Leinster secured a 15-7 victory over Clermont in the European Champions Cup, but despite the win, coach Jacques Nienaber expressed disappointment with the team's performance, stating it didn't meet their usual standards.
While he admitted their level of performance didn't reach the standard they have set for themselves, Jacques Nienaber has insisted Leinster were ultimately satisfied with their 15-7 win over Clermont at the Aviva Stadium last Saturday. Thanks to opening half tries from Garry Ringrose and Jordie Barrett, the eastern province brought a five-point cushion into the interval of their European Champions Cup Pool Two clash with the Top 14 outfit in Irish Rugby HQ.
Yet a 48th-minute penalty from Sam Prendergast was the only score the hosts mustered after the restart as they fell short of matching their bonus point victory away to Bristol on the previous weekend. Despite the above, Leinster senior coach Nienaber was in a generally positive frame of mind as he reflected on the triumph against Clermont at a media briefing in UCD yesterday. “You must always cherish victories because there will come a time when you don’t get them. Then you kind of wish that you celebrated them more when you did get them. If you look at Man City and where they are now, things can change in a heartbeat, so you must always cherish victories because they are not a given in pro sport,” Nienaber said. Advertisement “Putting that aside, the disappointment is not that we won, the disappointment is if we look at our performance measured against the standard that we set ourselves, I don’t think that was on par and that’s why we’re disappointed in our performance. But we’re very happy with the win and you have to celebrate the win.” Nevertheless, it was a far from vintage display by Leinster on the day and the province’s head coach Leo Cullen remarked in the press conference that followed their showdown with Clermont that ‘we need to look at ourselves as coaches and go away and be very self-reflecting in terms of messaging and all the rest
LEINSTER CLERMONT EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS CUP PERFORMANCE VICTORY
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