JACQUES NIENABER ASKED that his Leinster defence be judged on points conceded and tries conceded.
They have impressed by those metrics since his arrival, but their defensive stinginess deserted them against Northampton yesterday.
No team has ever won a Champions Cup or Heineken Cup semi-final while conceding more than 30 points. Leinster conceded 37 against Saints.
And no losing semi-finalist in the history of this competition has scored as many as the 34 points Leinster scored yesterday.
In many ways, Leinster have redefined themselves since Nienaber arrived at the end of 2023. They have become a team whose DNA is built around their defence.
But when they needed it most, Leinster’s defence was porous.
Before going any further, let’s underline that Northampton attacked superbly. Their clever attack produced 10 linebreaks and it was clear how well-prepared they were. Saints attack coach Sam Vesty is a top operator and he has great weapons to work with.
Nonetheless, Nienaber is sure to be deeply disappointed with how Leinster failed to deal with the visitors’ threats.
They have put a big focus on their kick chase, but it let them down as early as the eighth minute of this semi-final.
Sam Prendergast appears to be aiming to bounce the ball into touch with this kick down the left and though it’s a little unlucky, Leinster must react well with their chase.
As the ball travels downfield, we can see that the chase line will have to form from a somewhat disorganised situation where players are in various positions upfield of each other.
The initial concern is the area highlighted above, with obvious space between Robbie Henshaw, Joe McCarthy, Josh van der Flier, and Cian Healy.
Prendergast has to bring them all onside by chasing his kick, which he does. But Leinster are lethargic in snapping into defensive shape having been brought onside.
Second row McCarthy [green below], like a few others, is walking even after Prendergast advances well beyond him.
Leinster clearly think the ball will bounce into touch but even when it doesn’t, there is a lack of energy.
McCarthy seemingly senses that he won’t be able to sprint up into the frontline chase and hangs back, so now Henshaw, van der Flier and Healy must get well connected with tight spacings between them.
Unfortunately for Leinster, that doesn’t happen and Northampton take full advantage.
As Saints fullback James Ramm [blue below] gathers the ball and turns upfield, the initial instinct for many would be to kick back long.
It’s unclear whether out-half Fin Smith is signalling for him to do so at this stage or calling for him to run back.
Ramm swiftly decides that the time is right to run the ball back at Leinster. It proves to be an excellent decision.
As Ramm arcs infield to get away from the chasing Prendergast, we can see Smith is scanning the Leinster chase line for opportunity.
What he sees is an invitation.
The space between van der Flier and Healy is beckoning. Smith can see that McCarthy [green above] hasn’t made it up into the chase line so there is a clear opening for Smith to accelerate into.
Van der Flier has accelerated upfield after realising that Prendergast’s kick hasn’t gone into touch but Healy has been left behind.
Perhaps Healy thinks McCarthy is going to get up into the line but that either way, Leinster will be frustrated at allowing this space against a team as dangerous as Saints.
Ramm does an excellent job of tying down Henshaw and luring van der Flier towards the ball before sending Smith into the gap.
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Smith then scorches past McCarthy, who would have hoped to clean anything like this up after not getting into the frontline chase.
Prendergast, who has already chased up and infield after kicking, is also in the vicinity and might wonder whether he could have launched himself onto Smith’s back rather than going for a tap tackle.
But Smith is already moving at high speed and then he seals the deal with a stunningly calm and well-weighted grubber in behind the advancing Hugo Keenan for Tommy Freeman’s opening try.
It’s seriously smart and skillful work from Smith while moving at high speed.
The margin for mis-hitting his grubber is high but he nails the kick and Freeman shows his pace to finish.
It’s clearly an excellent counter-attack score from Saints but Leinster will be deeply frustrated to have given them a chance to show their class early on.
Even more frustrating is that they conceded a second while Northampton were down to 14 men against Leinster’s 15 with Curtis Langdon in the sin bin.
Leinster lost that 10-minute sin bin period 7-0 due to Henry Pollock’s try.
