Toulon feature South African winger Bryan Habana and Australians Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell as the French giants aim to win the European Champions Cup for a record-breaking fourth time.
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Still, Leinster had at least begun to fight back by the change of ends – by which stage Bath led 6-3 thanks to Ford’s penalty and drop goal against a single penalty for Jonathan Sexton – with their lineout beginning to flow and the scrum temporarily vying for dominance.
This weekend the Champions Cup continues with Leinster looking to bounce back from a chastening loss to Wasps in a must-win game against Bath – which will be live on Off The Ball – while Munster will try to make it two wins from two when they visit Stade Francais.
“It’s important that we address certain things that did not go well and it’s important that we move on to the next challenge because we’re in a very tough block of games”. We know we have to be at our best if we are to get the result we want.
But after a spirited attack begun in his own half by Jamie Heaslip, Leinster won a penalty of their own, and Sexton kicked it.
“They (Leinster) are always risky when they have got Johnny Sexton kicking his goals”.
“No, I wasn’t surprised; they’re a quality side”, he said.
The team to play Bath will be announced at lunch-time today.
BATH: Anthony Watson; Semesa Rokoduguni, Ollie Devoto, Kyle Eastmond, Matt Banahan; George Ford, Chris Cook; Nick Auterac, Rob Webber, Henry Thomas, Stuart Hooper CAPTAIN, Dave Attwood, Matt Garvey, Francois Louw, Leroy Houston.
“After we gave away the penalty try, it would have been easy for us to fold up, but the guys have a lot of fighting spirit and came back really strong”.
“He was disappointed (in terms of the World Cup), but he is in talks to sign a new three-year deal with us, so he is not going anywhere”.
They certainly are too as Leinster face into a run of games following Saturday’s assignment against Bath that will see them play Ulster, Glasgow Warriors, Toulon (twice), Munster, Connacht, the Ospreys and then return fixtures against Bath and Wasps. The 22-year-old UCD student Josh van der Flier, a genuine openside flanker who has progressed through the ranks impressively, could be a principal beneficiary of the backrow issues.
Referee Jérôme Garcès was left with easy decisions around the scrum as Leinster retreated alarmingly on several occasions, backing up the poor performance in this area against Wasps last weekend with another damaging performance. “We are fortunate to have a few internationals ourselves and I am sure every single one of our players is relishing the chance to take on the European Champions at our home ground”. It was a big tragedy what happened in Paris, but we put it behind us and we need to look at the next game against Wasps.
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“It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be tough from here”.
