THIS MORNING’S VIDEO review session at Leinster HQ may not make for comfortable viewing, particularly at the start of a big European week, but it’s perhaps exactly what Leo Cullen’s men need.
Saturday’s sluggish performance against Cardiff Blues was something of a reality check for the eastern province and certainly a displayed riddled with inaccuracies, most notably in defence, will have given the coaching staff plenty to work on this week.
Leinster did, of course, come away with the points but the visitors’ expansive and explosive attacking game exposed chinks in the armour ahead of Saturday’s Champions Cup quarter-final with Wasps.
Cullen will be boosted by the return of his front-line internationals this morning as preparations begin in earnest for the Aviva Stadium showdown but the head coach is fully aware of the need to address the shortcomings which nearly cost his side on Saturday.
Cardiff could, and probably should, have snatched victory at the death but for Matthew Morgan’s forward pass and Wasps — arguably playing some of the best rugby in Europe at present — won’t be as forgiving this weekend.
Dai Young’s side possess a potent threat all over the pitch and the Premiership leaders will arrive in Dublin bristling with swagger having done the double over Leinster in Europe last season.
“They have so much threat,” Cullen says of Wasps. ”They have a lot of power in their forwards as well. You’ll see Nathan Hughes and James Haskell in the Six Nations. Launchbury as well, three big powerful men that come back into the team
“They (Wasps) have gone well during the Six Nations spell as well. But the threat they have whether it’s Danny Cipriani or Jimmy Gopperth who plays at 10, two very dangerous guys.
“We’ve mentioned some of the outside back threats they have as well. A lot of pace and power and they can score points very, very quickly. We just have to be smart about how we manage the game, certainly smarter than we were on Saturday.”
Leinster, too, have been on a fine run of form and before the weekend’s one-point win over Cardiff, had collected 20 points from 20 in the Guinness Pro12 during the Six Nations period.
But Wasps and the occasion of a European quarter-final provides an entirely different proposition, particularly when the wounds from last season’s chastening 51-10 defeat at the Ricoh Arena are still very fresh.
“There’s a level of relevance to it,” Cullen admits when that game is brought up. ”They were pretty tough outings. You talk about that Wasps game. We’d maybe 70 per cent possession. Maybe that was the figure. But there’s no point in saying that after the game.
“We were well beaten on the scoreboard. We need to manage the game better and take some learnings from those games.
“We tried to get a bit of a head-start last week and maybe that slight distraction crept into our preparation for the Cardiff game. At least it’s out of the way now, we got the win – albeit a little bit fortunate – but we’ll just make sure we assess the players who’ve come through and played this game.
“It’s good to get some guys like Josh (van der Flier) and Isa (Nacewa) back in and get 80 minutes under their belts. We’ll see how guys are after they come through the game and put some plans in place. We started planting a few seeds last week with some of those international guys coming back.”
Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, Johnny Sexton, Tadhg Furlong, Jack McGrath, Devin Toner and Sean O’Brien should all return to the training paddock with the province later today after being given time off following the conclusion of the Six Nations campaign, although Jamie Heaslip and Rob Kearney are absent through injury.
That in itself presents its own challenges with Cullen and Stuart Lancaster tasked with re-integrating guys back into the squad in such a short window ahead of a potentially season-defining game.
“There is a challenge for sure, yeah, but we’ve known about it for a long time,” the head coach added.
“It is what it is, we’ll just get on with it. When we came off November it was pretty similar and we went into a Friday game against Northampton, so we’ve already dealt with it once this year.
“I know the November window is not quite as long as the Six Nations, but it is something the players have dealt with already and we’d a few injuries at that stage. We managed to get through, but it’s a totally different challenge.
“A lot of the players played at the Aviva Stadium against England, they’ve a reasonably positive experience of that, positive memories so we just need to put in a good week’s preparation so that players know what is at stake. They know the threats Wasps pose, we came unstuck against them last year twice.”
Saturday’s quarter-final is on course to be a sell-out at the Aviva with ticket sales already past the 45,000 mark. It promises to be a special occasion.
“Look at the teams all across Europe, there are not many can fill a 50,000-seater stadium with a game of this magnitude. All the players have probably had this game in the back of their minds. A great occasion. It’s pressure but it’s positive pressure.”
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