48 HOURS OUT from a make-or-break European pool fixture away in the English midlands, you might have thought that the pressure would cranking up to unbearable levels for Leinster yesterday.
Instead, head coach Matt O’Connor looks more at ease and content than he has done all season.
It can’t all be down to the beating his side handed to Castres on Saturday night – though that is part of it. After his side surprisingly moved two full points clear in Pool 2 rather than simply matching Harlequins’ stride, O’Connor has the look of a man who feels he’s on a roll. As if his early-season toil is finally bearing fruit and luck is starting to turn his way.
“That was probably the preferred the result,” he says with a disguised smile after analysing Wasps’ surprise win at the Stoop.
It means that we can control what happens to us which is important. You win you’re in the quarter-final and that’s been the focus this week.
Simple. Win and, not only do Leinster claim a knockout berth, but they’ll also be at home in the quarter-finals. So mathematics have not been necessary on the syllabus inside the team room this week.
“It changes the dynamic slightly in the sense that it takes away the game inside the game,” says the head coach.
“It frees up the players to go out and put in a performance at a level that is good enough to win. If they can do that everything else is irrelevant.
“You don’t have to be distracted by bonus points or tries or points difference and that’s probably the most pleasing thing about the way results went for us last weekend. We get to focus in on putting in a performance that wins the game.”
That’s precisely why O’Connor is right to be confident about this weekend. No matter how poor his side may have performed or how difficult they have made the game look at times this season, more often than not they have still found a way to come away with a result.
From here on in in the Champions Cup, it doesn’t matter a damn how confident a team looks or how freely they run in group stage tries. It’s cup rugby and winning is all that counts.
To do that, O’Connor has taken a close look at the turnover threat Wasps pose, both source and result.
“There’s pros and cons to the tighter pitch [at the Ricoh Arena] it means there’s less space around the edges for their blokes. It means they’re a little bit easier to manage from unstructured situations, but we haven’t adjusted anything.
“It certainly does challenge your systems and you processes in defence the way they play but Adams Park isn’t that different, so they would understand the dimensions.”
He added: “Their back row was very abrasive and they steal a lot of ball on the floor in the breakdown, but also in the air on the choke tackle.
“We’re going to have to make sure we nullify the threat that the back row poses and make sure that we get parity and dominance up front, get quality possession to play on our terms and build pressure that way.”
The pressure will be ratcheted up, yet for the first time this season Leinster appear to be fully in control of it.