Pollock showed his remarkable quality in this instance but Leinster will feel that they invited him to do so.
They’ll be disappointed with their efforts on kick chase again, with Ramm making 10 metres all too easily.
Leinster put a big focus on winning collisions but they’re beaten by the Saints fullback here.
He powers past Tommy O’Brien, Caelan Doris, and Max Deegan initially, then bounces up to his feet again to surge into Jamison Gibson-Park’s tackle and over the halfway line.
So Saints instantly have momentum on their kick return. Leinster need to react with clarity and speed but again, they’re caught out.
O’Brien and Deegan [red above] are out of the game on the ground after being beaten by Ramm’s powerful carry, so that’s already an issue for Leinster’s defence as they look to get organised after chasing Gibson-Park’s box kick.
Tadhg Furlong [green above] decides early on to fold into the shortside, keen not to give the dangerous Saints scrum-half Alex Mitchell any space there.
Meanwhile, Doris looks to kill the Saints attack by jackaling over Gibson-Park’s tackle on Ramm.
What all of this means is that Leinster are left with six players either in the shortside or in the breakdown.
It’s only a five-metre shortside so this is obviously far too many bodies in that area.
We can see above that O’Brien recognises the error and is signalling for someone to fold to the other side as soon as possible.
But even as O’Brien is calling for a fold, Pollock is already accelerating into the huge space left on the other side of the breakdown.
Like Smith before, the running line from Pollock is brave here.
The similarity suggests that Saints discussed potential opportunities in running hard lines back against the grain against Leinster.
In normal circumstances, a carrier might be hammered in a big tackle by heavy forwards if they ran into this space on the fringe of a breakdown.
But these aren’t normal circumstances because of Leinster’s disorganisation.
This hole between Andrew Porter and RG Snyman is a yawning chasm, relatively speaking.
Snyman has seemingly expected at least one of those players in the shortside to fold around and get into the space on Porter’s outside, so he never closes in to Porter. It’s too late when Snyman tries to do so.
Again, let’s remember that Leinster have 15 players against Northampton’s 14 at this moment, so they’ll be livid at giving up this space so close to the breakdown. They’d at least have hoped that Saints had to get outside their defence on the edge.
Pollock exploits the space brilliantly and shows his pace to scorch through, then backs himself very early to get around Prendergast in the backfield.
It’s an outstanding finish from Pollock in a situation where some players would doubt their ability to take the outside. He simply accelerates a second time to swerve around Prendergast.
The Leinster out-half will, of course, be disappointed not to have made an impact on Pollock.
These one-on-one situations in the backfield are difficult for defenders but Prendergast might again wonder whether he could have launched himself into contact when he managed to get close to Pollock.
Defenders sometimes talk about firing themselves ‘into the spokes’ of fast-moving attackers in these scenarios, essentially putting their bodies on the line by diving at their legs in a desperate bid to at least unbalance them, but Prendergast grasps with his arms. That’s never going to be enough to stop the free-wheeling Pollock and he races clear.
It’s another stunning Saints score on transition.
So Leinster lose the sin-bin period 7-0 and then instantly concede again when Langdon returns to restore Northampton to 15 men.
This one comes on fourth phase of a zig-zagging Saints lineout attack and, once again, Leinster will be disappointed.
As we see above, out-half Smith carries on second phase after coming under pressure from the Leinster defence.
Saints switch back to their left as Leinster bring more linespeed against Langdon’s carry.
And having now split the Leinster defence by carrying in midfield, Northampton deliver the sting.
Again, Leinster will likely question their numbering in defence.
As Snyman assesses the situation while Langdon is carrying, he feels that there isn’t a huge threat on Leinster’s left-hand side.
The problem is that even as Snyman is scanning that side, Smith and the Saints players involved in the breakdown after his carry are racing to reload on that side.
But Snyman decides to fold over to Leinster’s right at the same time as Doris decides to barge the breakdown over the Langdon carry.
In simple terms, that means two possible defenders on Leinster’s left-hand side aren’t there for the next phase.
