THE LIST OF areas where Leinster feel they need to improve might be longer than they’d like at this point of the season, but there’s also a more succinct, focused understanding of the type of performance needed to win at Leicester Tigers on Friday.
Tigers go into the game on the back of a 39-20 defeat at La Rochelle, where they fielded a young team with an eye to this week’s meeting with Leo Cullen’s side. Leinster were 45-28 winners at home to Harlequins, but as assistant coach Robin McBryde admits, nobody was feeling too good about themselves after the province struggled to shake of their heavily-rotated visitors, who had a number of internationals on mandatory rest.
“After the weekend it just felt flat. I think everybody felt flat,” McBryde says.
“The game didn’t really get going for whatever reason. So you can look for things that sometimes aren’t there, and you can put rocks in the road that don’t need to be there. Where we’re going on Friday, you’ve got to get it right because the level of the opposition, the venue, the European stage, everything needs to be ironed out. There’s no get out. We’ll have been together a bit longer, hopefully that understanding will be a bit better.
“Sometimes you need a game just to go ‘right, here we go’. And there’s no bones about it, you’ve just got to roll your sleeves because Leicester will challenge us. Anything that doesn’t require talent, we’ve got to be better than them. And a little bit more.”
And that’s the base message. Leinster want to deliver a more polished performance at Welford Road than they did at Aviva Stadium on Saturday, but they know that hard work and effort will carry them a long way against a Tigers side who still place plenty of pride in the work they do up front.
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It feeds into the old-school feel that still surrounds the Welford Road club, where, of course, Leinster boss Leo Cullen spent time as a player.
Last season Leicester were narrowly beaten by Bath in the Premiership final, and they currently sit fourth in the Prem table. Former Tigers player Geoff Parling – who worked as defence coach with Joe Schmidt’s Australia, has taken over from Michael Cheika as head coach, and while the squad lost the likes of Ben Youngs, Dan Cole, Julian Montoya and Handre Pollard over the summer, Wallaby veteran James O’Connor, highly-rated hooker Jamie Blamire and Argentinian flanker Joaquin Moro were brought on board.
“You’ve got Geoff Parling (head coach) there who’s had recent experience with Australia, but there’s nobody who knows more about how Leicester go about things than Leo Cullen who spent two years there,” McBryde says.
“They put you in a certain frame of mind. There’s no smaller dressing-room. The steps going down to the field. Smoke on the Water. It’s a great place to go and they just build that mentality. They’ve got quality players there now, and maybe they’ve re-found their identity.
They look as if they pride themselves on being the best at anything that doesn’t require talent. We have to match that and then some on top of it.
“You’ve got to see it as a challenge, and somewhere to go and measure yourself up against. And maybe it’s coming at the right time for us. Maybe we need a level of – and I’m not being disrespectful to anybody else we’ve played so far this year – but to go away to Welford Road in Europe, it certainly sharpens the mind straight away.
“Sometimes you need a game like that just to… not get your season up and running, but just to sort of find out where you are.”
Leinster won’t know until later in the week if they will have RG Snyman or Garry Ringrose available for the round two Champions Cup tie. Snyman is nursing a shoulder injury while Ringrose was removed against Harlequins due to a ‘cramp injury’ which requires further assessment. James Lowe will be available, as will James Ryan, who returns from suspension.
The province were awaiting a further update on Jordan Larmour, who sits out this weekend with a hamstring injury, and looks set for another spell on the sidelines.
“It’s tough, because you see how hard he works in his rehab in order to get back fit, so when you see that happen it’s tough,” McBryde said of Larmour.
Jordan Larmour had a strong game against Quins before suffering an injury. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
“It’s very hard in the moment to put any positive spin on it because it’s just one of those things, the nature of the game. At least he performed well in the game (v Quins), he was outstanding.
‘It’s a bit different in this environment here because if you’re not involved with Ireland, then the windows of opportunity while those international players are away are getting less and less because we don’t play during the autumn, there’s one game during the Six Nations
“So when you’re given the opportunity, players don’t take it lightly, and they realise they’ve got to make the most of it when they’ve got the opportunity. The unfortunate thing is if you’re injured during those periods of time, then it’s highly unlikely you’re going to play a top-end game really because it’s the nature of being involved in a high performing environment like it is here in Leinster.
“Jordan was great on the weekend, unfortunately he’s suffered an injury, hopefully it won’t be that bad, but we don’t know (yet).”
