RUGBY
Draw in France ensures Leinster a home quarter-final
By Daire Walsh
LEINSTER will face Wasps in the quarter-final of the European Rugby Champions Cup, after the pool stages of the competition drew to a close at the weekend.
The Blues had secured a respectable 24-24 draw with Castres in France on Friday evening, but had to await the conclusion of Sunday’s games before they could find out who their last-eight opponents were – and whether they would be playing at home in the knockout stages.
However, their final position in the top-eight standings ensures that they will entertain Wasps in either the Aviva Stadium or the RDS. They suffered comprehensive defeats to the English Premiership outfit in last season’s pool stages, and with former Blues out-half Jimmy Gopperth proving to be a key figure for Wasps in their current campaign, Leo Cullen’s charges will be on red alert for this tie.
Although they secured qualification in the previous week’s win over Montpellier, the starting line-up selected by Cullen showed how seriously they were their latest challenge with Castres. Kill’s Adam Byrne continued in the back-three alongside Isa Nacewa and Rory O’Loughlin, while Naas’ Jamie Heaslip was also in his familiar No 8 position.
James Tracy was also a 47th-minute replacement for Richardt Strauss, at a point when Leinster were locked in a tense battle with their French counterparts. It had been a near-perfect start to the proceedings for the visitors, though, as an early Jonathan Sexton was followed by Robbie Henshaw’s first-ever try for the eastern province.
However, before the opening half had finished, Sexton and Nacewa were forced off the field through injury, and thanks to tries from Antoine Dupont and David Smith, Castres brought a 17-10 cushion into the break.
Smith claimed a second try after the resumption, but courtesy of tries from Henshaw and Dan Leavy – as well as four points from the boot of replacement Ross Byrne – Leinster returned home with two points to their name.
On the same night, Leinster ‘A’ registered a comprehensive 71-17 success over Richmond in Donnybrook, but it wasn’t enough to help them advance to the quarter-final stage of the British & Irish Cup.
Three pool defeats had left Hugh Hogan’s men in a precarious position, but despite conceding a try after just 38 seconds, the hosts were comfortable throughout. Eadestown’s Jimmy O’Brien touched down twice for Leinster before departing with a suspected concussion, while Naas native Billy Dardis and Jeremy Loughman of Athy also featured in a game that saw the home team running in a total of 11 tries.
Meanwhile, in the same venue on Sunday, Ireland Women were on the receiving end of a 22-14 reversal to Wales in an uncapped Six Nations warm-up encounter. Kilcullen’s Jenny Murphy made her return to international 15s rugby as a second-half substitute, but even though Ireland had created daylight with converted first-half tries by Nora Stapleton and Claire Molloy, Shona Powell-Hughes, Adi Taviner, Sionad Harries all crossed over for the resilient Welsh side.