LEINSTER QUALIFIED FOR next season’s European Champions Cup thanks to their less than impressive 10-0 win over Benetton Treviso yesterday, but captain Jamie Heaslip says that the players are disappointed with how their season has gone.
Source: Gary Carr/INPHO
A first-half try from Heaslip helped put Leinster eight points clear of the chasing pack in fifth and he was reasonably happy with their performance on the night.
“At times it was like playing on a bar of soap but we’ve got to be good professionals,” he added. “You have to play with what you get. We probably gave them different access points in the game that we shouldn’t have and they are a tough side when they get a bit of momentum.
“But you know, credit to the lads. We played a lot of rugby in their half and we’re happy with that. We’re obviously happy that we qualified for Europe now. We’ve got another game next week, in terms of seeding, but we’re happy with the qualification.”
Matt O’Connor had a similar assessment of the game. He recognized it wasn’t their best performance but said there were positives to be taken from how they played second half.
“Defensively, we were pretty good,” O’Connor said. “They didn’t really ever look like scoring. Especially second half, we defended significantly better and to keep them to zero was pretty pleasing.
“We approached this game knowing that we needed two games, and that hasn’t changed much for us. We will go to Edinburgh and try and put out a performance good enough to get a result.”
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