Gordon D’Arcy

For Leinster, it's probably a criticism.

It's now a kind of a piece for them where they have not been able to navigate that game.

Over the last four or five years, they would have been able just to manage that game and get a result, grind out the result where they actually weren't able to do it this time.

I think that's a big criticism and how they perform this week will contextualise that loss against Benetton.

I would put an awful lot into individual responsibility there.

And too many players were off the pace mentally.

I thought some of the reads and defense were poor.

And what I mean by that is,

Leinster play that high defensive line where they never really put the passers under pressure so they were able to get the ball away and then the defenders outside either need to cover the ground quicker or pull out and they did neither they just kept kind of going up and then Benetton just put the ball through the hands and got to the edge really really quickly and effortlessly

So that to me is lack of intent and lack of individual responsibility.

They're not ready for the game.

There's enough players there with enough experience to go, we should be taking responsibility for the on the field thing.

So to me, in games like that, a big part of it starts with the defensive intent.

And it was missing from the word go against Benetton.

And that says everything about where a team is mentally.

Yeah, but then you also have the Dan Sheehan line off James Gibson Park and they just shoot passes and they completely unstick a whole defence.

So that's the frustration with Leinster is they mix the sublime with the terrible.

There's a lot in that.

So if you're trying to break down a team and you're doing it off medium ball, you want to be pretty amazing to do that because that's just not how the game is played at the moment.

So Leinster is still stuck in that.