less emphatic; Leinster’s runners kept surviving the first collision.
The most dynamic of those runners was Tommy O’Brien, and it was his break that lit the fuse for Leinster’s second-half rush of points. Then you had Rhys Ruddock galloping all of 30 metres and, eventually, Hawkshaw showing impressive strength to hold of the challenges of both Connacht locks to score.
With that score, it was as if someone had cut Connacht’s power source. Barely a minute later, McGrath was stripping the ball from Ultan Dillane to set up a counter, and then following up to scoot through a gaping hole for the softest of scores.
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Connacht emptied their bench but it made no difference. Frawley, Max and Tommy O’Brien — twice — all crossed for tries, as we were left to wonder how it might have been.
Star man Tommy O’Brien (Leinster).
Scorers: Connacht: Try O’Halloran 40. Pen Carty. Leinster: Try O’Loughlin 14, Hawkshaw 54, McGrath 56, Frawley 65, T O’Brien 67, 77, Deegan 72. Cons R Byrne, Hawkshaw 3.
Connacht O’Halloran; Porch (McNulty 79), Farrell, Daly, McNulty (Kilgallen 45); Carty (capt), Marmion (Blade 65); Buckley (Burke 30), Heffernan (Murphy 65), Aungier (McGrath 54), Dowling, Murray (Dillane 54), Prendergast, Oliver (Boyle 62), Butler. Red card Daly 3.
Leinster J O’Brien (Cosgrove 65); T O’Brien, Osborne, Frawley(Cosgrave 32-40), O’Loughlin; R Byrne (Hawkshaw 38), McGrath (capt); Dooley (E Byrne 65), Tracy (Cronin 68, Ala’alatoa, Molony, McCarthy (Dowling 65), Ruddock (Moloney 70), Penny, Deegan. Yellow card T O’Brien 1.
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Referee C Busby (IRFU).
Attendance 8,129.
