Ken Borland

Leinster are in pain, according to Leo Cullen, after their disappointing exit at the semi-final stage of the United Rugby Championship, but the head coach said the group are still confident they have the ability to continue winning trophies.

Leinster were edged out 25-20 by the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday evening and are now trophyless for a third season, having also been beaten by Toulouse in a Champions Cup final that went to extra time.

The Bulls claimed the winning try in the 67^th minute when wing Sergeal Petersen used one hand to snatch an up-and-under out of the grasp of replacement centre Ciaran Frawley and dived over the line.

“It’s a sixth playoff game we have now lost and it is painful to go through, there is a pretty empty feeling in the dressing room. But there is still a strong belief in the group, as a club we are still highly ambitious and everyone wants to win trophies,” Cullen said after the gripping semifinal.

“It was an unbelievably tight game and really just a moment separated the teams, an aerial contest, just a hand in the air, so there was nothing in it in terms of the result. An individual moment won the game, we were all-square and then there was one big moment, an unbelievable piece of skill at the end.

“The players should be proud of their efforts, I cannot fault that or their character, but there are fine margins in knockout rugby. When you lose, you feel a million miles away, but in the Champions Cup final we were just a drop goal away from the win as well.

“We’ve had some special moments this season, but we’ve just not quite been good enough in the final or this playoff game. We’ve picked up experience of how to navigate at a tough place to come, but it’s disappointing to have the same result. Both of them have been one-score losses and we will go away and reflect, build and go again. Our focus will be on making sure we are better in the big moments. We will get back to work and we’re the ones chasing now,” Cullen said.

The Bulls made 163 tackles with an 88% success rate, compared to Leinster’s 126 at 86%, and the visitors also shaded possession and beat more defenders, leading Cullen to praise the home side for how well they stood up to the attacking pressure piled on to them. A crowd of more than 31 000 roared them on.

“You have to give the Bulls a lot of credit for the way they fought. They would get stuck into the contest, get back on their feet and barge the breakdown again. Defence was maybe the difference tonight, they showed more intensity and fight than us.

“We created lots of opportunities, but you have to give credit to the Bulls for the way they defended, they threw their bodies on the line. You could see the response from the Bulls players to the crowd, as it lifted up their energy.

“We pounded away on attack but the Bulls held firm. You have to give them a lot of credit for the way they stood up in defence. We were very close to breaking them, but we could just not quite do it,” Cullen said.

Leinster had absorbed a strong start to the match by the Bulls, keeping the first quarter scoreless before wing James Lowe crossed over for the opening try as a blindside move took advantage of a yellow card to Petersen for a deliberate knock-on.

But they were unable to build on that lead, with the Bulls levelling matters on the half-hour, and then stretching a 10-7 halftime lead to 17-7 with a try by Petersen two minutes into the second half. Although Leinster fought back to go into the last 15 minutes at 20-20, they were doomed not to add to their tally.

“When we went seven ahead we needed to ram home that advantage, but if you don’t get the back-field right then a guy like Willie le Roux is able to manipulate that and he exposed us with a 50/22.

“But then we were able to fight our way back into the contest and build more pressure, when we were 10 points down we actually had a dominant 15-minute period as our bench made a good impact. But there were a couple of big turnovers and vital moments, and then you don’t get that opportunity again.

“It’s frustrating that we had our chances, but in the first half we weren’t able to build a bigger lead and force the Bulls to play differently and chase the lead. We just made a couple of key errors,” Cullen said.

The Leinster trophy-drought continued in the most tightly-contested, gripping United Rugby Championship semi-finals at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday as the Bulls pipped them 25-20, a fairly freakish 67^th-minute try snatching the spoils.

Leinster went toe-to-toe with the powerful Bulls at their home fortress and were level at 20-20 after 64 minutes. In a match in which the stakes often felt as high as in a Test match, there was plenty of kicking and aerial battles as both teams prioritised territory.

