Simon Lewis
LEINSTER'S Heineken Cup hopes received a big psychological boost on Saturday when next week's Millennium Stadium opponents Northampton Saints suffered an energy-sapping Aviva Premiership semi-final defeat to arch rivals Leicester.
Less than 24 hours after a bruising Magners League semi-final win over Ulster that left Joe Schmidt fretting over injuries to Brian O'Driscoll, Richardt Strauss, Mike Ross and Isaac Boss, some of that gloom lifted as Northampton lost an even more intense encounter to a side the Irish province dispatched at the European quarter-final stage last month.
Leicester beat their neighbours 11-3 in an intriguing and absorbing match at Welford Road for which the main talking point was the brutal assault on Northampton wing Chris Ashton by the Tigers' Manu Tuilagi.
In an off the ball incident, Tuilagi clothes-lined his opponent in midfield and when England wing Ashton shoved the grounded assailant in the back, the Leicester player reacted as if he had been grievously wronged.
An enraged Tuilagi rose and delivered two left jabs to Ashton's head before leaping into a straight right that would have knocked many a heavyweight boxer clean out. To Ashton's credit, he actually stayed on his feet and that may have served to work against the Northampton man as referee Wayne Barnes turned to his assistant for direction.
Barnes had had his back to the bust-up and the linesman might as well have too for he described the incident as an exchange of punches, recommending a yellow card for both players when the replays showed a red card for Tuilagi was the correct procedure.
Who knows whether Northampton could have dealt better with a 14-man Leicester side but they could not break down the Tigers at full complement.
A lone Toby Flood penalty gave Leicester a 3-0 half-time lead after an a very even and well contested opening period that saw Northampton gain a slight upper hand in the scrum through their front row of Soane Tonga'uiha, Dylan Hartley and Brian Mujati.
Against Leicester that's some feat but the second half showed exactly why the Tigers topped the Premiership this season and are favourites to retain their title at Twickenham against either Gloucester or Saracens later this month.
Richard Cockerill's team had the visitors pinned inside their own half for much of the second period and exposed Northampton's lack of strength in depth with their own substitions, deploying a powerful bench that included England prop Dan Cole, back rower Thomas Waldrom and Argentina wing Horacio Agulla.
It was the elder Leicester Tuilaga, Alesana, though, that killed Northampton's hopes of English-European double, the mighty wing barrelling through Bruce Reihana for a late try to remind the 35-year-old former All Black wing exactly why he's made the right decision to retire at the end of the season.
Flood converted and the Tigers were in the final, leaving the Saints to regroup for a last shot at glory next week in Cardiff.
Northampton came the challenge injury free and while the same cannot be said of Leinster, the weekend's events have definitely confirmed the Irish side's favouritism for next Saturday night is entirely justified.
Advantage Leinster.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/0oSjUnA6oZQ/post.aspx
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