Leinster 33 Northampton Saints 22
Simon Lewis, Millennium Stadium
LEINSTER staged a comeback for the ages at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday evening as they stunned Northampton with a three-try second half to win the Heineken Cup for the second time in three seasons.
Joe Schmidt's side had looked all at sea at half time as they trailed 22-6 following an outstanding first-half display from the Saints that saw Leinster left apparently out of this pulsating final with three tries from Phil Dowson, Ben Foden and Dylan Hartley, the latter two scored with Northampton down to 14 men following the sin-binning of prop Brian Mujati for taking out Cian Healy in the 25th minute.
Missed tackles, poor execution and total domination by Northampton's scrum had Leinster looking like also rans in that first half but the Irish province had conceded an early 7-0 lead to defending champions Toulouse in the semi-final last month at the Aviva Stadium before coming back to win 32-23.
This was altogether more damaging for a side that had come into the final as overwhelming favourites, one bookmaker even paying out on a Leinster win last Thursday.
Yet, a Jonathan Sexton-inspired team-talk at half-time was rewarded in spades as Leinster came out of the blocks like men possessed, leaving Northampton powerless to respond.
Just as he had been with the boot against Toulouse, fly-half Sexton was the hero again, this time with the ball in hand as he got on the end of two rapid-fire tries at the start of the second half that knocked the heart and fire out of the Saints.
Just eight minutes after the interval, Leinster were back in the game at 22-20, Sexton having converted his own scores and with Northampton still reeling the fly-half slotted over two penalties to push his side remarkably into a 26-22 lead as the hour mark passed.
Now it was Foden knocking on on his own 10m line, the Leinster scrum was on top and Sean O'Brien was hauling three tacklers over the Saints' 22m line.
To add insult to injury, referee Romain Poite issued another yellow card to Northampton as Dowson was order off for 10 minutes having killed the ball close to the try line.
The game was up for the English side and lock Nathan Hines set up the victory celebrations as early as the 65th minute when he piled over for the third try in 25 minutes of magic from Leinster, Sexton converting just to make sure of his man of the match award.
Northampton fought on and Foden broke the Leinster line before off-loading to England team-mate Chris Ashton, who cut inside off the right wing but ran into a resolute blue line. It was that kind of a half and with the Saints' lack of strength in depth, there would be no fightback of their own to emulate their rivals.
Leinster were European champions again and deservedly so.
LEINSTER: I Nacewa; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, G D'Arcy (F McFadden, 68), L Fitzgerald; J Sexton (I Madigan, 78), E Reddan (I Boss, 74); C Healy (H Van Der Merwe, 60), R Strauss (J Harris-Wright, 79), M Ross (S Wright, 78); L Cullen - captain, N Hines (D Toner, 78); K McLaughlin (S Jennings, 40), S O'Brien (K McLaughlin 44-47 - blood), J Heaslip.
NORTHAMPTON SAINTS: B Foden; C Ashton (S Commins, 78), J Clarke (J Ansbro, 67), J Downey, P Diggin; S Myler (S Geraghty, 67) , L Dickson; S Tonga'uiha (A Waller, 67), D Hartley – captain (B Sharman, 69), B Mujati (T Mercey, 67); C Lawes, C Day (M Sorenson, 78); C Clark (T Mercey, 26-36), P Dowson, R Wilson (M Easter, 64-68 - blood) .
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/c6hClp-mt4k/post.aspx
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