Yet it’s not just on Snyman and Doris.
Leinster end up hugely overstacked on their right-hand side, as we can see below.
It’s a simple numbers game and despite Saints having little threat on Leinster’s right-hand side, Leinster have eight defenders on that side of the pitch.
Communicating the need to fold to the left is on everyone in the defensive line but there appears to be very little chat in this instance.
Once again, an attacking team as good as Saints don’t need to be asked twice.
Their reloading players on their right-hand side do an excellent job of exploiting the situation and key to that is Pollock sitting down Garry Ringrose [green below], the third defender out from the breakdown.
Pollock runs square at the line to give a ball-carrying threat before he fires an accurate sweep pass behind lock Alex Coles to Smith.
Saints now have a 4-on-2 against James Lowe and Keenan.
Smith catches and passes before Leinster left wing James Lowe can hit him and Ramm does the same before Keenan closes up onto him.
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Ramm’s pass sends Saints left wing Tom Litchfield accelerating into space.
At this point, Litchfield would usually have another backfield defender to worry about. Indeed, we can see him looking forward, expecting to have to deal with one final defensive challenge.
But there’s no one coming across in the Leinster backfield.
We see why when we go back to the start of the phase.
Keenan [blue above] is obviously going to have to close up from the backfield.
So Leinster need a second backfield defender sprinting across to fill the space Keenan vacates, corner-flagging in a bid to deny Saints a clear chance to score.
But O’Brien [green] is already closing up to the right edge of the Leinster defence, while Prendergast [red] is working into the right-hand side of the backfield in O’Brien’s place.
That’s despite the lack of threat from Saints on that side of the pitch. Their danger men are ready to pounce on the other side.
It’s relatively sleepy stuff from Leinster, who are usually so clear in their backfield assignments.
In this instance, it means Saints probably can’t believe how straightforward the finish is as Litchfield dishes the ball off for Freeman to score completely untouched.
Saints score almost instantly again after the restart following this Freeman try.
Mitchell box kicks out from the restart and here we see an interesting quirk of Saints’ plan for this clash with Leinster.
Freeman is their right wing but he set up on the left-hand side for restart receipts, with left wing Litchfield swapping to the other side.
Freeman is a strong aerial player so Saints presumably wanted him to be available for kick chase on the left in anticipation of Leinster restarting to that side.
It comes up trumps in this instance as Freeman’s competition with Keenan causes the Leinster fullback to lose the ball in the air.
Leinster pride themselves on winning the ‘scraps’ in situations exactly like this one, so they’ll be disappointed to have emphatically lost out on the breaking ball here.
Juarno Augustus’ anticipation is excellent as he energetically barges through to claim the ball ahead of Deegan, accelerating through Ringrose’s tackle attempt.
Augustus also beats the tackle attempt of Prendergast before O’Brien closes in.
The offload from Ulster-bound Augustus is particularly wondrous because O’Brien identifies that exact threat and reaches up in a bid to trap the ball.
But Augustus has the skill to transfer the ball into his right hand after breaking Prendergast’s tackle, and keep the ball away from O’Brien before offloading right over the top of him to Freeman, who has also reacted well to the breaking ball.
O’Brien shows his speed to nearly get back and stop Freeman but the Saints wing has enough pace of his own to get to the tryline and dot down.
Saints suddenly lead 27-15 and Leinster are clearly rocked. 12 points is a big lead in a game of this magnitude.
The home side do fight back in the second half and nearly overturn Northampton but the visitors manage to just about hold them at bay, helped in no small part by scoring a fifth try.
There was real class and power from the English side in the build-up to Ramm’s score but Nienaber will have been dejected to see his men losing several collisions in the build-up.
Having put such huge emphasis on their defence over the past two seasons, Leinster weren’t able to deliver in this area of the game yesterday against a brilliant Northampton attack.
It’s said that defence wins championships and Leinster’s had an off-day at the wrong time.
