RYAN BAIRD THINKS about rugby the same way as he plays: forward.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, now…” Baird pulls the brakes, briefly, when asked if Leinster’s 47-14 victory over the Bulls in Friday night’s top-of-the-table URC clash felt like a significant checkpoint in their season. “But I think we were told that the last time they were in the RDS was when they beat us in the semi-final?”
The back row is bang-on, of course. And it’s only natural that the Bulls’ upset of Leinster in their 2021/22 URC semi would have scarred over faster for Baird and his teammates than it did for their supporters
In any case, it’s already a far more distant memory for both sets of stakeholders than it was last week.
Baird has spent the last few days walking off the bruises earned in Leinster’s more recent romp over the South Africans.
“They came hard out of the blocks,” he says of the Bulls.
I’d say that first 40 minutes probably felt like a test match. There were many Springboks on that team and there were a lot of players on our team who are Irish internationals — and players who aren’t Irish internationals but who are of that standard.
“We played some great rugby in that second half, we broke them down. It was a really, really good game, very enjoyable to play in, and a great way to prepare for what is another big week for the club.”
Leo Cullen’s side host Leicester Tigers in a Round of 16 Champions Cup clash at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday night (8pm). Leinster are 16-point favourites over a Tigers outfit which sits seventh in the 10-club English Premiership — albeit Dan McKellar’s remain within striking distance of Bath in second.
That Saturday’s visitors went life and death with the winless Newcastle Falcons in a marathon game at Kingston Park doesn’t exactly help their cause in Dublin, nor does the fact that Leinster rolled the Tigers over and tickled their tummies at Welford Road in the pool stage.
And Leinster’s defence under Jacques Nienaber has notably progressed even since that January meeting.
Most impressive last Friday was Leinster’s scramble ‘D’ which almost totally negated the Bulls’ phase attack; the South Africans’ sole try came on kick transition.
“I just really, really like playing under him,” Baird says of Nienaber.
“I think it was good timing when he came in. It was like the week before La Rochelle, so the week before the European campaign started.
“The clarity and the certainty that he brings around our defensive system; he shows us threats that the opposition are going to bring but at the end of the day, he boils it down to a couple of key points that he wants us to focus on.
One of the main things he really drives is the mindset; that you can have all the knowledge, all the technique, the physicality [but you need the mindset]. When you see people scrambling back, that’s just pure mindset. That’s just pure ‘want’ to stop them and go back and hit them again.
“Last week was a good week for the returning internationals to get back accustomed to his defensive system, which I think we did quite well. And it’s another opportunity, now, to bed in the learnings we take from him and have a good fixture against Leicester.”
Two-time World Cup winner Nienaber made the point back in January that it would take 14 game-weeks for Leinster’s players to “rewire their brains” to a sufficient extent that they would be able to master his defensive system.
Friday’s win over the Bulls would have been Game-Week 10 in that schedule, which bodes well for a Leinster side who intend to play 11 more times this season.
And their steady defensive evolution is equally exciting for Baird, a player who grew up in an era in which European success seemed almost routine for Leinster but one who has yet to feel the satisfaction of having an additional star embroidered over the crest he represents.
“I remember the hype around the Heineken Cup when I was a kid,” the 24-year-old says. “Magners League was big but the Heineken Cup was just, like, huge. So it means something to me, like, y’know what I mean?
“The pressure is higher. The stakes are higher. The opposition at this stage of the tournament is very good. Who doesn’t want to play in the big games?
“It would just be incredibly satisfying that I’m rewarding the full season — or arguably two or three seasons — of hard work: getting up at early hours, going to bed, getting up early again and just putting in hard work. Getting the reward from that — really, that’s what it would be. It would be gratification from all that hard work.
“You’re only going to win it if you put in hard work. There’s no two ways about it. For me, it would just be a stamp of, ‘Yeah, we fucking worked hard for this and this is what we got as a result.’”
Baird was speaking back where a lot of his initial work began, at St Michael’s College, Dublin, where he was on hand to launch the Tackle Your Feelings Schools App (iOS/Android) on behalf of Rugby Players Ireland.
“In my friend group, we would chat about anything,” the Ireland international back row says.
“Talking with someone gets it out of your head, helps you rationalise it, realise why it’s been nagging you in your head.
“One thing I’m grateful for with Leinster and Ireland is the access I have to world-class physical coaches and also mental coaches: Gary Keegan, Siobhan McArdle, Declan Darcy… Combining those two, I feel like I have a great platform to lead a good life.
“I’d love if the resources were as accessible to everyone and this is a nice way, through the schools programme, to start that.
“When I was in school, it wouldn’t have been something spoken about. I would have spoken to my mother but not many more. I’m 24, it’s taken me a couple of years to figure out what tools, what I use to navigate some of these challenges.
“By giving these kids tools in First Year — a huge year; Third Year — exams; Fifth and Sixth year — Leaving Cert, you can help them to start that journey a little bit earlier. If it helps a couple of people, that’s what you’re looking for.
“It’s more repetition than anything: the more skills, the more times you can repeat positive affirmations or journaling or planning or talking to your friends, the easier it becomes.”
