LEINSTER COACH JOE SCHMIDT was adamant that his side would have to shut down London Wasps’ dangerous wingers to have any hope of reaching the Challenge Cup semis.
The wingers, Tom Varndell and Christian Wade, scored two tries apiece. Luckily for Schmidt, Ian Madigan [with a 28 point contribution] was in fantastic form and the Blues progressed.
The semi-final takes place at the RDS tomorrow afternoon at 2:30pm and, once again, Schmidt has wingers on the brain.
He told TheScore.ie, “Benoît Baby has got better and better for them. Scored a super try against Clermont recently to beat them in the last few minutes of the game. Marcelo Bosch has spent a whole season out injured. He has really come back and is going well.” Schmidt added:
We know the wingers [Teddy Thomas and Takudzwa Ngwenya] are potent. We have done a little bit of study on them I hope it is not the same study we’ve done on Wade and Varndell because they got four tries between them last time we played.”
The coach, who has yet to hear from the IRFU about the Ireland head coach role he interviewed for last week, calls the reigning Amlin champions ‘a cup team’, capable of raising their game when the situation merits.
Brian O’Driscoll with Taku Ngwenya, on US rugby duty, in 2011. (©INPHO/Dan Sheridan)
While Schmidt was more than happy to focus on Saturday’s knock-out clash, Leinster captain Leo Cullen was asked to reflect on a season where poor form, a huge injury list and Clermont Auvergene combined to end their reign as Heineken Cup champions.
Cullen told TheScore.ie, “If you wind the clock back, an extra 10 points in that final game would have been enough to get us into the quarter finals… obviously we were disappointed but, as a group, we had to reassess our goals.”
Once the Wasps hurdle was cleared, he said, Leinster knew there would be a semi-final and final at the RDS, their home ground. Not quite the Aviva Stadium, where they play host on big occasions, but not a bad stick to chew on while the carrot is fought over by Munster, Saracens and the French behemoths.
Addressing the Biarritz challenge, Cullen commented, “The type of game is very set-piece orientated and Harinordoquy, as he has proven over the last 10 years, is one of the best lineout operators in the world. They’ve a strong scrum and maul. We know we have to be right on the money.”
On a weekend where Munster travel to France to take on a Clermont team with a proud record as hosts [particularly in the Stade Marcel Michelin], Schmidt broke a symmetrical end to the press briefing. He recalled:
I know the last game Clermont lost at the Stade Marcel Michelin was against Biarritz because I was coaching there at the time.
It was a game where Paul Couet-Lannes scored in the last play of the game to win the game and we probably created a few chances and didn’t nail them. You have got to take your chances against Biarritz.”