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Leinster's defence failed to step up against scintillating Saints
JACQUES NIENABER ASKED that his Leinster defence be judged on points conceded and tries conceded.
They have impressed by those metrics since his arrival, but their defensive stinginess deserted them against Northampton yesterday.
No team has ever won a Champions Cup or Heineken Cup semi-final while conceding more than 30 points. Leinster conceded 37 against Saints.
And no losing semi-finalist in the history of this competition has scored as many as the 34 points Leinster scored yesterday.
In many ways, Leinster have redefined themselves since Nienaber arrived at the end of 2023. They have become a team whose DNA is built around their defence.
But when they needed it most, Leinster’s defence was porous.
Before going any further, let’s underline that Northampton attacked superbly. Their clever attack produced 10 linebreaks and it was clear how well-prepared they were. Saints attack coach Sam Vesty is a top operator and he has great weapons to work with.
Nonetheless, Nienaber is sure to be deeply disappointed with how Leinster failed to deal with the visitors’ threats.
They have put a big focus on their kick chase, but it let them down as early as the eighth minute of this semi-final.
Sam Prendergast appears to be aiming to bounce the ball into touch with this kick down the left and though it’s a little unlucky, Leinster must react well with their chase.
As the ball travels downfield, we can see that the chase line will have to form from a somewhat disorganised situation where players are in various positions upfield of each other.
The initial concern is the area highlighted above, with obvious space between Robbie Henshaw, Joe McCarthy, Josh van der Flier, and Cian Healy.
Prendergast has to bring them all onside by chasing his kick, which he does. But Leinster are lethargic in snapping into defensive shape having been brought onside.
Second row McCarthy [green below], like a few others, is walking even after Prendergast advances well beyond him.
Leinster clearly think the ball will bounce into touch but even when it doesn’t, there is a lack of energy.
McCarthy seemingly senses that he won’t be able to sprint up into the frontline chase and hangs back, so now Henshaw, van der Flier and Healy must get well connected with tight spacings between them.
Unfortunately for Leinster, that doesn’t happen and Northampton take full advantage.
As Saints fullback James Ramm [blue below] gathers the ball and turns upfield, the initial instinct for many would be to kick back long.
It’s unclear whether out-half Fin Smith is signalling for him to do so at this stage or calling for him to run back.
Ramm swiftly decides that the time is right to run the ball back at Leinster. It proves to be an excellent decision.
As Ramm arcs infield to get away from the chasing Prendergast, we can see Smith is scanning the Leinster chase line for opportunity.
What he sees is an invitation.
The space between van der Flier and Healy is beckoning. Smith can see that McCarthy [green above] hasn’t made it up into the chase line so there is a clear opening for Smith to accelerate into.
Van der Flier has accelerated upfield after realising that Prendergast’s kick hasn’t gone into touch but Healy has been left behind.
Perhaps Healy thinks McCarthy is going to get up into the line but that either way, Leinster will be frustrated at allowing this space against a team as dangerous as Saints.
Ramm does an excellent job of tying down Henshaw and luring van der Flier towards the ball before sending Smith into the gap.
Smith then scorches past McCarthy, who would have hoped to clean anything like this up after not getting into the frontline chase.
Prendergast, who has already chased up and infield after kicking, is also in the vicinity and might wonder whether he could have launched himself onto Smith’s back rather than going for a tap tackle.
But Smith is already moving at high speed and then he seals the deal with a stunningly calm and well-weighted grubber in behind the advancing Hugo Keenan for Tommy Freeman’s opening try.
It’s seriously smart and skillful work from Smith while moving at high speed.
The margin for mis-hitting his grubber is high but he nails the kick and Freeman shows his pace to finish.
It’s clearly an excellent counter-attack score from Saints but Leinster will be deeply frustrated to have given them a chance to show their class early on.
Even more frustrating is that they conceded a second while Northampton were down to 14 men against Leinster’s 15 with Curtis Langdon in the sin bin.
Leinster lost that 10-minute sin bin period 7-0 due to Henry Pollock’s try.