And it was from an up-and-under that the outcome was decided. Bulls flyhalf Johan Goosen launched the ball high towards the touchline with Ciaran Frawley seemingly safely underneath it. But Bulls winger Sergeal Petersen, a much shorter man, got up in the air to challenge and somehow sneaked a hand through on to the ball, tapping it out of the defender’s grasp and then regathering a split-second later, before an extravagant swallow-dive took him over the tryline.

The once-so-dominant Dubliners have now gone three seasons without winning either the URC or in Europe. The shortcomings on Saturday evening were in no way down to a lack of effort.

While the taut contest may not have been the greatest advert for exciting attacking rugby, the action was spellbinding and the quality unmistakeable.

The first quarter was scoreless as the Bulls dominated territory but Leinster threatened with their counter-thrusts. The home side thought they had opened the scoring in the 19^th minute but the try was put on ice due to flank Marco van Staden bringing flyhalf Ross Byrne to ground off the ball.

It began a five-minute period in which the Bulls were prone to err in their basics, as Goosen had a drop-out charged down by Garry Ringrose, who returned to action with a tremendous steely performance in midfield. From the scrum, Petersen was yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on as Leinster worked the blindside, and the Bulls were then caught short again on that side in defence as wing James Lowe went over for the opening try.

The Bulls’ replied with their own try just six minutes later, however, with there off-the-ball work this time being superb as Goosen sprinted on to a pass from scrumhalf Embrose Papier in the shadow of the poles to knife through a Leinster defence which up till then had been stopping everything.

The scrum was perhaps the one area where Leinster were consistently shaded, and Goosen was able to kick a 41^st-minute penalty from that set-piece to give the Bulls a 10-7 halftime lead.

It meant a crowd of more than 31 000 were in jovial mood on a mild winter’s evening and their happiness only increased in the second minute of the second half as the Bulls scored a lovely try to stretch their lead to 17-7. A blindside move saw centre Harold Vorster in space down the touchline, his deft kick ahead then bounced perfectly for Petersen to gather and score.

The impressive flank Caelan Doris thundered over the tryline though in the 51^st minute, escorted by the muscle of Tadhg Furlong and Joe McCarthy.

Byrne levelled the scores with a 59^th-minute penalty, slick work from Lowe having forced an offsides, but Goosen put the Bulls back in front three minutes later with another penalty.

An attempted jackal by Akker van der Merwe went wrong and cost the home side the lead as Byrne again slotted the penalty to make it 20-20.

But then it all went south for Leinster as the Bulls’ pressure-kicking game paid off and handed them a place in the United Rugby Championship final.

Scorers

Bulls – Tries: Johan Goosen, Sergeal Petersen (2). Conversions: Goosen (2). Penalty: Goosen (2).

Leinster – Tries: James Lowe, Caelan Doris. Conversions: Ross Byrne (2). Penalties: Byrne (2)

Teams

Bulls – Le Roux (Smit 56^th), Petersen, Kriel, Vorster, Williams, Goosen, Papier, Steenekamp (Matanzima 60^th), Grobbelaar (Van der Merwe 41^st), W. Louw (Klopper 60^th), Vermaak (Ludwig 65^th), Nortje, Van Staden (Carr 60^th), E. Louw, Hanekom.

Munster – O’Brien (Osborne 65^th), Lamour, Ringrose (Frawley 64^th), Henshaw, Lowe, Byrne, Gibson-Park (McGrath 62^nd), Porter (Healy 67th), Sheehan (Kelleher 67^th), Furlong (Alaalatoa 68^th), McCarthy, Ryan (Molony 66^th), Baird, Van der Flier (Conan 67^th), Doris.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt was pleased with the attacking play of his team against Leinster, but obviously not happy with the defensive lapses that saw them go down 54-34 to the United Rugby Championship log-leaders at the weekend.

In a dazzling game of rugby, the Sharks contributed five tries and more than held their own until the final quarter. That’s when their defence out wide was exposed and Leinster turned a narrow 28-27 lead on the hour mark into a convincing, impressive victory.

