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Pro12

Schmidt-O’Connor transition has been seamless for Leinster — Gordon D’Arcy

The veteran centre will hope the same goes for a turnaround in fortunes against the Ospreys.

ON SATURDAY, LEINSTER coach Matt O’Connor will send his side out onto their home RDS turf for the first time in his tenure.

In terms of video analysis, he could hardly have cherry-picked more familiar Pro12 patterns to examine than the Ospreys’ narrow win over Treviso last weekend.

Both clubs were pool opponents of O’Connor’s Leicester Tigers last season, so he should know exactly what awaits him.

Gordon D’Arcy certainly does. The veteran centre has seen just two of the last eight meetings between the sides go Leinster’s way. Leinster did claim the most recent contest, but that bonus point win arrived courtesy of a hat-trick from the now departed Andrew Conway.

“We know ourselves, Treviso is one of the harder places to go and win,” D’Arcy says.

“They had a good win and we’ve obviously struggled with them in the past – they’re a really, really good team. We know what to expect from them. Second game of the season, at this point every game is going to be an improvement on the previous one.”

Whether the three-time European champions can improve year-on-year after Joe Schmidt was whisked round the corner to take the international hot-seat is the biggest question playing on the minds of Leinster supporters. Now, two months after heading to work under O’Connor, D’Arcy says the tone of voice has been the only major change to life around UCD.

“It’s going to be seamless,” says the 33-year-old centre.

“They [Schmidt and O'Connor] both have the same kind of ethos in rugby and they both have the exact same work-rate – they’re first in, last out.

“The guy loves talking about rugby, it’s in his blood. The delivery is probably a bit different, but the outcome is hopefully  going to be the same.”

On the field, O’Connor has already claimed one landmark win to etch his name in the history books. Continuing a turnaround in fortunes against Ospreys is the next step.

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