Leinster rescue bonus point against Montpellier
Montpellier 22 Leinster 16
If ever a defeat tasted like victory, then this was it, .
Leinster missed one in every four tackles made in this Champions Cup tie - and they were forced to make a lot of tackles - and they were complicit in the concession of all three tries claimed by the Top 14 outfit.
They trailed by 13 points entering the last quarter and the question then was whether Montpellier could go on and claim the fourth try and the extra bonus point. Instead, it was Leinster who excavated something from the game.
With time all but up, replacement scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park whipped a rocket of a pass towards Isa Nacewa and the Leinster captain flew over to touch down.
The losing bonus was confirmed with his own kick at the posts.
Such nuggets tend to rise sharply in value come January.
Leinster approached this one in good fettle after a string of decent results and with Jonathan Sexton and Sean O'Brien both available again after injury for a tie against a host team that had lost narrowly in Northampton last week.
This was a very different proposition to the province's defeat of Castres in Dublin in the opening round however.
The maul, so profitable last week, was a source of punishment here and one they never got to grips with.
Montpellier are second in the Top 14 and a fearsome prospect at home where a tie with a gargantuan side was made all the more imposing by incessant rainfall over the weekend and a heavy pitch that sapped energy from the legs.
Some of the biggest hits were wince-inducing and most of them were absorbed by the visitors.
Leo Cullen's side coped admirably in the opening quarter despite conceding the majority of possession and territory to their opponents.
An Isa Nacewa penalty after 26 minutes even afforded them the lead.
Two converted tries in the space of half-a-dozen minutes turned the game on its axis shortly after and both of them owed something to mistakes by the visitors whose discipline slipped as the break approached.
O'Brien was blowing hard from early on but he burrowed deep for a turnover after 29 minutes that appeared to relieve some of the pressure.
Seconds later though and Cian Healy was knocking on and with the back door swinging wide open.
Vincent Martin picked up the loose pill and skirted between O'Brien and Mike Ross in the hastily arranged defensive line and the centre's pace took care of the rest to a chorus of oohs and aahs from the crowd.
Worse was to follow with Jamie Heaslip conceding two penalties for illegally taking down a maul and Montepellier launching a swift pre-planned move off the second of those from a resultant kick to touch and lineout.
It wasn't exactly complicated, the intention being simply to feed the gigantic Nemani Nadolo on the far wing.
The Fijian did the rest, Rob Kearney bouncing off him and then Luke McGrath hanging off him as he touched down.
Francois Steyn's two conversions added to the total price Leinster paid for their mistakes and there was a growing sense that this was an increasingly uphill task when Sexton and O'Brien failed to reappear after the interval.
O'Brien's 40 minutes was understandable given this was his first senior competitive outing since the Six Nations but Sexton's departure, added to the fact that he didn't take the earlier penalty kick, is concerning after his recent hamstring problem.
Will he make Chicago in a fortnight now?
The grunt and grind continued without him, Steyn adding a penalty to Montpellier's tally before Nacewa responded with his second three-pointer to bring the margin back to eleven with 53 minutes chalked off.
A losing bonus point would have made for a perfectly acceptable return on their day's work at that point - and more so soon after when Rob Kearney was shown a harsh yellow for obstruction - but even that morsel seemed unlikely when Nadolo intercepted a Jamie Heaslip pass on his own try line after a blindside break off the back of a scrum.
To their credit, Leinster kept up the pursuit.
Nacewa's third penalty left it 22-9 with 17 to go and Dan Leavy came within inches of dotting down for their first try with less than four minutes before Nacewa stepped up to turn a taxing day into one of some profit.
J Michel; M O'Connor, V Martin, A Dumoulin, N Napoli; F Steyn, N White; Y Watremez, S Mamukashvili, Jannie Du Plessis; Jacques Du Plessis, P Willemstad; F Ouedraogo, A Qera, P Spies.
M Nariashvili for Watremez and D Kubriashvili for Jannie Du Plessis (both 50); N Van Rensburg for Spies, W Liebenberg for Qera and J Mogg for Michel (all 66); R Ruffenach for Mamukashvili and T O'Leary for White (both 75).
R Kearney; Z Kirchner, G Ringrose, R Henshaw, I Nacewa; J Sexton, L McGrath; C Healy, J Tracy, M Ross; D Toner, M McCarthy; S O'Brien, J van der Flier, J Heaslip.
J Carbery for Sexton and J Murphy for O'Brien (both HT); I Nagle for M Kearney (44); J McGrath for Healy and S Cronin for Tracy (both 47); M Bent for Ross (61); J Gibson-Park for L McGrath (64); D Leavy for van der Flier (74).
L Pearce (England).