Pollock showed his remarkable quality in this instance but Leinster will feel that they invited him to do so.
They’ll be disappointed with their efforts on kick chase again, with Ramm making 10 metres all too easily.
Leinster put a big focus on winning collisions but they’re beaten by the Saints fullback here.
He powers past Tommy O’Brien, Caelan Doris, and Max Deegan initially, then bounces up to his feet again to surge into Jamison Gibson-Park’s tackle and over the halfway line.
So Saints instantly have momentum on their kick return. Leinster need to react with clarity and speed but again, they’re caught out.
O’Brien and Deegan [red above] are out of the game on the ground after being beaten by Ramm’s powerful carry, so that’s already an issue for Leinster’s defence as they look to get organised after chasing Gibson-Park’s box kick.
Tadhg Furlong [green above] decides early on to fold into the shortside, keen not to give the dangerous Saints scrum-half Alex Mitchell any space there.
Meanwhile, Doris looks to kill the Saints attack by jackaling over Gibson-Park’s tackle on Ramm.
What all of this means is that Leinster are left with six players either in the shortside or in the breakdown.
It’s only a five-metre shortside so this is obviously far too many bodies in that area.
We can see above that O’Brien recognises the error and is signalling for someone to fold to the other side as soon as possible.
But even as O’Brien is calling for a fold, Pollock is already accelerating into the huge space left on the other side of the breakdown.
Like Smith before, the running line from Pollock is brave here.
The similarity suggests that Saints discussed potential opportunities in running hard lines back against the grain against Leinster.
In normal circumstances, a carrier might be hammered in a big tackle by heavy forwards if they ran into this space on the fringe of a breakdown.
But these aren’t normal circumstances because of Leinster’s disorganisation.
This hole between Andrew Porter and RG Snyman is a yawning chasm, relatively speaking.
Snyman has seemingly expected at least one of those players in the shortside to fold around and get into the space on Porter’s outside, so he never closes in to Porter. It’s too late when Snyman tries to do so.
Again, let’s remember that Leinster have 15 players against Northampton’s 14 at this moment, so they’ll be livid at giving up this space so close to the breakdown. They’d at least have hoped that Saints had to get outside their defence on the edge.
Pollock exploits the space brilliantly and shows his pace to scorch through, then backs himself very early to get around Prendergast in the backfield.
It’s an outstanding finish from Pollock in a situation where some players would doubt their ability to take the outside. He simply accelerates a second time to swerve around Prendergast.
The Leinster out-half will, of course, be disappointed not to have made an impact on Pollock.
These one-on-one situations in the backfield are difficult for defenders but Prendergast might again wonder whether he could have launched himself into contact when he managed to get close to Pollock.
Defenders sometimes talk about firing themselves ‘into the spokes’ of fast-moving attackers in these scenarios, essentially putting their bodies on the line by diving at their legs in a desperate bid to at least unbalance them, but Prendergast grasps with his arms. That’s never going to be enough to stop the free-wheeling Pollock and he races clear.
It’s another stunning Saints score on transition.
So Leinster lose the sin-bin period 7-0 and then instantly concede again when Langdon returns to restore Northampton to 15 men.
This one comes on fourth phase of a zig-zagging Saints lineout attack and, once again, Leinster will be disappointed.
As we see above, out-half Smith carries on second phase after coming under pressure from the Leinster defence.
Saints switch back to their left as Leinster bring more linespeed against Langdon’s carry.
And having now split the Leinster defence by carrying in midfield, Northampton deliver the sting.
Again, Leinster will likely question their numbering in defence.
As Snyman assesses the situation while Langdon is carrying, he feels that there isn’t a huge threat on Leinster’s left-hand side.
The problem is that even as Snyman is scanning that side, Smith and the Saints players involved in the breakdown after his carry are racing to reload on that side.
But Snyman decides to fold over to Leinster’s right at the same time as Doris decides to barge the breakdown over the Langdon carry.
In simple terms, that means two possible defenders on Leinster’s left-hand side aren’t there for the next phase.
