Rugby European Cup: Leinster have been boosted by the return of their summer recruit from Connacht, Stephen Knoop, for Sunday evening's eagerly awaited rendezvous with Stade Toulouse in the Stade Ernest Wallon.
Knoop missed Leinster's last two outings due to a bang on the head in the win over Ulster, having made a strong impression over the previous four games in succession and the 27-year-old was named yesterday in the 26-man squad which will travel to the south of France this weekend.
The former University of Cape Town tighthead had became a fixture in the Connacht side over the last three seasons, making 56 appearances (17 of them in the European Challenge Cup). Although Stanley Wright has made a decent fist of moving across to tighthead, with Juan Francisco Gomez yet to turn up any trees, Knoop looks likely to at least return to the bench. As he is Ireland qualified, in the longer-term Knoop could become a viable option at "A" or Test level given Ireland's rather skeletal cupboard of props.
"Knoop's played well this season so if he is available it does make it more difficult for me," admitted Michael Cheika yesterday. "Gomez did well when he came on (against Leicester) so it gives us an extra option. I'll be taking them all anyway and I'll see when we get down there."
Otherwise there is unlikely to be any changes to the 22 or starting team, with the Leinster coach set to persist with Shane Jennings and Keith Gleeson in the backrow in the continuing absence of Stephen Keogh due to a hand injury.
"I definitely want to have that option available to us, of playing the two together," said Cheika yesterday, while admitting that the one previous attempt in the 52-23 defeat to Llanelli has prompted work on the training ground to improve the backrows' link play in both defence and attack.
The sheer determination of both players also helped for a more effective performance against Leicester. "It takes a bit of time to get that balance right, especially at set-pieces, then in general play and I think I made a little bit of a mistake against Llanelli playing them left and right, as opposed to giving them specific jobs. So it's a bit of a learning curve for me too because I haven't really coached a backrow with two sevens, but they seem flexible enough to do it."
The much improved defensive performance against Leicester was undoubtedly the platform for Leinster's victory last Saturday.
Underlining the old adage that you learn more from your defeats than your wins, Cheika admitted that the six tries to three defeat to Llanelli five games ago remains a haunting reference point.
"I don't want to go back to a nasty match but it's very much in our minds. We let ourselves down that day and we've got to make sure that we keep playing better and part of that is defence."
The ensuing improvement is also a tribute to the work of former Bective, Leinster and Ireland centre, the Kiwi-born Kurt McQuilkin, in his first campaign as the province's defensive coach on secondment from the IRFU's profligate High Performance Unit.
"The biggest thing he's brought definitely is that they don't have to listen to me for another 20 minutes of training," quipped Cheika with a wry smile. Well organised and respected by the players, "he works very well with what we want to do and he's got them thinking about it, not just doing drills, so that they're defending for themselves and understanding situations. He's only young, I think he's going to do very well and he's going to keep learning".
Admittedly only six of the side which faced Llanelli, and four of the callow team subsequently beaten 21-17 by Glasgow, started against Leicester, and in three games since Leinster have conceded only one try. Admittedly, Leicester already seemed to be missing departed Australian coach Pat Howard as, for all their possession and match-winners out wide, they attacked very narrowly. Toulouse are sure to play with far more tempo, width and offloading.
Cheika admitted that Leinster will have to plan with all eventualities in mind given Toulouse have used three different half-back combinations to date: Byron Kelleher and Jean-Baptiste Elissalde against Dax, Kelleher and Vincent Courrent against Stade Français, and Elissalde and Gaffie du Toit in the win over Edinburgh last Saturday.
Speculating that Kelleher might have some language issues, he reasoned that they would be eased were he permed with du Toit, "but it's hard for me to see them leave Elissalde out because he's such a high-kicking accuracy and he's the pulse of the team". Indeed, Elissalde's return of five kicks from five went a long way to securing that win in Murrayfield.
"It's a similar situation in the backrow and they've a lot of combinations we have to plan for, but they've definitely re-enforced up front," Cheika observed, in going through some of the permutations available in a squad featuring 24 internationals (17 of whom were at the World Cup), two French A internationals and four French under-21 internationals.
Switching from a mauling game to one with more width and offloading, with Clement Poitrenaud as an alternative first receiver, Cheika said: "It'll be a different type of challenge for us because they'll probably stand a bit further away from us and wider apart. They'll kick more wide out. They're very French. They don't do a lot of set plays, they have their style, a lot of offloads and a lot of reading the game and playing ad lib."
