SOME OF THE locals in Bayonne seemed a bit bemused when they were told that there would be unhappiness about Leinster’s latest performance back home.
“But Bayonne are very strong at home,” said Fabien, a huge rugby fan. He books time off work for Six Nations games as soon as the fixtures are announced each year. And he’s all over the Top 14 exploits of Bayonne, as well as Pro D2 side Biarritz.
He’s convinced that Leinster and Toulouse are the two best teams in the Champions Cup, although he somewhat begrudingly admitted that Bordeaux have an excellent chance of retaining their title.
Some people might disagree that Leinster are in that bracket, but Fabien is right about Bayonne. They are strong at Stade Jean-Dauger.
They have the best home record of any club in the Top 14 over the last two seasons. That hasn’t transferred into the Champions Cup yet, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying on Saturday.
Their players were desperate to play against Leinster, despite having nothing to aim for in terms of knock-out qualification. They were pestering their coaches last week for the chance to take on the Irish province. There had been a view that Bayonne might rest their key men ahead of this weekend’s big Top 14 clash with Castres, but they all featured.
“To have players ringing up the coaches saying, ‘I want to play, I want to play,’ that’s what you want,” said Nick Abendanon, the former England fullback who is now part of Bayonne’s coaching team.
“When you look at the one-on-one battles this evening, I don’t think we’ve seen much of a gap between the Leinster players and the Bayonne players.”
Bayonne were delighted with how they matched Leinster in the collisions, winning plenty of them. They were happy to deny Leo Cullen’s side a try-scoring bonus point too.
Jerry Cahir, Max Deegan, James Ryan and Caelan Doris. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
But like so many of the Bayonne locals, Abdendanon believes that Leinster will be in the mix for Champions Cup glory later this season.
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“Definitely,” he said. “I’ll be surprised if we don’t see them in the semi-final or the final.”
With a home tie against Edinburgh to come in the Round of 16, then a possible quarter-final at home against Harlequins or Sale, there’s little doubt Leinster are strongly fancied to reach the semi-finals at least.
If they do get to the semis, they could be away to Glasgow or home against Toulon, the Stormers, or the Bulls.
Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Bath – deemed as three of the Champions Cup favourites – are all on the other side of the knock-out draw, meaning Leinster could only meet one of them if they reach the final in Bilbao in May.
Cullen’s men were happy to get another win on Saturday, their ninth in a row in the URC and Champions Cup, but admitted to having mixed feelings afterwards. Their standards are very high, as are those of their supporters, so the imperfections are hard to ignore.
Yet they’re coming through intense battles successfully at a time of year when it can be hard to play consistently flowing, attractive rugby.
It was raining all day in Bayonne on Saturday, so it was challenging to play expansive rugby, but Leinster still managed to produce a brilliant team try for Dan Sheehan and had some other moments of class in attack as they made nine linebreaks. That said, Leinster were frustrated at not converting more of their 13 entries into the Bayonne 22, missing a handful of first-half chances narrowly.
Their set-piece went very well and, aside from the cracking Bayonne try in the 15th minute, they weren’t broken down by the French side’s attack.
Bayonne gave Leinster a serious test. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
And most of all, Leinster didn’t appear to be rattled even as the clock seemed to be against them. That has been a theme in other recent games against Leicester, Ulster, Munster, and La Rochelle.
“They get the try and you’re chasing your tail a little bit, but at the same time it was calm, there was composure, as we spoke about last week, similar in some ways, and we’ve had three or four games like that now,” said Leinster captain Caelan Doris in Bayonne.
“You don’t necessarily want to be in those situations. You want to control and be more clinical and get a scoreboard pressure and scoreboard lead but, equally, there’s positives in how we’re finding a way.”
The pessimistic viewpoint is that Leinster have come back down to the level of these teams they are narrowly beating and that they’ll struggle to beat better sides later this season.
The optimistic slant is that Leinster are getting better in pressurised situations and that this trait will stand to them in knock-out rugby in presumably better weather conditions with less disruption in their squad.
Right now, there is another big bit of that disruption ahead. Several of their Ireland internationals will not be involved against Connacht in the URC this weekend, and then a big group of Leinster players will go off on Six Nations duty for the next two months.
Many of them will be playing for Ireland against France in Paris on Thursday 5 February, so back-to-back wins over La Rochelle and Bayonne were a nice way to sign off.
“It’s quite unique the way French teams play and there’s definitely some common denominators there with the national team and these two,” said Doris.
“Obviously, keeping the ball alive, big heavy men, can be quite pragmatic in their own half. So hopefully it’ll stand to us. It’s good practice coming away to France and getting a win over here.”
Caelan Doris is one of many Leinster men heading on Ireland duty soon. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
Cullen and co. will continue to work hard with the group that remains. Leinster’s academy team lost narrowly to the Toulouse espoirs on Saturday in Toulouse, a fixture that is set to be repeated next season. After their own game, the Leinster academy side were at Stade Ernest Wallon to enjoy Toulouse’s scintillating win over Sale.
Cullen’s Leinster face Edinburgh in two weekends – when Ireland will already be in Portugal for their pre-Six Nations training camp – to end this 10-week block, which they’ll hope to finish with two more wins.
They face Cardiff on 27 February, the single Six Nations break weekend, but won’t have their full group of players back until the end of March.
From there, they’ll be looking towards the Round of 16 and their ongoing fight to be in the best position for the URC knock-outs.
While everyone will have their own opinion on Leinster’s chances of success right now, the fun of it is that none of us will really know until that time of the season rolls around again.
