A wing and a player win it for Ospreys

Senior Sports Writer

Monday 28 May 2012

C eltic rugby's greatest ever season ended with an epic final in stunning weather at the RDS yesterday as one of the most gifted individuals ever to represent Wales got the better of the most complete team Ireland has ever produced.

Ospreys celebrate their single-point victory over Leinster at the RDS in Dublin. Picture: PA

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Kevin Ferrie

This was expected to be the day that Leinster celebrated a special season with their own folk but instead the RaboDirect Pro12 final marked the end of one of Celtic rugby's finest careers as Shane Williams stole the show, just as the little Welshman has done so often before.

On a glorious day in Dublin, in a season including a Wales grand slam and Leinster winning a second successive Heineken Cup, it had looked as if Williams would be upstaged by his opposite number, Isa Nacewa. However, moments before it was announced that the Fijian was the official man of the match for a high-class performance that included two tries, Williams had stolen in for his own second to give Dan Biggar the chance he took to snatch an unlikely win.Just as their respective left wingers did, every representative of these sides gave their all as the four-time league champions took on the team that is the best in the business, something that cannot yet be said about those marketing a competition which remains rather rough and ready when it comes to presentation. The pre-match entertainment consisted of a drumming session which had little to commend it other than persistence before a couple of dozen blokes carrying flags and banners marched around the pitch. Maybe, though, that in itself is a reflection of what is so good about the RaboDirect Pro12. Leave the plastering of lipstick on to the pig that is England's Premiership; the Pro12 is all about the rugby.The quality of this competition was best demonstrated by the Leinster players' despair, so set on crowning their season by becoming the first Celtic team to win the double. Several of them could barely drag themselves from the turf after full time, having failed in the inaugural final under the new sponsors, just as they had in both of those backed by Magners. This in a period that brought three Heineken Cup wins in four seasons. No-one knows how to beat Irish teams better than the Ospreys though, with eight wins in their last nine meetings with teams from the Emerald Isle while they had already been among the few not only to beat Leinster this season but to outbottle them on their own patch a few weeks ago.There was, then, no inferiority complex and, after Jonny Sexton's uncharacteristically wild miss of an early penalty chance, Biggar twice put his side in front with two fine strikes sandwiching Sexton's first success as normal service was rapidly resumed by Leinster's play-maker. Brian O'Driscoll set up the game's first try, drawing in two men before squeezing a pass to Sean Cronin. Biggar replied with a third penalty, then Nacewa soared to grab the restart ball to hit the ground running for his side's second try.That was the first time Leinster looked likely to pull away only to be hauled back as each side met thrust with counterthrust.They were lucky to preserve their eight-point lead when they looked much the more culpable in a sequence of collapsed scrums at the end of the first half, resulting in a sin-binning for Henke van der Merwe but no penalty try. The advantage lasted no more than a minute into the second half as Ashley Beck sliced through for a fine try.A brace of Sexton penalties pulled Leinster away again before Williams, previously quiet but showing the striker's instinct that has been his trademark, got in on the left but Biggar's first miss with the conversion attempt looked to be crucial. All the more so just three minutes later when, after more pummelling play from the Leinster pack, the chant of "Isa, Isa, Isa . . . " went up again as the Fijian spun out of a tackle and over to score a try on which Sexton did capitalise.Yet Biggar did hit the target with another penalty eight minutes from time, getting his side within six points and, when Williams then popped up on the right to tumble his way through a tackle and score in the corner, the stand-off struck the match-winning conversion.There were still a couple of minutes for Leinster to produce one final Munster-style effort to force their way within range and seek to find a way through, manufacture a drop goal or force a penalty. In that ultimate battle of discipline versus will in the searing heat at the end of a ferocious season, Leinster's resolve finally wilted, leaving all concerned gasping at the end of a season of breathless Celtic rugby.

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A wing and a player win it for Ospreys

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