”I was pleased with the five really good tries we scored, not many teams score 34 points against Leinster, let alone five tries and especially not here,” Everitt said after the match.

“So there were aspects of our game that improved from the last two weeks and our goal on this tour was to get 10 log points and we achieved that.

“But I’m not happy that we conceded fifty points. There were unfortunate individual errors that cost us dearly against a class outfit. Jonny Sexton was world-class in the second half and put us under huge pressure.

“But the boys tried really hard, the effort was there and the energy to fight to the end was displayed. We will continue to grow with this young group of players,” Everitt said.

Leinster coach Leo Cullen said the Sharks’ physicality was a fresh challenge for his team, knocking his players back sometimes, although he suggested some of their efforts were over-robust and he would be re-examining the footage, possibly with a view to making a citing.

“That game had a bit of everything, we had three players go off for Head Impact Assessments. The Sharks are big, physical men and it was a totally different ball-game for us,” Cullen said.

“The Sharks had nothing to lose, they flew into everything. There were a lot of things that happened in the game and I will need to look at some incidents again.

“They were circling, they went after our defence and we were done a bit on the edge, or when we over-chased we got done on the inside. They certainly tested us out,” Cullen said.

Having begun their campaign on tour, the Sharks now have two matches at home, against Glasgow Warriors and Ulster, before ending October by travelling to Pretoria to take on the Bulls.

The Sharks scored five tries and contributed superbly to a dazzling game of rugby, but sadly their defence was found wanting and was nowhere near the quality of their attacking play, as Leinster thumped them 54-34 in their United Rugby Championship match in Dublin on Saturday evening.

A brilliant first half saw Leinster and the Sharks trade tries as the home side went into the break just 21-20 up. They were still just one point ahead as the hour mark loomed, a magnificent solo try by wing Thaakir Abrahams lifting the visitors back to 27-28.

But the Sharks unfortunately lost the plot in the final quarter as Leinster scored five tries to one in those 20 minutes. A game that had produced so much brilliant rugby sadly ended on a sour note as Sharks centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg was correctly red-carded for a wild tackle that saw his swinging arm hit opposite number Robbie Henshaw in the chin, sparking off a melee.

While the Sharks showed fantastic skill and imagination in attack, cutting Leinster open off lineout drives and scrums, their defence was consistently found wanting out wide, where Leinster found space through brilliant kicks or great handling.

Leinster flyhalf Jonny Sexton, or Sir Jonny as he is known in Dublin, pulled the strings superbly, his kicking being brilliant. He kicked seven out of eight conversions, which kept the hosts ahead on the leaderboard in the early stages, and his crosskicks were a real thorn in the Sharks’ flesh, with centres Henshaw and Charlie Ngatai also setting up tries from precise kick-passes.

The Sharks’ defence was again caught too narrow too often, and coach Sean Everitt will need to sort that out.

But he will be delighted with their wonderful attacking play, highlighted by the brace of tries scored by Abrahams. His second try, in the 55^th minute, was outrageous. He did well to claim a tricky, pressure high-ball, and then scampered away from a crowd of defenders, kicked ahead and then beat replacement wing Garry Ringrose to the touchdown.

Fullback Aphelele Fassi scored two tries as well, but had a mixed evening as he was a revolving door in defence at times.

Flank Dylan Richardson bossed the breakdowns, and the Sharks seemed to have the edge at scrum time, although there were precious few of those, which speaks to the quality of the game and how few handling errors there were.

Leinster’s forwards also carried superbly, and it was the attention they demanded from the Sharks defence which also contributed to the space out wide.

Scorers

Leinster: Tries – Jason Jenkins, Garry Ringrose (2), Andrew Porter, Robbie Henshaw, Rob Russell, Jonny Sexton, John McKee. Conversions – Sexton (7).

Sharks: Tries – Aphelele Fassi (2), Werner Kok, Thaakir Abrahams (2). Conversions – Boeta Chamberlain (2), Nevaldo Fleurs. Penalty – Chamberlain.