Murray Kinsella reports from Stadium de Gerland, Lyon
LEINSTER WERE BEATEN 27-22 by Clermont in the semi-finals of the Champions Cup.
Read our match report here.
Dire opening quarter
The lineout stuttered catastrophically, Leinster’s ruck work was poor and their defensive structure asked Clermont to attack on the outside edges.
Clermont were 15-0 ahead as early as the 15th minute and at that point it looked like they might even be on the way to a record semi-final winning margin, with Leinster stunningly off the pace.
The calling at lineout time from Devin Toner seemed overly complicated, while the Leinster back row were outplayed by Clermont’s, the dynamic pair of Peceli Yato and Fritz Lee in particular.
The yellow card for captain Isa Nacewa only made life more difficult, as he pulled David Strettle back off the ball. Indeed, Clermont appeared fixated on targeting the 34-year-old wing in that nightmarish opening 20 minutes for Leinster and got good change from the tactic.
Leinster gave it a good shot, more than once, but making up a 15-point headstart against one of the best teams in Europe always seemed unlikely.
The big moment
Dan Leavy’s disallowed try would have put Leinster 17-15 ahead, with a conversion attempt to come, at a time when Clermont were genuinely rocking and the familiar old doubts were creeping into their minds.
Leinster had chipped away at their commanding lead through the reliable boot of Johnny Sexton and even the stadium announcer lost his mojo after the out-half’s fourth penalty ensured momentum was firmly in the away side’s favour.
It was a beautiful non-try, with Jack Conan’s inside pass freeing Fergus McFadden, who hit Sexton on a brilliant support line, before the Leinster 10 found Henshaw. The Ireland centre was hauled down but Leavy was on hand to pick and dive over.
Fascinatingly it appeared to be assistant referee Ian Davies who asked Nigel Owens to check for a possible holding offence, only a week after he himself had missed Cian Healy clinging onto John Muldoon on the edge of a ruck in Leinster’s win over Connacht, with the resulting break leading to three points.
Quite probably having learned from his oversight in that instance, Davies was on the ball this time and the subsequent TMO review showed that Leavy had indeed impeded Rougerie illegally.
There’s debate over whether or not the Clermont centre would have made the tackle but Leavy’s actions were against the laws of the game and justifiably penalised.
From the moment that should have turned the tide completely in Leinster’s favour, leaving them in front for the first time, Clermont slotted three points through the boot of the quite brilliant Morgan Parra.
When it comes to holding players into rucks, you win some and you lose some.
Leinster’s revival
Given the extent of the onslaught from Clermont early in the game, 15-3 was a fine half-time scoreline from Leinster’s point of view, providing them with belief that they were still firmly in the contest.
Clermont would have had the first doubts tipping into their minds then and those only grew after the break as Sexton’s place-kicking drew Leinster back to within touching distance.
Indeed, Leinster do deserve credit for rebounding from such a damaging start, with blindside flanker Rhys Ruddock leading the charge impressively in one of his finest games for the province.
Though the stinging disappointment of the first 15 minutes and the final scoreline will overshadow assessment of other passages in this game, Leinster did lots of good in their second-half revival.
Their attacking shape finally settled into the game and they sent Clermont backwards through long passages of phase-play, while the lineout steadied itself and the scrum was solid throughout.
Leinster contributed to an utterly thrilling Champions Cup game and showed that while they have important lessons to learn, they are not far off the top echelon of European rugby.
Ringrose’s wonder try
It was the kind of score that deserved to win a game but Garry Ringrose’s second-half peach will instead be remembered as one of the moments the young Ireland centre showed his class to a wider audience.
The 22-year-old narrowly missed out on making the Lions tour to New Zealand this summer, and Warren Gatland might have had a twinge of regret was he watched Ringrose score the kind of individual try that is a rarity at this level.
Ringrose’s rapid-fire footwork took him back inside the tackle attempts of Damien Penaud and Damien Chouly for the initial break, before the Leinster 13 sold Scot Spedding a deft dummy and accelerated beyond Nick Abendanon to score a stunning try.
Like all of this team-mates, Ringrose had moments of imperfection in his display but his attacking quality continues to grow with each passing month.
A tour of the USA and Japan this summer will only further the process, meaning Leinster and Ireland are right to be very excited.
