Ospreys had only lost one of their previous 22 Heineken Cup matches at home which made their passivity against Leinster all the more unexpected. They lacked resourcefulness and were condemned to another frustrating year in Europe in more ways than one by the Ireland hooker Sean Cronin.
The Ireland hooker set up the only try of the game, breaking through in the home 22 before giving a scoring pass to the flanker Sean O'Brien – who won the battle at the breakdown with his fellow Lion, Justin Tipuric – before saying in a post-match interview, albeit unwittingly, that there would be no way back for the Welsh region.
"They say if you lose any game at home in the Heineken Cup it is effectively curtains," he said when asked to reflect on next Saturday's game against the other unbeaten team in the group, Castres. "It is a huge match for us and we have to win it."
Ospreys held an early six-point lead after winning the scrum engagement battle initially, but they struggled to secure quick ball at the breakdown and cracked under the pressure of a blanket defence, forced into a series of errors that left them without even a bonus point.
"We could not have made a worse start and we have to put it right at Northampton on Sunday," said the Ospreys and Lions hooker Richard Hibbard. "We beat ourselves: we were not clinical enough and I am finding it hard to deal with at the moment. We are a good side and we have to bounce back."
Hibbard admitted he was at fault when going for the line in the first-half and ignoring two unmarked players outside him and although they were awarded a penalty at that breakdown, they were penalised after opting for a scrum. In the second-half, when they were 13-9 down, Tito Tebaldi ran a kickable penalty and was robbed of possession.
"That was unforgivable, compounding the pressure we were under by being individualistic and going away from what we were trying to do," said the Ospreys coach, Griff Rees. "We lacked patience at times and we were too lateral and shallow when in possession, killed at the contact area. There were times when we had no emotional control and wWe have to be smarter at Northampton. We are going to be brutally honest with individuals this week…"
Leinster, the Amlin Cup holders, failed to emerge from the Group stage last season having won the Heineken Cup in the previous two years. Even without Brian O'Driscoll, Shane Jennings and Leo Cullen, and handicapped by the loss of the prop Mike Ross to a hamstring strain after 18 minutes, they were always in control in the final hour, absorbing pressure and turning their visits into Ospreys' territory into points.
Their decision to play the controlling Jimmy Gopperth at outside-half rather than the more mercurial Ian Madigan helped minimise their errors and Ospreys kept running up cul-de-sacs, lacking the resources on the bench to change the course of the game.
"If we play like that probably not," said their captain, Alun Wyn Jones, when asked whether he thought the Ospreys had a chance at Franklin's Gardens. "I question the effort against Leinster – we have to be that brazen with ourselves. We got turned over at wide rucks – why were we late getting there? Was it technique?
"Not everyone in the team agreed with me in the first-half going for the scrum rather than a kick at goal, but we had been getting favourable decisions there. I would not say the scrum is becoming a lottery, but it does feel it is going back to where it was. I have to be careful what I say because some people are untouchable, but everyone is using the laws to their own interpretation and some are doing it better than others."
Ospreys Fussell; John (Hassler, 56), Bishop, Beck (Morgan, 72),
Walker; Biggar, Tebaldi (Habberfield, 58); D Jones (Bevington, 51), Hibbard (Baldwin, 69), A Jones (Jarvis, 63), Alun Wyn Jones (capt), King, R Jones (Lewis, 63), Tipuric, Bearman.
Pens Biggar 3.
Leinster R Kearney; McFadden (Fitzgerald, 68), Macken, D'Arcy, Kearney; Gopperth, Boss (Reddan, 68); Healy (McGrath, 62), Cronin, Ross (Moore, 18), Toner, McCarthy (Roux, 72), McLaughlin (Ruddock, 68), O'Brien, Heaslip (capt).
Try O'Brien. Con Gopperth. Pens Gopperth 4.
Referee W Barnes (England). Attendance 12,578.
