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©INPHO/Morgan Treacy

Strauss return is Leinster's highlight on otherwise ugly night

Ospreys had lock Ian Evans sent off after 20 minutes, meaning Leinster were never in danger of falling short.

Leinster 36

Ospreys 3

LEINSTER SECURED THEIR place in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, but they made hard work of 14-man Ospreys at the RDS.

The game as a contest was all but ended after 20 minutes when Welsh international lock Ian Evans was red carded for stamping on the head of Mike McCarthy as the former Connacht man lay beneath a maul.

At that stage,the scoreboard read three points apiece, but the hosts would eventually use the extra man to push over five tries – two of which came as penalty tries off clinical mauls.

Leinster, needing just a point to seal qualification for the last eight, stormed out onto the front foot in the first quarter. But against their bogey side, Ospreys, there was just a hint of panic about some of their early moves, and errors prevented them from building pressure on the visitors.

The red card would force Ospreys into a spoiling game for 60 minutes and they did cope relatively well in open play and it was only a 33rd minute rolling maul that edged Leinster ahead on the scoreboard as well as the player count.

The blues swept back before half time and the power of Cian Healy threatened to open the floodgates, but the 17 – 3 half time score would stand until past the hour mark.

There was nothing pretty about the game, or Leinster’s performance, but it was a case of quietly getting the job done. From a long way out, that job was a bonus point win and a second penalty try courtesy of another fluid maul put them within one score of that mark.

Inspiration

In a match short on inspiration, the sight of Richardt Strauss returning so quickly after heart surgery made for a true highlight, not just of the game, but of the year.

The Ireland international arrived into the game with only finishing touches missing from the job and they were duly applied by Jordi Murphy (sprung in and out of a game littered with blood-bins) and finally Isaac Boss, grounding the fifth try to secure five points from a scrappy game that few will remember for much other than Strauss’ return.

image

©INPHO/Donall Farmer

Leinster Scorers:

Tries: Penalty try (2), C Healy, J Murphy, I Boss.

Pen: J Gopperth.

Conv: J Gopperth (4)

Ospreys: scorers:

Pen: D Biggar.

Leinster: R Kearney (Z Kirchner); D Kearney, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy (I Madigan), L Fitzgerald; J Gopperth, E Reddan (I Boss,); C Healy (J McGrath), S Cronin (R Strauss), M Moore (M Ross); D Toner, M McCarthy (L Cullen); R Ruddock, S Jennings (J Murphy), J Heaslip .

Ospreys: S Davies ; J Hassler, J Spratt, B John ( M  Morgan), A Natoga; D Biggar, R Webb (T Habberfield); R Bevington, R Hibbard (S Baldwin (M Thomas ’52)) , A Jones (D Suter); AW Jones, I Evans; T Ardron (J King), J Tipuric, R Jones.

Here’s why Leinster were playing against 14 men

As it happened: Leinster v Ospreys, Heineken Cup

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17 Comments
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    Mute Chris Tobin
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    Feb 5th 2018, 1:02 PM

    It must be so so hard on those poor players. Perhaps the astronomical wages might help. 200 or 300k a week might help the tiredness , maybe a weeks graft on a building site would help poor oul tired kev

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    Mute Nollaig Elliot
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    Feb 5th 2018, 1:19 PM

    @Chris Tobin:

    I find it amazing to think there are still people out there who think wealthy people don’t suffer from fatigue or tiredness. The lad was simply answering a question.

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    Mute The Debater
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    Feb 5th 2018, 2:43 PM

    @Nollaig Elliot: it must be very tiring deciding which sports car you will drive out of your garage to training the next day:p

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    Mute Chris Tobin
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    Feb 5th 2018, 3:28 PM

    @Nollaig Elliot: i never said he wasnt tired but it into context with us mere working mortals

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    Mute Leon
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    Feb 5th 2018, 1:23 PM

    De Bruyne is made of iron. Has been on the end of some horrific tackles all season but gets up and shoulders on. He’s been as impressive in defence as he has been in attack as well. His pressing and tackling has come on leaps. He’s been the second best player in the world this season. If he keeps up the form and lands a few trophies plus a good run with Belgium at the WC he’s got an outside shot at a Ballon D’Or.

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    Mute Noel Ryan
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    Feb 5th 2018, 2:18 PM

    @Leon: In the world!? You need to cancel your sky subscription

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    Mute Stephen Lyons
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    Feb 5th 2018, 2:23 PM

    @Noel Ryan: He’s definitely top 5 at the moment. You won’t see De Bruyne diving that’s for sure, he just gets quietly gets on with business in every game without any extravagance, class player.

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    Mute England's Envy
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    Feb 5th 2018, 1:48 PM

    KDB is a class act. Both professionally and as a human. Rare commodity on today’s game. I hope Liverpool sign him.

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Feb 5th 2018, 2:07 PM

    @England’s Envy: could play CB better than Lovren

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    Feb 5th 2018, 3:17 PM

    @Dave O Keeffe: Possibly, but never as good a CB as Lukaku lol.

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Feb 5th 2018, 3:39 PM

    @England’s Envy: you’re probably right, Liverpool have conceded 9 since VVD arrived, United have only conceded 2 in that time. 9 by the way is half of total united have conceded in the league all season

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    Feb 5th 2018, 4:51 PM

    @Dave O Keeffe: Are you trying to convince me or yourself. How many have you scored. Watching United is like watching paint dry. Liverpool play best ball in Europe. By a distance. Nice tight defence last week by Jones and Co at Wembley.

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Feb 5th 2018, 7:10 PM

    @England’s Envy: we’ve scored 15, Liverpool have scored 14.

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Feb 5th 2018, 9:55 PM

    @Dave O Keeffe: sorry, that’s the other way around, Liverpool 15 United 14

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    Mute No.
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    Feb 5th 2018, 1:35 PM

    Injuries didn’t restrict them to 6 players on the bench, could add an academy player, but no. And people say Mourinho doesn’t promote youth…

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    Mute Leon
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    Feb 5th 2018, 1:53 PM

    @No.: A lot of City’s academy is on loan in Spain or Netherlands at feeder clubs. Although ethically it’s probably off that City own other clubs so that they can grow their empire, giving players full seasons worth of experience compared to a few lousy minutes here and there is a no brainer. The rest of the actual academy at home played a game the night before the Burnley game. Nmecha, a lad from the academy was supposed to be the last name on the bench was injured. He also had two youth players on the bench already, Diaz and Tosin. A third of the bench for the top performing side in Europe all season was made up of youth players, hardly that bad now is it?

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Feb 5th 2018, 1:58 PM

    @No.: to be fair, their academy team played the night before the early Saturday kick off

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    Mute Stephen Foster
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    Feb 5th 2018, 5:12 PM

    No chance of Guardiola giving any of the academy players a chance no?

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    Feb 6th 2018, 12:30 PM

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