Leinster were in scintillating form as they scored 7 tries in their 47-21 win against Premiership leaders Bath. They were tested heavily early on as Bath came out of the blocks flying as they raced to a 14-0 lead after just 8 minutes.
Leinster were in an unfamiliar position as the English league leaders were running rings around the Leinster blitz and striking with pinpoint accuracy. The home side eventually got their foot in the game with 2 quick tries of their own, both from Robbie Henshaw as Leinster began to dominate.
They were camped on the Bath line when prop Beno Obano received a yellow card for a head-on-head collision with Jamison Gibson-Park, which left Gibson-Park with a nasty cut under his eye. Leinster made use of the man advantage as Jack Conan scored to give Leinster their first lead off the game as the first half was ticking towards the 40 minute mark.
However Bath had an answer of their own before the break as Tom de Glanville scored his second try of the game after an amazing run and offload from Ollie Lawrence and Fin Russell knocked over the conversion to give Bath the lead heading into the break.
Leo Cullen called upon the calvary as Caelan Doris and RG Snyman were brought on with Snyman making an instant impact on the scoresheet with a try to give leinster the lead once again.
Bath however were still knocking on Leinster's door when they were dealt a tough hand with Obano receiving a second yellow and thus red card just before the hour mark. Obano had struggled at scrum time all game with Rabah Slimani getting the better of the English international. Referee Luc Ramos had warned Obano moments before that the next scrum penalty he gave away will be another yellow card and when he was pinged for not scrummaging straight Ramos had enough and showed Obano the red.
The game completely changed from then on as a 14-man Bath didn't have enough to deal with Leisnter's more expansive attack. Leinster made a concerted effort to play a more attacking game, throwing way more offloads than usual and spreading the ball out wide any chance they got.
The positive attacking paid off as Leinster ran in 3 more tries towards the end through Garry Ringrose, Snyman again and Gibson-Park to round off the pool stage in style. They've all but guaranteed themselves a home route to the final after topping their group.
Leinster 33-21 Bath
Garry Ringrose bursts through for another Leinster try as they capitalise shortly after Bath go down to 14 men #LEIvBAT
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📺 Watch - https://t.co/XnOP6grnB7 pic.twitter.com/fnsLUokdqL— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) January 18, 2025
Jackman Identifies "Different" Leinster In The Scrum
It was clear that the red card was the killer for Bath. Had they played with a full 15 for that last 20 minutes Bath could've easily caused an upset and while Leinster were more than good enough for their win, they can count themselves fortunate they were dragged through a longer slugfest.
It was a controversial decision to send off Obano as some believe it was a pretty soft yellow card, including Stephen Ferris.
For the referee to give a yellow card, then a red card… after the scrum was his fault seems very harsh. @ChampionsCup
— Stephen Ferris (@StephenFerris6) January 18, 2025
It's not the first time Leinster have had opposing props carded for scrum infringements. You may remember in their first Champions Cup fixture this season against Bristol Bears, Bristol prop Max Lahiff and Andrew Porter were both sin binned by referee Pierre Brousset after numerous scrum infringements from both sides.
Speaking on RTÉ's post match analysis Bernard Jackman spoke about the Obano incident and how Leinster have changed this season to become a team that looks to scrum.
The problem was that it was drip by drip, they showed clear dominance to the referee Ramos early that they were on top at scrum time and eventually he just got fed up.
But this is a different Leinster, this team wants to scrum for penalties. Before it was just nice quality ball to strike off but now if they sense any weakness they go after it.
He [Obano] got a yellow card earlier in the game but that [second yellow] was the end of the game. When he went off Leinster were only going to get better and Bath got weaker.
Leinster certainly look to be a more robust team in every aspect, playing more physically than we've been used to seeing them. With a home route sorted, could this finally be the approach Leinster need to get over their Champions Cup hoodoo?
