Peter Bills: Leinster provide the blueprint for Kidney to follow
If Leinster faces were creased in smiles after this marvellous match, those belonging to two other, quite separate, groups of rugby men were lined with furrowed brows.
For this encounter, this seminal performance by Leinster, raised some pertinent and uncomfortable questions for two other rugby parties.
The most obviously discomforted group was the French contingent. Here were the reigning champions of France, a club that had targeted the Heineken Cup this season as its most-wanted trophy, swept away by the pace, power and unrelenting intensity of the Leinster team.
That Leinster still have much to offer was made manifest in the first game in Auvergne last weekend. Yet even though the Irish side took a losing bonus point home from that tough trip, few men of Clermont would have anticipated the comprehensive demolition of their own team in Dublin and the, very likely, ending of their hopes in the tournament this season.
Suddenly, Clermont, for all their resources, find themselves five points adrift of Leinster in Pool 2 with just two games remaining. To say the outcome of this pool is now firmly in Leinster's hands would be understating the issue. If they blow it from here, it would be an astonishing collapse. I can't think for a minute they will do so.
Clermont were sent home to analyse a game in which they came off second best in just about every phase. That hasn't happened to this proud, wealthy club for a very long time. Just a couple of weeks ago, Stade Toulouse were dispatched at the Stade Marcel Michelin as Clermont reminded French rugby that they remain one of the top sides.
So for Leinster to have taken them apart on Saturday -- and a 16-point, three-tries-to-one win at this level is being taken apart -- raises some serious questions about rugby in France. Has, as some of us have thought this season, the whole thing become too incestuous, too indisciplined and weakened further by the poor level of refereeing?
Clermont found themselves second best all over the field, but principally in the dynamism and desire shown by Leinster. If you come a distant second in those stakes, you have nowhere to go and at 24-3 with just 12 minutes left, Clermont were certainly without hope.
But if this wonderful display by Joe Schmidt's team made for uncomfortable viewing for Clermont's New Zealand coach Vern Cotter, then another coach might have found it highly instructive too.
Declan Kidney sat alongside his Ireland forwards coach Gert Smal with a face set in stone as the action unfolded. Was that solely due to the bitter cold at the Aviva stadium or for another reason?
For this was the best, most complete performance I have seen from any Irish team -- the national side included -- since Munster were ruling Europe a few seasons back. Sure, Ireland's miraculous year of 2009 cannot be discounted but even in that Grand Slam year, I doubt whether the national team played with greater fire, purpose, skill or tactical acumen than Leinster achieved this weekend.
There was so much to admire about their display. Quite simply, good things were going on all over the field. It was no wonder the atmosphere at the Aviva was superior to any of the Test matches played there last month.
When did you last see an Irish scrum inflict humiliation on an opposing scrummage -- especially one with the reputation of Clermont's? When did an Irish side last combine such physical force with huge intelligence and vision? Players off-loaded in the tackle, took the contact but ensured continuity and momentum by shipping the ball on rather than going to ground with it.
exuberance
This trait is key to the modern game and Leinster, under Schmidt, have come to understand and embrace that, more than the national team so far. Kidney also saw a Leinster side equally committed in both attack and defence. They forced opposition turnovers at times with the sheer exuberance of their play.
There was quick thinking, solid defence, accuracy and precision in finishing and patience throughout the Leinster game. In essence, it was an all-embracing performance that just overwhelmed Clermont.
Whisper it in some circles, then, but it surely offered the national team a template of how to play this modern game.
No wonder Kidney stared so intently. He and his coaching colleagues must now coax something similar from their charges in the Six Nations in February.
- Peter Bills
Irish Independent