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Think it’s worth mentioning that Spain are currently European champions U21, U19, U17 and now the senior champions.
Holyyyyyyyyyy shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh………………..
Speaks of the state of other countries football…massive disaster and fail.
Glad they don’t play hurling
The beautiful game , played beautifully.
Well Done Spain.
Congrats Miguel, a well deserved win for Spain,.
Where are the detractors now? Feel privileged you have seen just one of the greatest teams of all time if not the greatest. .As for the Liverpool team of 88 a good side but not in Spain’s class.
Agree Tom the reds were far higher ☺
What a great game of football, and the refs were good too
The liverpool team of ’88 would have beaten them.
Jesus people really do love Liverpool.
only team i would put with them is Brazil 1970.
delighted the Italians were crazy/brave enough to play that way as it afforded us all the opportunity to see an all time great team with some all time greats do the absolute business. magnificent, all of it, 4 goals in the euro final. we may never see the likes of it again. these guys are why i love football, and it is a beautiful game once more. viva espana!!!
It’s actually worrying there is 1 team in Europe that is so much above anybody else.
I very much like in football spirit of competition and head to head rivalry. This final was just one team show and brutal execution on Italians. No matter how much I can admire Spanish football master class this game was IMHO boring, boring because of lack of real connection between teams, bit of spark, the competition, emotions..
Also 4:0 in the final where two equal teams should meet is a lot, that should make all of them think what they’re doing playing football, England, France, Germany, Italy… those teams look like last decade amateurs next to today’s Spain. Hopefully this can change as I have no problem watching one team winning spree, but really can’t enjoy watching one team outclassing everyone else.
But in the long run it is a good thing. It forces other F.A to look at the way they run themselves, their methods and ways in which they nuture their young players.Therefore in the end football wins.
We can only dream our FA will implement a proper player and management development system
It’s a Barcelona thing , they might be the best ever if they had Messi.
I really expected a closer match, switched off after Italy went to 10 men
Very disappointing final contest to an overall excellent tournament
Not a football fan obviously…
It’s not even midnight yet and this already happened last night? Did I lost a day? ;)
I’m going to guess that he was at the game and with the time difference, he made the mistake.
I was indeed at the game, aye! To really stretch my defence it is intended for people reading after 12am… I suppose, ha! It’s 3am here. Spanish team just all left stadium. Sergio Ramos came through with the trophy at the end.
Thanks for the updates Miguel, I’d say you will have a sore ceann in the morning
last night history was made, great team, hopefully they can continue from last night, have I stressed enough yet that it was last night.
Without doubt da best team ever, even without their captain and their first choice striker they still walked it, world class players on bench didn’t even get a game
Why can’t TV pundits not admit that sometimes, just sometimes, teams come alone that are better than the past greats. It’s as if they feel admitting it, results in driving Pele and company a kick in the rox. Personally, this is the best all round team I have had the pleasure of witnessing past/present. New things CAN be better……..well except hangovers and monster munch!
That headline is way off the mark if you’ve been watching it on bbc or ITV.
He’s a bad writer is Mr. Miguel.
Had the privilege of watching almost every tournament match this Spanish team have played since Euro 2008 in the actual stadiums, including tonight. As such, wasn’t watching BBC or ITV and they’re way off the mark for me!
You can only argue that they are the greatest European team of all time. They have after all only won one World Cup. Only beating the best that South America has to offer only the once is not nearly enough to justify your claim as best of all time.
Also, the European Championship only started in 1960, so previous European teams that won the World Cup never had the opportunity to win something else in between them.
In short, it’s a ridiculous claim.
By all measurable criteria, they’re the greatest. That’s certainly fair to say.
I wouldn’t call it a ridiculous claim Anthony,
take a look back at their results from 2008 to today, what’s ridiculous is their record in competitive games:
33 wins
3 draws
1 defeat
http://www.soccerway.com/teams/spain/spain
And if you still want to filter that down to the bigger occasion competitive games, well that’s 3 tournaments in a row (10 matches) where they’ve not even conceded a goal in the knock-out stages.
As for the Euro Championships only starting in 1960, well the only European team to win the World Cup in the previous two decades to that was West Germany in 1954, a shock result against the best team in Europe at the time, Puskas’ Hungary.
