Fitzgerald and McFadden battle for wing spot as Leinster make the Magners Grand Final

 

Leinster made the final of the magners league by defeating Ulster on a scoreline of 18 points to 3. The game started out at a fast placed with the Leinster players particularly O'Driscoll, O'Brien and McFadden playing the game with enormous discrimination and physicality that Ulster struggled to match. After Fergus McFadden scored Leinster's first try on 21 minutes the game had a certain inevitability about it. The game petered out with Leinster content on running down the clock and Ulster never really threatening the Leinster try line. Leinster made a raft of changes early in the second half as a result of injuries and giving key players like Sexton a rest.
 
The win may have come at a huge cost with 4 of Leinster's key player's, namely Brian O'Driscoll, Rickardt Strauss, Mike Ross and Isaac Boss being taken off injured. Strauss' injury in particular looked like it might force the player out of the Heineken Cup final next weekend. With the Heineken Cup final a little over a week away all 4 will struggle to be fit in time. The resulting substitutions did not seem to have much impact on the game as Leinster dominated the latter stages culminating in Luke Fitzgerald's try.

Before the game the main story was the battle between Fergus McFadden and Luke Fitzgerald for the second wing spot on the Leinster team for the Heineken Cup Final in Cardiff next weekend. McFadden has being pushing for a place in the full team in recent months with some fine performances that won him man of the match against Glasgow last weekend. Fitzgerald on the other hand has being struggling for form all season after coming back from injury. He has falling into the trap of trying too hard to make an impact, over running the ball and missing scoring constantly in the last few months.



After the first half it looked like McFadden was the obvious choice for the final. Showing well with ball in hand and scoring the half's only try as Fitzgerald fluffed the other big chance of the half. The injuries in the second half gave McFadden a chance to play in the centre along side Gordon D'Arcy and he continued to impress. The game's best moment however came from his rival for the number 11 jersey. After good work from replacement outhalf Ian Madigan, Fitzgerald produced a mesmerising sidestep that cut open the Ulster the defence leaving the Leinster winger to sprint in for the try, unopposed in the 61st minute. It was a moment of pure class from Fitzgerald and showed just why Leinster coach Joe Schmidt had being keeping fate with. In saying this though it would be very difficult to leave McFadden out of the match day team as over the 80 minutes he out performed Fitzgerald like he has done for much of the season. If Brian O'Driscoll's injury heals in time for the final, Schmidt will have a tough decision to make. I this evidence I would go for McFadden, but it's a close call.

For Leinster the game apart from the injuries will stand to them before the final. It was physical throughout and most importantly the team won and is into another final. For Ulster it was a disappointing end to a good season overall and gives them a foundation to build on.

Leinster: I Nacewa; F McFadden, B O'Driscoll, G D'Arcy, L Fitzgerald, J Sexton, I Boss; C Healy, R Strauss, M Ross, L Cullen (cpt), N Hines, S O'Brien, S Jennings, J Heaslip.
Replacements: J Harris-Wright, H van der Merwe, S Wright, D Toner, K McLaughlin, E Reddan, I Madigan, D Kearney.

Ulster: A D'Arcy, C Gilroy, D Cave, N Spence, S Danielli, I Humphreys, R Pienaar; T Court, R Best (cpt), D Fitzpatrick, J Muller, T Barker, P Wannenburg, C Henry, R Diack.
Replacements: A Kyriacou, P McAllister, J Cronin, N McComb, T Anderson, P Marshall, I Whitten, C Gaston.