IT’S ONE OF those weeks wherein we have so much to look forward to.
Ultimately, Murray Kinsella and Bernard Jackman can’t separate Exeter and Leinster, can you?
The42 Rugby Weekly is available wherever you get your pods…
“I know a little bit about Exeter”, says Bernard, “because I did a bit of study on them and they actually empower the players to do a huge amount of the strategy work.
“[Rob]Baxter is a bit of a nause on the game so he still coaches the games himself and everything — it’s not like he doesn’t have a strong work ethic or anything like that.
“It’s effectively that they have groups who, each week, have to pick out clips of the opposition and then pick out how they’re going to target that, or what elements of their game can work against it. And they present on the Monday.
“They would have done the work for Leinster the previous week. Everyone’s involved in it. They present to the coaches and to the group and then they agree on a strategy. It’s very interesting. They’re probably the club that have gone the deepest on that, that I’ve seen. So, their players are tactically very strong.
“We don’t see them being tested that often. I think the one little area that they (Exeter) probably will go after is that pick-and-go through the middle. Because Leinster fan out so well, because they’ve got good line integrity and line spacing, they have been caught a little bit [through the middle] on occasion.
“That might be something that we see Exeter go after because they have the ball players in and around the ruck to go through the ruck, but after that, it’s a case of not getting spooked.”
The42 Rugby Weekly / SoundCloud
Murray Kinsella, Bernard Jackman and Gavan Casey look back on a mixed weekend in Europe for the provinces before previewing Exeter-Leinster and Wales-Ireland.