I think the only valid debate would be the Brazil team of 1970 but they didn’t do much in any of the years either side of that tournament. This Spanish team certainly have either side of their World Cup in 2010
If there was no such thing as time there would be ppl out there who’d say Ronnie Delaney was the greatest miler or Carl Lewis the greatest 100mtrs of all time. The greatest is the one who holds the present record. When it comes to football the Brazil of ’70 wouldn’t be in the same class as that Spanish team we’ve witnessed today. At that pace they’d be lucky to last 60 mins, and comparing the’88 Liverpool, they would be mid table Spanish premier, and I follow the Pool. How many times a country won the W/C is irrelevant as to who is the greatest team to walk on a football pitch. Barca are going to dominate Europe for at least the next 5years.
Great performance from Spain this afternoon now for a walk before dinner.
Undeniably accurate headline miguel. The greatest team of all time. This victory proves that reaching the top like Brazil In 1970 is one thing sustaining it like Spain have shows that they are the greatest VAMOS TOTAL FOOTBALL!!
Rodger your dead right Vamos Las Rojas
I actually agree that this makes football that bit more boring. Although its unbelievable to watch, one teams utter dominance takes away the attraction of football. The Scottish league next year will not be worth watching, they should give Celtic the trophy now. And F1 ratings a few years back struggled because schumacher was unbeatable. I’d prefer to see a tight, end to end game between two very good teams, than see one outstanding team dominate their opponents. Eg Man United 4:3 Man City, or Liverpool 4:3 Newcastle, unbelievable football games because they were so tight. 4:0 win against the second best team in Europe makes a bit of a mockery of the competition, even though it was good overall. The only sport were outright dominance is enjoyable is horse racing.
If Spain played hurling they would be Kilkenny in a class of their own if Irish team played hurling they would be ..think better leave that blank.
They have beaten Germany, holland and Italy in last 3 finals, do they not count as great footballing teams/countries. Who are these great south American teams? Brazil and Argentina are no world beaters these days.
The whole ‘of all time’ tag is bit sensationalist and simplistic. There’s no way to verify it, so why even put it on the table? Okay, for the sake of the debate maybe, but then sticking ‘undeniably’ in there is just dictatorial.
Football has evolved, like anything else, over time. Things improve. Undoubtedly, most international teams’ fitness, mentality, strategy, youth development, technical application etc, have improved since the 70s, because of the resources invested into improving these elements, so naturally, the reliance on natural talent and physicality has lessened.
To compare Spain 2012 and Brazil 1970 is to compare Messi and Richard Dunne. Different environments, different methods, different level of hype.
Niall, you can’t compare teams across different eras. But the key point I’ve always made in this debate is that you can compare the extent of dominance a team enjoyed across their cycle.
For example, Hungary had an 85% win record between 1951 and 1955. They didn’t however win every trophy they came across. They lost when it mattered. That is a mark against them.
Over four years, Spain have produced the longest winning run in international history, the longest unbeaten run in international history, have won 90% of all games, have produced the best defence in any tournament and, in two of three tournaments, been the most prolific scorers.
Most importantly of all, they’ve won all three major trophies they’ve entered.
No team has ever matched that level of utter domination.
I just think too much emphasis is placed on their domination of Europe. They’re kicking major European butt and it’s teams like ourselves that make up the vast majority of their stats. How many times have they played the other great nations of the world?
Honestly, how can a team be called the best after only beating the best of South America once? They’ve demolished everyone in Europe for 3 tournaments, so they’re arguably the best ever here. But, for me, they have to win the next World Cup to “undeniably” claim best ever.
Italy and Brazil have both won the World Cup twice in a row. Surely that’s a better achievement than one World Cup and two continental cups?
Probably because the (usual) best of South America wasn’t good enough to reach as far as Spain did in the last World Cup:
- Germany beat Argentina 4-0 in the quarters (who then got beaten by Spain in the semis)
- Holland beat Germany 2-1 in the quarters ( who then got beaten by Spain in the final)
Italy 34-38 isn’t even worth considering when only a small number of nations competed in the qualifiers to the finals
Huh? Please re-read my comment. You’ve obviously misunderstood it. All I’m saying is that you can’t say they’re undeniably the best, when they’ve only won one World Cup.
The South Americans have only had one crack at them (even if they didn’t meet) . Hardly enough to run around claiming to be the best ever.
No Ireland team 88-94 the Jackie chartlon years