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Leinster break record to secure top seeding for Champions Cup quarter-finals
By Online Editors
Leinster clinched top-seed status and a home Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final as they made it a record-breaking 16 wins in a row in all competitions this season with an 18-0 victory at Benetton.
It passes the previous record of 15 wins set by Leinster in 2001-02 for successive victories by a European club.
Leo Cullen’s men had to battle hard against Benetton, with Caelan Doris and James Tracy tries in the second half helping them overcome the Italian side.
Leinster advance through the Champions Cup pool stages with a record fifth European crown very much in their sights.
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Knowing that a win by any margin would see them confirm number-one seeding for the knockout stages, Leinster were boosted by James Ryan’s return from injury for this game. He partnered Devin Toner in the second row, with Sean Cronin and Andrew Porter returning to the front row following last weekend’s comfortable home victory against Lyon.
Benetton – with just one win from Pool One – made life tricky for Leinster and began brightly at a dark and damp Stadio Monigo, but they failed to make their early pressure count.
A number of early penalties, all of which the hosts elected to kick for touch, kept Leinster on the back foot, with number eight Doris sent to the sin bin for taking a man out in the air at the lineout.
Despite multiple half chances, Benetton could not capitalise on the man advantage as the game looked set to be scoreless at the interval. But Leinster were able to assert some control, with Ross Byrne kicking a penalty in front of the posts five minutes before the break.
Benetton lost Irne Herbst almost immediately after the restart for a deliberate knock on, but Leinster – far from their fluent best – could only increase their lead by three points, with Byrne kicking well from distance.
That seemed to shift the Irish province into gear as they turned the screw in the final quarter. The pressure soon paid off as the impressive Doris – buoyed by his recent call-up to the Irish squad for the Six Nations – collected Luke McGrath’s smart, flicked pass and forced his way over for the game’s first try.
Six minutes later Leinster added to their score with a well-worked rolling maul from the lineout, as replacement front-rower Tracy crossed in the corner. Byrne kicked the conversion and that was as good as it got for the visitors, who did enough throughout to keep Benetton at bay.
- PA
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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