MAGNERS LEAGUE TEAM NEWS:LONG GONE are the mornings when Brian O'Driscoll would have jumped out of bed, gone to his window, drawn the curtains and exclaimed excitedly: "Yippee, it's media day." Thus, it was perhaps symbolic that the great one made a rare media appearance alongside Joe Schmidt yesterday.
Undoubtedly, akin to Munster this week, Leinster would have been determined to avoid providing the opposition with any cuttings. But, clearly, it is also time for the players to front up for their new coach.
“We have a point as players to prove that we haven’t become a bad team overnight,” O’Driscoll admitted. “We just need to do the simple things well, grow into the game and get a little bit of confidence. There is a huge onus on player responsibility this weekend to front up individually and then as a team collectively.
“To that end each Leinster player has analysed his own performance individually and realised the parts that they have to improve on. I have looked at aspects of my game that I might need to improve in. We are not going to divulge what work we have done but if we play to our potential we will give anyone a run for their money and certainly Munster.”
As for the notion that O’Driscoll and others appeared disinterested in last week’s defeat to Edinburgh, he said: “They can sit on their armchairs and look at one game and judge people off that. If they come to training day in, day out they’ll see there are quite high interest levels there. But we don’t really pay much heed when we’re being patted on the back, like we don’t pay a huge amount of heed when people are getting on our backs.”
Schmidt chatted with Michael Cheika last week to help ascertain “the special character of that match and to be a little bit more aware of it myself. It is an easy week for a coach to a degree. For the players, Saturday can’t come soon enough.”
Schmidt is “hopeful” that Jonathan Sexton, who returned to training yesterday, will be declared fit after the squad acquaint themselves with the Aviva Stadium today. Cian Healy, Nathan Hines, Sean O’Brien and Jamie Heaslip, captain for the first time, also return, with Shane Jennings and John Fogarty joining Ed O’Donoghue and countless more on the casualty list with head injuries. Schmidt is more optimistic about Jennings’s availability for next week’s European opener at home to Racing Metro.
The biggest call was at scrum-half, where Schmidt has chosen Isaac Boss ahead of Eoin Reddan. “Because the ruck ball has been sped up a bit the half back’s responsibility to organise the defence and at the same time hit his marks and move that ruck ball has just changed a little bit. Unfortunately for Eoin he’s had a little less than two games to get his rhythm, Isaac Boss has had a little bit more time on the field.”
Reddan has been having a tough time of late, and was singularly unfortunate that he was playing behind a backpedaling pack in Murrayfield whereas Boss’s arrival coincided with the galvanising presence of Heaslip. But Reddan is a quality scrumhalf whose form will return.
Similarly a lack of game time is partly why Marcus Horan, John Hayes, Mick O’Driscoll and David Wallace are likely to miss out on starting places when the Munster team is confirmed today, although Wallace’s delayed return until last week was also the consequences of a back injury. In any case, Wian du Preez, Tony Buckley, Donnacha Ryan and Niall Ronan have more game time and are in better form.
Asked about the way Munster have adapted better to the new interpretation in the tackle area (tomorrow’s game has France’s Jerome Garces in charge) Schmidt observed: “I think Munster have about 2,000 caps in their squad of 23 for this weekend. Inevitably you can change guys in and out of that, and it probably doesn’t quite have the same sort of impact.”
In terms of Munster and Irish caps, he’s probably not far wrong.
LEINSTER:R Kearney; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, G D'Arcy, L Fitzgerald; J Sexton/I Nacewa, I Boss; C Healy, R Strauss, M Ross, N Hines, D Toner, D Ryan, S O'Brien, J Heaslip (capt). Replacements:J Harris-Wright, H van der Merwe, S Shawe, M Galarza, R Ruddock, E Reddan, I Nacewa/I Madigan, F McFadden.
MUNSTER (propbable):P Warwick; D Howlett, L Mafi, S Tuitoupou, J Murphy; R O'Gara, T O'Leary; W du Preez, D Varley, T Buckley, D O'Callaghan, D Ryan, A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Leamy. Replacements:S Henry, M Horan, J Hayes, M O'Driscoll, D Wallace, P Stringer and two from D Hurley/S Deasy/D Barnes.
