LEINSTER… 25
LA ROCHELLE… 24
For the Byrne brothers, it must have felt two vessels passing in the night. Ross, who departed the home paddock looking for greener pastures but found himself outside the grazing platform on the day in question. Meanwhile, brother Harry was summoned from the bench after both Ciaran Frawley and his initial replacement Jamie Osborne had be felled by the hex currently inhibiting back options within Leo Cullen’s side.
It had all begun so rapidly and rewardingly with the very quickly burgeoning Joshua Kenny touched down twice in the first ten minutes.
On foot of which the four time European Champions had opened a 12-0 buffer for themselves before the French representatives pilfered a try for themselves which was then stupendously converted from the most obtuse of angles which, though it scarcely seemed credible, left only a single score between the sides at half time.
Now, naturally, even though the following was tenuous at best with one individual having no direct input to the game in question at all, of course the media were going to play on the O’Gara/Sexton angle to affairs in the build up. Even though Sexton’s only purpose in being in situ was as part of Andy Farrell’s coaching ticket where the aforementioned was also joined by John Fogarty. Though what the triumvirate would mostly have witnessed was their casualty list becoming a pile up.
Which perhaps in one way explains how O’Gara’s gang were able to establish such a foothold in the second half. As tries from Davit Niniashvilli and Ihaia West put the French side in front before five pointers at the other end via Josh van der Flier and the brilliant Robbie Henshaw appeared to have swung the pendulum homeward bound once again.
Only for fly half West to again cross the whitewash and give the impression that ROG’s rabble rousers were about to put a dent in the woeful imbalance in results of clashes between the two sides. However. how oft has it been mused in this space or elsewhere that a lot of being successful at the highest level in sport is knowing how to win. Cullen’s crew certainly has plenty of that knowledge banked. Even though, if memory serves yours truly correctly, they are now heading for a half dozen years without a trophy.
Thus, after Harry Byrne had restarted play after the latter try with the clock heading for the red, van der Flier and Henshaw used all that stored armoury to hold up La Rochelle as they tried to exit their own territory, thereby forcing a turnover penalty which the introduced Byrne showed balls of steel and nerves of ice to calmly dispatch.
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