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Leinster tee themselves up for another shot at the Champions Cup
SOME OF THE locals in Bayonne seemed a bit bemused when they were told that there would be unhappiness about Leinster’s latest performance back home.
“But Bayonne are very strong at home,” said Fabien, a huge rugby fan. He books time off work for Six Nations games as soon as the fixtures are announced each year. And he’s all over the Top 14 exploits of Bayonne, as well as Pro D2 side Biarritz.
He’s convinced that Leinster and Toulouse are the two best teams in the Champions Cup, although he somewhat begrudingly admitted that Bordeaux have an excellent chance of retaining their title.
Some people might disagree that Leinster are in that bracket, but Fabien is right about Bayonne. They are strong at Stade Jean-Dauger.
They have the best home record of any club in the Top 14 over the last two seasons. That hasn’t transferred into the Champions Cup yet, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying on Saturday.
Their players were desperate to play against Leinster, despite having nothing to aim for in terms of knock-out qualification. They were pestering their coaches last week for the chance to take on the Irish province. There had been a view that Bayonne might rest their key men ahead of this weekend’s big Top 14 clash with Castres, but they all featured.
“To have players ringing up the coaches saying, ‘I want to play, I want to play,’ that’s what you want,” said Nick Abendanon, the former England fullback who is now part of Bayonne’s coaching team.
“When you look at the one-on-one battles this evening, I don’t think we’ve seen much of a gap between the Leinster players and the Bayonne players.”
Bayonne were delighted with how they matched Leinster in the collisions, winning plenty of them. They were happy to deny Leo Cullen’s side a try-scoring bonus point too.
But like so many of the Bayonne locals, Abdendanon believes that Leinster will be in the mix for Champions Cup glory later this season.
“Definitely,” he said. “I’ll be surprised if we don’t see them in the semi-final or the final.”
With a home tie against Edinburgh to come in the Round of 16, then a possible quarter-final at home against Harlequins or Sale, there’s little doubt Leinster are strongly fancied to reach the semi-finals at least.
If they do get to the semis, they could be away to Glasgow or home against Toulon, the Stormers, or the Bulls.
Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Bath – deemed as three of the Champions Cup favourites – are all on the other side of the knock-out draw, meaning Leinster could only meet one of them if they reach the final in Bilbao in May.
Cullen’s men were happy to get another win on Saturday, their ninth in a row in the URC and Champions Cup, but admitted to having mixed feelings afterwards. Their standards are very high, as are those of their supporters, so the imperfections are hard to ignore.
Yet they’re coming through intense battles successfully at a time of year when it can be hard to play consistently flowing, attractive rugby.
It was raining all day in Bayonne on Saturday, so it was challenging to play expansive rugby, but Leinster still managed to produce a brilliant team try for Dan Sheehan and had some other moments of class in attack as they made nine linebreaks. That said, Leinster were frustrated at not converting more of their 13 entries into the Bayonne 22, missing a handful of first-half chances narrowly.
Their set-piece went very well and, aside from the cracking Bayonne try in the 15th minute, they weren’t broken down by the French side’s attack.
And most of all, Leinster didn’t appear to be rattled even as the clock seemed to be against them. That has been a theme in other recent games against Leicester, Ulster, Munster, and La Rochelle.
“They get the try and you’re chasing your tail a little bit, but at the same time it was calm, there was composure, as we spoke about last week, similar in some ways, and we’ve had three or four games like that now,” said Leinster captain Caelan Doris in Bayonne.
“You don’t necessarily want to be in those situations. You want to control and be more clinical and get a scoreboard pressure and scoreboard lead but, equally, there’s positives in how we’re finding a way.”
The pessimistic viewpoint is that Leinster have come back down to the level of these teams they are narrowly beating and that they’ll struggle to beat better sides later this season.
The optimistic slant is that Leinster are getting better in pressurised situations and that this trait will stand to them in knock-out rugby in presumably better weather conditions with less disruption in their squad.
Right now, there is another big bit of that disruption ahead. Several of their Ireland internationals will not be involved against Connacht in the URC this weekend, and then a big group of Leinster players will go off on Six Nations duty for the next two months.
Many of them will be playing for Ireland against France in Paris on Thursday 5 February, so back-to-back wins over La Rochelle and Bayonne were a nice way to sign off.
“It’s quite unique the way French teams play and there’s definitely some common denominators there with the national team and these two,” said Doris.
“Obviously, keeping the ball alive, big heavy men, can be quite pragmatic in their own half. So hopefully it’ll stand to us. It’s good practice coming away to France and getting a win over here.”
Cullen and co. will continue to work hard with the group that remains. Leinster’s academy team lost narrowly to the Toulouse espoirs on Saturday in Toulouse, a fixture that is set to be repeated next season. After their own game, the Leinster academy side were at Stade Ernest Wallon to enjoy Toulouse’s scintillating win over Sale.
Cullen’s Leinster face Edinburgh in two weekends – when Ireland will already be in Portugal for their pre-Six Nations training camp – to end this 10-week block, which they’ll hope to finish with two more wins.
They face Cardiff on 27 February, the single Six Nations break weekend, but won’t have their full group of players back until the end of March.
From there, they’ll be looking towards the Round of 16 and their ongoing fight to be in the best position for the URC knock-outs.
While everyone will have their own opinion on Leinster’s chances of success right now, the fun of it is that none of us will really know until that time of the season rolls around again.
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Bayonne Champions Cup Leinster Rolling On