IT IS AN area of their game that has come under significant scrutiny in the past couple of days and Jacques Nienaber has admitted Leinster didn’t deliver on their potential as a defensive unit in last Saturday’s seismic defeat to Northampton Saints in the European Champions Cup semi-final at the Aviva Stadium.

Noted as the defence specialist behind South Africa’s Rugby World Cup triumphs of 2019 and 2023 – when he was in the respective roles of assistant coach and head coach – there had been signs earlier this season that Leinster were coming to grips with the system Nienaber has looked to deploy since he first came on board as the eastern province’s senior coach.

Before taking on Northampton at Irish Rugby HQ in the weekend just gone, the Blues had kept both Harlequins and Glasgow Warriors scoreless in the knockout rounds of the Champions Cup.

Yet the Saints attack created havoc in their last-four showdown with Leinster on Saturday as they scored five eye-catching tries on their way to securing a shock 37-34 victory.

“As a group, we feel that we should have been better defensively. We had the potential to be a lot better, if I can put it like that. That’s almost the thing that, I won’t say hurts, but that’s the disappointing part,” Nienaber remarked at a Leinster media briefing in UCD yesterday.

“If you look at the potential of the squad defensively and then look at the performance, we didn’t deliver on that potential, defensively. What is our potential in defence? What is performance based on that potential you can deliver? I think it’s a lot better than the one that we did deliver.

“Is there things we could and should have done better? Without a doubt. I won’t go into detail. In saying that, I don’t want to take any credit away from Northampton because saying you could have done something better can almost take some of the credit off them. I thought they were excellent on the day.”

Nevertheless there are a couple of things the Leinster coaches and players potentially could have done differently in Saturday’s game to bolster their quest for a fourth Champions Cup final appearance in succession.

From a coaching perspective, the decision to name Jordie Barrett amongst the replacements was viewed in many quarters as a mistake even before the final whistle had sounded at the Aviva. Trailing 27-15 at the interval, Leinster were still five points adrift when the All Blacks star took over from Robbie Henshaw at inside centre in the 49th minute.

“The Jordie thing has been a big debate. If you look at our midfielders, Jimmy O’Brien made his [Ireland] debut against South Africa in 2022 and beat South Africa when [Stuart] McCloskey went off. So he can play midfield,” Nienaber said of the decision to name Barrett on the bench.

“You’ve got Jamie Osborne, who last year performed for us there. He’s played at full-back for Ireland, so he’s an international. Then you look at Robbie and Garry [Ringrose], they are internationals and Jordie is also an international. The point I’m making there is I don’t think there’s a massive drop-off.

“Then tactically you think, ‘What did Northampton bring in the semi-final last year? Where were they strong?’ I think everybody would say they were fairly strong at the back end of the game. So you go, ‘Yes, that impact is maybe something that we need.’

“Because we lose, people will listen to this and you will have your opinion and you will go: ‘that’s bull***t.’ Because you just didn’t win. If we get over the line people would have said: ‘that’s actually quite clever.’ So I don’t think anything I say will be right.”

Another key talking point arising from Saturday’s game was the decision by Leinster to kick a brace of attacking penalties to touch in the closing minutes of the game instead of opting for the posts. A successful place-kick on either of these occasions would have levelled the sides at 37 points apiece and more than likely forced the game into extra-time.

When the eastern province were awarded the first of these penalties to the right of the posts in the 76th minute, it looked like stand-in captain Jack Conan might have been looking towards the sideline for guidance.

Nienaber revealed there wasn’t any call from the coaches’ box that was transferred down to the pitch in relation to this incident, but acknowledged he understood the decision that was ultimately made on the pitch by Conan and the Leinster players.

“If we had scored, it would have been the right decision and I take you back. I wasn’t here, I just heard about it. In Marseille a couple of years ago, Leinster lost [to La Rochelle in the 2022 Champions Cup final] and the perception was ‘why didn’t you go for the win?’ You went for the posts the whole time,” Nienaber added.

“If you look at the history of the game, for this specific game, we were quite deadly when we got into that five-metres out position [for the tries we scored]. So I can understand why they felt confident with that, because we had good results with that. If they would have gone for the posts, I would understand that as well.

“Again, the outcome is probably going to justify if your decision was correct or not. That is where we currently sit. Nothing I say will justify the decision we made because the outcome didn’t go our way.”

Daire Walsh