Gordon D'Arcy established himself as a rugby pundit par excellence during the World Cup - a deep-thinking, insightful advocate of the game's more virtuous aspects and a savage critic of frauds. His takedown of Sam Burgess went viral.
We were interested to read his thoughts on Leinster's Champions Cup opener this week. Because to see Leinster lose to Wasps last Sunday is to be haunted by it. Dave Kearney's litany of errors, Sexton's bizarre kick to touch in the second half: these are just a few of the howlers Leinster committed Sunday. Wasps were respectably efficient but Leinster were terrible.
Interestingly, D'Arcy, possibly the pre-eminent rugby columnist in Ireland now, was forgiving, and daresay upbeat, about the defeat when writing his column in the Irish Times this week.
So this game at this time proved too big an ask for the returning internationals. The Irish lads had a week off after the quarter-final defeat to Argentina with most of them returning for Treviso but this wasn’t the team Leo had planned to field against Wasps. Te’o and Nacewa had been key figures during the World Cup so their loss to injury was keenly felt
As for Sexton's nightmare, D'Arcy wrote the following:
Everyone is entitled to a performance like that, especially after being so good for so long. The outhalf will always look ordinary on an off day when everyone is struggling around him.
I accept the fact that Sexton, and indeed Leinster, have earned a mulligan. And I also can understand that being critical of your former colleagues in print must be no fun. But I was surprised at how much empathy D'Arcy had for Leinster.
The World Cup hangover is a legitimate excuse but these players have played together for the guts of a decade. They played like they'd been pulled out of the RDS bleachers on Sunday. Even allowing for some collective dissonance given the challenges of bedding in the World Cup players, the mountain of mental errors Leinster committed suggests they weren't properly prepared or focused. That's worrying in a game which was so vital for escaping their group of death, especially considering they have a new coach who's never coach a pro team before.
D'Arcy heaps praise on the Wasps recruitment strategy, but for all the Premiership's riches, we're talking about the 8th place team in that league.
Gordon D'Arcy has more rugby knowledge in this toenails than I do but as far as punditry goes, harsh criticism can also be fair criticism.
We presume Leinster will be angry tomorrow against Bath. We look forward to their response to the Wasps defeat, and to Gordon D'Arcy's next column.
h/t Will Slattery
