Following Leinster’s 32-7 win over the Bulls in the URC final, here are our five key takeaways from the showpiece at Croke Park.
The top line
Leinster ended their long wait for a trophy with an emphatic win over the Bulls at Croke Park.
All the pressure was on Leo Cullen’s side to deliver in the final, given it was taking place in their home away from home, but that brought the best out in them.
The Dubliners raced into a 19-0 lead after just 22 minutes, thanks to quick-fire scores from Jack Conan, Jordie Barrett and Josh van der Flier, but it was their defence that ultimately saw them crowned champions.
Despite the repeated attempts to power over, the Bulls were limited to a solitary score as Akker van der Merwe crossed the whitewash.
The cherry on top of Leinster’s win came from academy scrum-half Fintan Gunne, who was a late call-up after Jamison Gibson-Park’s withdrawal, as he dotted down to seal a famous win in Dublin.
Fitting ending
This has been a really gripping URC season, and this final was evidence of that.
The scoreline might not have hinted at it, reading 19-0 at half-time, 22-7 going into the final quarter and finishing at 32-7, but it was a fascinating contest throughout.
Both teams looked to go for the kill at every call, too, and it was only the efforts of their opposition that held them out, rather than a sloppy error or a costly penalty.
A game like this is something the URC deserved after a really strong regular season.
Jitters? What jitters
Leinster have been in a tough spot since that infamous Northampton Saints defeat in the Champions Cup semi-final. They’ve been winning, granted, but they’ve been nowhere near the quality we saw in those European destructions of Harlequins and Glasgow.
Today, though, on that hallowed Croke Park turf, they looked back to their best.
Even without star men Jamison Gibson-Park – an 11th-hour withdrawal on the day of the final – Tadhg Furlong and Caelan Doris, they seemed to have refound their mojo at the perfect time.
Their lightning-fast start to the game was also something we haven’t seen from Leinster in some time. They were absolutely ruthless ball-in-hand across those first 20 minutes, with Conan, Barrett and Van der Flier crossing, and Sam Prendergast slotting two conversions in the process.
The defensive system of former Springboks coach Jacques Nienaber has already been praised heavily, and also criticised when appropriate, but today it deserves an entire florist’s worth of flowers.
Take their defensive stand on the stroke of half-time as the Bulls pounded their line, for instance. Pounded in that previous sentence probably does it a disservice, actually, as the Bulls were entrenched in the Leinster five-metre area for a good six minutes before the half-time whistle. The hosts were so incredibly aggressive and stubborn in that passage of play, shutting down each and every Bulls behemoth thrown their way with a matter of ease.
If you look back to where they were before the Scarlets clash, or even the Glasgow game in the regular season, they would probably have crumbled at that point, but today, when the pressure was on, they stood up to the task and held firm.
Even the intelligence in the second-half to take points when on offer was something that’s been missing for a good while, and only added to their cocktail of improvement.
When Leinster are at full flight, they are a sight to behold, and that’s exactly what we saw from them today.
Finally, it’s happened
It’s been a long wait for silverware for the Dublin-based side. They last tasted domestic glory in 2021, the final year of the PRO14 era, and they also lost three consecutive European finals in that time, but today they finally won that elusive first title in the URC era.
The URC has somehow alluded them in the past few years, despite their dominance across multiple regular-season campaigns. You felt, especially after the manner of their European exit, that they needed this title. A squad like Leinster, littered with British and Irish Lions alongside Ireland, Springboks and All Black internationals, demands success, but they have fallen short at every turn in the past four years.
Winning this will mean an awful lot to Leo Cullen and the playing squad and it should hopefully answer some of the questions that were looming over them.
Another year of heartbreak
It’s an all-too familiar tale for Jake White’s men, who suffered their third URC final defeat in four years.
The Bulls have been one of the most consistent sides in the competition since its inception in the 2021/22 season, but yet they still can’t manage to unlock that ability to get over the line and secure the title. They slipped up against the Stormers in 2022, last year saw them stunned by Glasgow Warriors at Loftus Versfeld and now this heavy defeat against Leinster.
Today’s loss wasn’t through lack of trying, though, even despite the scoreline, but again they are left with a heavy feeling of ‘what if’.
READ MORE: Leinster obliterate Bulls in URC final to answer critics as Jordie Barrett signs off in style
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/leinster-v-bulls-five-takeaways-as-jacques-nienabers-defence-ends-trophy-drought-in-emphatic-urc-victory