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'They put you in a certain frame of mind' - Leinster feel Tigers test can ignite season
THE LIST OF areas where Leinster feel they need to improve might be longer than they’d like at this point of the season, but there’s also a more succinct, focused understanding of the type of performance needed to win at Leicester Tigers on Friday.
Tigers go into the game on the back of a 39-20 defeat at La Rochelle, where they fielded a young team with an eye to this week’s meeting with Leo Cullen’s side. Leinster were 45-28 winners at home to Harlequins, but as assistant coach Robin McBryde admits, nobody was feeling too good about themselves after the province struggled to shake of their heavily-rotated visitors, who had a number of internationals on mandatory rest.
“After the weekend it just felt flat. I think everybody felt flat,” McBryde says.
“The game didn’t really get going for whatever reason. So you can look for things that sometimes aren’t there, and you can put rocks in the road that don’t need to be there. Where we’re going on Friday, you’ve got to get it right because the level of the opposition, the venue, the European stage, everything needs to be ironed out. There’s no get out. We’ll have been together a bit longer, hopefully that understanding will be a bit better.
“Sometimes you need a game just to go ‘right, here we go’. And there’s no bones about it, you’ve just got to roll your sleeves because Leicester will challenge us. Anything that doesn’t require talent, we’ve got to be better than them. And a little bit more.”
And that’s the base message. Leinster want to deliver a more polished performance at Welford Road than they did at Aviva Stadium on Saturday, but they know that hard work and effort will carry them a long way against a Tigers side who still place plenty of pride in the work they do up front.
It feeds into the old-school feel that still surrounds the Welford Road club, where, of course, Leinster boss Leo Cullen spent time as a player.
Last season Leicester were narrowly beaten by Bath in the Premiership final, and they currently sit fourth in the Prem table. Former Tigers player Geoff Parling – who worked as defence coach with Joe Schmidt’s Australia, has taken over from Michael Cheika as head coach, and while the squad lost the likes of Ben Youngs, Dan Cole, Julian Montoya and Handre Pollard over the summer, Wallaby veteran James O’Connor, highly-rated hooker Jamie Blamire and Argentinian flanker Joaquin Moro were brought on board.
“You’ve got Geoff Parling (head coach) there who’s had recent experience with Australia, but there’s nobody who knows more about how Leicester go about things than Leo Cullen who spent two years there,” McBryde says.
“They put you in a certain frame of mind. There’s no smaller dressing-room. The steps going down to the field. Smoke on the Water. It’s a great place to go and they just build that mentality. They’ve got quality players there now, and maybe they’ve re-found their identity.
“You’ve got to see it as a challenge, and somewhere to go and measure yourself up against. And maybe it’s coming at the right time for us. Maybe we need a level of – and I’m not being disrespectful to anybody else we’ve played so far this year – but to go away to Welford Road in Europe, it certainly sharpens the mind straight away.
“Sometimes you need a game like that just to… not get your season up and running, but just to sort of find out where you are.”
Leinster won’t know until later in the week if they will have RG Snyman or Garry Ringrose available for the round two Champions Cup tie. Snyman is nursing a shoulder injury while Ringrose was removed against Harlequins due to a ‘cramp injury’ which requires further assessment. James Lowe will be available, as will James Ryan, who returns from suspension.
The province were awaiting a further update on Jordan Larmour, who sits out this weekend with a hamstring injury, and looks set for another spell on the sidelines.
“It’s tough, because you see how hard he works in his rehab in order to get back fit, so when you see that happen it’s tough,” McBryde said of Larmour.
“It’s very hard in the moment to put any positive spin on it because it’s just one of those things, the nature of the game. At least he performed well in the game (v Quins), he was outstanding.
‘It’s a bit different in this environment here because if you’re not involved with Ireland, then the windows of opportunity while those international players are away are getting less and less because we don’t play during the autumn, there’s one game during the Six Nations
“So when you’re given the opportunity, players don’t take it lightly, and they realise they’ve got to make the most of it when they’ve got the opportunity. The unfortunate thing is if you’re injured during those periods of time, then it’s highly unlikely you’re going to play a top-end game really because it’s the nature of being involved in a high performing environment like it is here in Leinster.
“Jordan was great on the weekend, unfortunately he’s suffered an injury, hopefully it won’t be that bad, but we don’t know (yet).”
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Champions Cup Leinster Robin McBryde Rugby