Jamison Gibson-Park hat-trick sends Leinster on way to Champions Cup quarter-finals
Leinster 36 Leicester Tigers 22
Jamison Gibson-Park of Leinster is tackled by Freddie Steward of Leicester Tigers on his way to scoring his side's third try. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
In his days in Christchurch Ronan O’Gara learned from Crusaders Head Coach Scott Robertson about the value of having a theme. These are lessons he has already put to good use in fixing a grip on Leinster throats in the knockout stages of this competition.
For his next trick he can claim conspiracy: how else can you explain having to drag yourselves down and up from South Africa to Cork - for special Rebel preparation - and then up Dublin in the space of 10 days for what is likely to be a 5.30pm kick-off in the Aviva next Saturday?
Clearly this was not the result Tigers wanted but a Champions Cup quarter-final between the competition's biggest hitters of the last four seasons is good for European business. The silver lining on the cloud for Head Coach Dan McKellar is a weekend off ahead of their midlands derby with Saints in the Premiership.
They gave this a go, because it’s in their DNA, and were helped along by Leinster who passed up a number of chances to slam the door on their opponents. This was never a game they looked like losing but neither was it one where the Tigers thought they were chasing a lost cause.
O’Gara will have tuned in and felt okay about the travel stress ahead. If he can get his beasts fed and watered and rested then we’re looking at a different game on the weekend.
For much of the opening quarter Leicester lurched between self-belief and self-destruction: threatening to do all sorts in the approach and then giving away a soft penalty when the hard questions were asked. Their default was to go to the air, encouraged by the frequent errors that followed.
As for their hosts, referee Pierre Brousset wasn’t a signed-on supporter, but on nights like this Leinster would fancy their chances of keeping the ref on the periphery of the game.
His primary point of entry was via the door marked free kick. This would lead to a delay for a scrum and maybe more of the same. You can see why World Rugby want to take scrums off the menu from free kicks. It would be both a time and tedium saver.
It would also give us more time and space to enjoy the wonder of man of the match Jamison Gibson-Park. In the space of 17 minutes he gave a masterclass in how to attack bigger men who really don’t like these challenges, how to create space, how to finish.
He may not have the explosive power of Anotine Dupont but he has everything else you could possibly want in a scrumhalf. His third touchdown put Leinster 22-10 ahead - including Ross Byrne’s tap over from in front of the sticks - and had the crowd of 44,775 on their feet in appreciation.
His effect on those around him is obvious. For that try Jamie Osborne played a prominent role, but every day surely is a school day for the young centre working with such a quality craftsman.
Leinster took that lead into the second half, and with it the expectation that if they could turn the screw again the world might change shape for the Tigers. Instead they went down to 14 men, after five minutes, and then conceded a try to James Cronin who dotted down when a Tigers’ maul collapsed on the Leinster line. That sequence of course was related to the yellow card for James Lowe for one of those tackle/slap downs that never, ever work.
That put the score at 22-15, at which point the atmosphere changed from when to if. But not for long. With the Tigers keen to take advantage a few minutes later of a great steal on the floor by Hanro Liebenberg they went wide, quickly, and Robbie Henshaw intercepted for a 60m home run.
It was a big play that, had it nor come off, could have seen Leinster lose their lead instead of increase it, wrapped up in a nice bow. That gift looked complete when Jack Conan barrelled over off the back of a scrum just after he came on, except he lost the ball in the process. The question was why Leinster hadn’t taken the handy three points on offer to put more distance between the teams with the restart to come.
That little episode summed up the missing links in Leinster’s chain. Their scrum had improved with the support from the bench but as soon as they got a nudge something would go wrong somewhere else.
They got it all right though in a sequence that saw Osborne - he had a fine game - get a lovely inside pass away to Baird who are up some ground before feeding Conan to score. No issues this time with the grounding.
Even still Leinster allowed themselves to get into trouble when pulled back to two scores. With time running out Henshaw somehow escaped a yellow card for a slap down. It shouldn’t have come that close.
Scorers:
Leinster: 36 (J Gibson-Park 3 tries, R Henshaw, J Conan try each; R Byrne pen 1; con 3, H Byrne con)
Leicester Tigers: 22 (H Pollard try; pen 1, 2 cons; J Cronin, C Clare try each)
Teams:
Leinster: H Keenan (C Frawley 66); Larmour, R Henshaw, J Osborne, J Lowe (yc 45-55); R Byrne (H Byrne 68), J Gibson-Park (B Murphy 74); A Porter (C Healy 48; A Porter 78), D Sheehan (R Kelleher 53), T Furlong (M Ala’alatoa 53), R Molony, J McCarthy (J Jenkins 62), R Baird, C Doris (capt), J Van der Flier (J Conan 53)
Leicester Tigers: J Shillcock; F Steward (M Brown 75), D Kelly (P Cocknasiga 68), S Kata, O Hassell-Collins; H Pollard, J van Poortvliet T Whiteley 68); J Cronin (F van Wyk 52), J Montoya (capt) (C Clare 75), D Cole (W Hurd 56), H Wells, K Hatherell (F Carnduff 71), H Liebenberg, J Wiese, O Cracknell (E Ilione 71)
Referee: P Brousset (France)