Yet it’s not just on Snyman and Doris.
Leinster end up hugely overstacked on their right-hand side, as we can see below.
It’s a simple numbers game and despite Saints having little threat on Leinster’s right-hand side, Leinster have eight defenders on that side of the pitch.
Communicating the need to fold to the left is on everyone in the defensive line but there appears to be very little chat in this instance.
Once again, an attacking team as good as Saints don’t need to be asked twice.
Their reloading players on their right-hand side do an excellent job of exploiting the situation and key to that is Pollock sitting down Garry Ringrose [green below], the third defender out from the breakdown.
Pollock runs square at the line to give a ball-carrying threat before he fires an accurate sweep pass behind lock Alex Coles to Smith.
Saints now have a 4-on-2 against James Lowe and Keenan.
Smith catches and passes before Leinster left wing James Lowe can hit him and Ramm does the same before Keenan closes up onto him.
Ramm’s pass sends Saints left wing Tom Litchfield accelerating into space.
At this point, Litchfield would usually have another backfield defender to worry about. Indeed, we can see him looking forward, expecting to have to deal with one final defensive challenge.
But there’s no one coming across in the Leinster backfield.
We see why when we go back to the start of the phase.
Keenan [blue above] is obviously going to have to close up from the backfield.
So Leinster need a second backfield defender sprinting across to fill the space Keenan vacates, corner-flagging in a bid to deny Saints a clear chance to score.
But O’Brien [green] is already closing up to the right edge of the Leinster defence, while Prendergast [red] is working into the right-hand side of the backfield in O’Brien’s place.
That’s despite the lack of threat from Saints on that side of the pitch. Their danger men are ready to pounce on the other side.
It’s relatively sleepy stuff from Leinster, who are usually so clear in their backfield assignments.
In this instance, it means Saints probably can’t believe how straightforward the finish is as Litchfield dishes the ball off for Freeman to score completely untouched.
Saints score almost instantly again after the restart following this Freeman try.
Mitchell box kicks out from the restart and here we see an interesting quirk of Saints’ plan for this clash with Leinster.
Freeman is their right wing but he set up on the left-hand side for restart receipts, with left wing Litchfield swapping to the other side.
Freeman is a strong aerial player so Saints presumably wanted him to be available for kick chase on the left in anticipation of Leinster restarting to that side.
It comes up trumps in this instance as Freeman’s competition with Keenan causes the Leinster fullback to lose the ball in the air.
Leinster pride themselves on winning the ‘scraps’ in situations exactly like this one, so they’ll be disappointed to have emphatically lost out on the breaking ball here.
Juarno Augustus’ anticipation is excellent as he energetically barges through to claim the ball ahead of Deegan, accelerating through Ringrose’s tackle attempt.
Augustus also beats the tackle attempt of Prendergast before O’Brien closes in.
The offload from Ulster-bound Augustus is particularly wondrous because O’Brien identifies that exact threat and reaches up in a bid to trap the ball.
But Augustus has the skill to transfer the ball into his right hand after breaking Prendergast’s tackle, and keep the ball away from O’Brien before offloading right over the top of him to Freeman, who has also reacted well to the breaking ball.
O’Brien shows his speed to nearly get back and stop Freeman but the Saints wing has enough pace of his own to get to the tryline and dot down.
Saints suddenly lead 27-15 and Leinster are clearly rocked. 12 points is a big lead in a game of this magnitude.
The home side do fight back in the second half and nearly overturn Northampton but the visitors manage to just about hold them at bay, helped in no small part by scoring a fifth try.
There was real class and power from the English side in the build-up to Ramm’s score but Nienaber will have been dejected to see his men losing several collisions in the build-up.
Having put such huge emphasis on their defence over the past two seasons, Leinster weren’t able to deliver in this area of the game yesterday against a brilliant Northampton attack.
It’s said that defence wins championships and Leinster’s had an off-day at the wrong time.
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d Defence Jacques Nienaber Leinster Northampton