Even though winning at home is usually paramount in the competition, new Leinster coach Declan Kidney wasn’t in any way disappointed with his inexperienced side’s performance. “You couldn’t fault the attitude out there,” he said. “It was a start. I’m not overly satisfied, but in the circumstances, I’m not dissatisfied.”
With precious few try-scoring opportunities on offer, Leinster battled through with two penalties from David McAllister and one more from substitute from Brian O’Meara. However, they were denied a possible victory when wing Gary Brown had a try disallowed for a knock-on which TV footage later showed had in fact been committed by a Cardiff player.
Ulster, meanwhile, got their campaign off to a winning start when they edged out Edinburgh 17-16 at Murrayfield, a result that was all the more impressive given that 12 of the squad were unavailable due to injuries and Ireland training commitments.
Against an Edinburgh side with all its Scotland internationals in the lineup, Ulster left it until exactly the right moment to take the lead for the first time when out-half Paddy Wallace dropped a decisive goal with just four minutes remaining.
“We shouldn’t underestimate how good a performance that was,” new coach Mark McCall said. “We had a few problems of our own before the match, but the players who came into the team were magnificent.”
Wing Andy Maxwell scored Ulster’s try in the first half with Wallace kicking nine points and Paul Steinmetz also landing a drop goal.
Meanwhile, Connacht also made a promising opening with a convincing 31-15 victory over Glasgow in Galway. If the early-season contest was littered with errors, Connacht still managed to outscore their opponents by four tries to two as Matt Lacey, Paul Warwick, Matt Mostyn and John Muldoon all crossed the Glasgow line. Warwick added three conversions and a penalty before substitute Eric Elwood completed the job with the conversion of Muldoon’s try.