WHILE LEO CULLEN doesn’t hide the fact today’s opposition are brimming with quality across the board, the Leinster head coach believes his side are fully capable of matching Montpellier.
After an encouraging, if not convincing, bonus-point win over Castres on the opening weekend, the province face another Top 14 opponent later [KO 1pm, Sky Sports] in the form of Jake White’s powerful outfit.
The French side have an explosive mix of French, Georgian, Fijian and South African internationals in their pack and will provide a formidable challenge for Leinster in their second Pool 4 outing.
Leinster are under no illusions of the task ahead at the Stade Yves-du-Manoir but Cullen has been able to recall the fit again Sean O’Brien and Johnny Sexton, a timely boost for a big European occasion.
“Across the board, they’re a team with a huge amount of resources so they’ve gone out and they’re buying international players from the top shelf so there’s no shortage of quality there,” Cullen said of Montpellier.
Francois Steyn we would be a little bit aware of, he played for Racing Metro a few years ago in the RDS. A player we’ve seen with a huge amount of experience. Nadolo on the wing obviously for Fiji.
“They’ve got a lot of quality up front with a physical front five. Paul Willemse, du Plessis in the second row has really strong carries for them. We’ve had prep this week and I think we’re up to the challenge.”
The French club lost their opening Champions Cup of the campaign at Northampton last week but have enjoyed a strong start to the Top 14 season with five wins from eight to sit second behind Clermont.
Although Montpellier won the Challenge Cup last year, their record in the top European competition has been less than impressive in recent seasons having progressed from the pool stages just once in four attempts.
In the build-up to today’s game, White and Francois Steyn spoke of the club’s inexperience at this level, ultimately playing down expectations ahead of this crunch tie. However, Cullen isn’t buying in to that and says they’re one of the biggest teams in Europe having invested heavily in the squad.
We’d a very tough game against them in 2012, it’s a very different bunch of players and I don’t think there’s that many left; (Fulgence) Ouedraogo and maybe one or two others.But, yeah, I remember Gorgodze and those players at the time, Trinh-Duc…it was just a really physical game to play in.
“They came out really, really hard out the blocks and with Jake White coaching them I don’t think it will have changed drastically.
“They will be really physical, maybe even more so now and some of the players they’ve brought in are really, really big players; they’re one of the biggest teams in Europe I’d imagine.
“They’ve been really good at home and they’re going to use this game as a game to win, rather than a game to learn. They’ll go hard out and we need to be ready for that this week.
“With the eight days, it’s given us a chance to have some good recovery, to allow us be fresh and be clear about what we’re going to do going into the weekend.”
Leinster know victory in France later would put them in pole position to advance to the knock-out stages after the first round of games.
Isa Nacewa once again captains the side from the left wing after an all-action performance last week which saw him score a try, kick four conversions and also fill in at scrum-half when Luke McGrath was shown yellow.
The 34-year-old knows the bar has to be raised again this weekend, with the players concentarting on being more clinical in training this week.
“It’s pretty frustrating when we leave so much out there,” he said at Friday’s press conference.
“And when we come in on the Monday and review a game and see what we left out there, it’s a lot for us to work on, but a positive sign that we still got the result at the end of the day.
“We work hard in training, we work hard on the combinations that are out there on the field, and I think we are getting better each week, each day out there training, but it’s about executing under pressure and finishing those opportunities, that’s what we have to get better at if we want to progress through this tournament.”
Montpellier:
15. Joffrey Michel
14. Marvin O’Connor
13. Vincent Martin
12. Alexandre Dumoulin
11. Nemani Nadolo
10. Frans Steyn
9. Nic White
1. Yvan Watremez
2. Shalva Mamukashvili
3. Jannie Du Plessis
4. Jacques Du Plessis
5. Paul Willemse
6. Fulgence Ouedraogo
7. Akapusi Qera
8. Pierre Spies
Replacements:
16. Romain Ruffenach
17. Mikheil Nariashvili
18. Davit Kubriashvili
19. Nicholaas Van Rensburg
20. Wiaan Liebenberg
21. Tomas O’Leary
22. Ben Botica
23. Jesse Mogg
Leinster:
15. Rob Kearney
14. Zane Kirchner
13. Garry Ringrose
12. Robbie Henshaw
11. Isa Nacewa (C)
10. Jonathan Sexton
9. Luke McGrath
1. Cian Healy
2. James Tracy
3. Mike Ross
4. Devin Toner
5. Mick Kearney
6. Sean O’Brien
7. Josh van der Flier
8. Jamie Heaslip
Replacements:
16. Sean Cronin
17. Jack McGrath
18. Michael Bent
19. Ian Nagle
20. Jordi Murphy
21. Dan Leavy
22. Jamison Gibson-Park
23. Joey Carbery
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