A BANK HOLIDAY Monday, but there was a real sense of purpose around Leinster’s headquarters yesterday. An added level of excitement, an extra layer of nervousness and an appreciation of what’s at stake this weekend.
There is no greater task in club rugby than travelling to the south of France to take Clermont on in their own backyard, particularly at this stage of the competition, and Sunday’s Champions Cup semi-final promises to be an occasion of epic proportions.
A big week, then?
“Just a bit, do you want me to elaborate?” was Stuart Lancaster’s opening line in his media briefing at UCD.
No need, Stuart.
Weeks don’t come much bigger than Champions Cup semi-final weeks, and everyone is fully aware of it. The players, the coaching staff, the receptionist and the supporters; but this is exactly where the club want to be. It’s where they feel they belong.
“It’s a huge week, it’s a huge week for a variety of reasons,” Lancaster did indeed elaborate. “We’re in good shape going into the game to be honest.”
Clermont, second in the Top 14, provide the stiffest of assignments in Lyon, a neutral venue in nothing but name, and Leinster know they’ll need to find top gear on Sunday if they are to book a place in this year’s final in Edinburgh.
It’s safe to say it’s the biggest game of the eastern province’s campaign, and preparations began in earnest on Monday as the coaching staff picked over the weekend’s win over Connacht and started to formulate a game plan which they hope will thwart the considerable threat Clermont possess.
It’s hard to read too much into the bonus-point win over Galway when looking ahead to the trip to Parc Olympique Lyonnais but it was important for Leinster to carry that winning momentum into this week and find a clinical edge which they’ll need if they’re to stand any chance on Sunday.
Leo Cullen and Lancaster presided over a full training session in UCD yesterday afternoon, with the likes of Johnny Sexton, Sean O’Brien, Joey Carbery, Garry Ringrose and Robbie Henshaw all returning. The sight of those internationals at this early stage of the piece is in itself an indication of the magnitude of this week.
The players have been given today off and will report again on Wednesday for a defence-orientated session as well as specific work within the forward and back units.
“They’ll have Thursday off as well because of the Sunday game,” Lancaster explains. “And then we’ll be in the run in to the game when by then the players should really begin to take ownership of the game plan themselves.
“Then we drive the momentum and energy into Sunday, which is probably going to be one of those occasions that you’d want to be in the crowd.
“You need to be aware of the environment you’re going into and while we can’t replicate what it’s going to be like, I watched Saracens against Clermont which was the semi-final in 2015 and Saracens had to go to a similar stadium in France and the crowd there was 40,000 French and about a thousand Saracens fans, there might be more Leinster fans but I don’t think we’ll balance the numbers.”
Lancaster added that one of his primary roles over the coming days will be to prepare the players mentally for what they can expect come kick-off time on Sunday, insisting it’s important for the squad to get that out of the way early so their focus is purely on the performance.
“It’s important to prepare the players for the environment we’re going into,” the former England head coach continued.
“You can’t just assume because you’re an international player you know what it’s going to be like and particularly for the younger players they can’t assume they’ll know what it will look and feel like.
“I’ll try and prepare them as best I can as I’ve been there as a coach on the international stage and I know the more you can get that stuff out of the way at the start of the week the more they can concentrate on the game.
“You show them images, talk them through it, use the experience of the players that have been there before and pass on your experience of what it takes to win these big games.
“Leo, Girv [Dempsey], John Fogarty have all been involved in these big games and a lot of the squad have played in three European Cup finals so there’s a lot of experience in the squad. It’s important for us as a group to share that experience so the event itself doesn’t become a distraction and it’s just a game of rugby, albeit at the highest level.”
Apart from the injured duo of Rob Kearney and Jamie Heaslip, Cullen pretty much has a full deck to select from and after several players, including Josh van der Flier and Rhys Ruddock, put their case forward against Connacht, the head coach will have a number of selection headaches.
The back row, in particular, is an area Cullen and his staff will give careful consideration to, especially with doubts surrounding the fitness of Jack Conan and Heaslip’s continued unavailability.
“Selection is obviously going to be the key factor for us, as well as injury, and we need to make those right decisions,” Lancaster admitted.
“You’ve got to trust your instincts as a coach in terms of selection and base it on what you know about the players and what you see on the training field as well as what you’ve learned from games.
“There are some big game players in Leinster who have played in three European Cup finals so to get those guys back in will be huge for us.
“We know we need to improve, particularly defensively and while Connacht scored some great tries and challenged us like no other team have we’ve got some good players to come back in and when we’ll get that time together this week and we can prepare properly, we’re confident we can do a job in Clermont defensively.”
As Leinster ready themselves for a return to Europe’s big stage, the arrival of Lancaster at the start of the season and his role in the province’s campaign cannot be underestimated after the disappointment of 2015/16.
These are the types of weeks, the big European ones, that Lancaster came to Dublin for and the build-up already reminds him of the days leading into a big international Test match.
“If you had have said to me at the start of the season that we’d be at this point I would have been absolutely delighted,” he added.
“It reminds me very much of a Test week, that what’s it feels like at the moment. You’re putting out your game plan, looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition and as the week goes on and your travel to France, it does remind me a lot of a Test week
“That’s what it is because there’s Test players on both sides playing at the highest level. We’ve also got two attacking teams going toe-to-toe and for the neutral it doesn’t get any better than this game.”
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