MAGNERS LEAGUE LEINSTER v MUNSTER:THERE ARE plenty of excuses. Leinster have been on the road for three of their opening four Magners League games under new coach Joe Schmidt.
They have been hampered by the IRFU World Cup player rotation policy.
And, most tellingly, they have a front five littered with faces that most Leinster fans would not give a second glance to in the street, unless a three-quarter team-mate was talking to him, of course.
There is a leadership deficit due to the continued absence of Leo Cullen. New secondrow signing from Ulster, Ed O’Donoghue, has started every game but he seemed to badly damage his knee in Edinburgh last Friday. Nathan Hines will need to bring all his experience to bear against Munster this Saturday.
Injuries are occurring at a disturbing rate. The loss of Stanley Wright has denied them a ball carrier and versatile prop for the campaign.
Bernard Jackman retired and CJ van der Linde returned home but Heinke van der Merwe and hooker Richardt Strauss should eventually alleviate the loss of such seasoned professionals.
Clearly, this is going to take time. Munster don’t care. Saturday may well provide the perfect slab of meat for the new-look Leinster front five, where Devin Toner looks certain to be handed a central role, to sink their teeth into.
Or they will be ripped apart.
Remember, Leinster are going for five-in-a-row over the old enemy, now led by a rejuvenated and dangerous-looking Denis Leamy.
None of this means much to Schmidt, apparently.
“Look I don’t actually know the history behind it,” he said yesterday, pitchside at training in UCD.
“I know Munster reasonably well because they were in the same pool as we (Clermont Auvergne) were when I was in France. I know that Munster are formidable but I also know that we had two relatively comfortable wins over them when I was over there and these guys are every bit as good.
“I think it’s maybe just at this stage getting them to believe that and I think Munster could have a fair bit of confidence coming into this on the back of their performances so far.”
Those words alone should prompt an avalanche of information for the head coach to digest on the importance of this fixture.
If Schmidt remembers the “relatively comfortable” Clermont victories over Munster in France, when Munster clinched bonus points on both occasions, he will also remember the return visits to Thomond Park.
In December, 2008, a week after defeat in Clermont, Munster beat them 23-13. In November 2007, the French visitors coughed up five tries when emptied 36-13.
Michael Cheika didn’t know much about the Leinster-Munster rivalry either, that is, until that chilling experience at Lansdowne Road in the 2006 Heineken Cup semi-final.
One win from the opening four Magners League games of the Schmidt era is not, we are informed, down to the crumbling of another Kiwi, Kurt McQuilkin’s, defensive system.
“We haven’t done anything differently other than miss tackles. I think our actual systems errors have been quite low, we’ve just missed one-on-ones. I think guys will put their hands up and say that we need to do better on our one-on-one tackle misses, which are unforgivable at this level. Once you let a guy who’s an effective ball carrier through a half tackle or through a couple of tackles then you’re in trouble, you’re chasing.”
Still, Leinster have missed a lot of tackles in the accumulation of a 90-106 points differential this season and McQuilkin isn’t around anymore to fine tune matters.
Some more excuses?
How about the new rules or the bedding in of a different rugby philosophy. Put simply, Cheika was a forward, Schmidt a backs coach.
It was put to Schmidt yesterday that the game plan for Saturday’s derby will be simplified?
“To be honest we haven’t really played a hell of a game plan,” he admitted.
“We probably have struggled a bit for a platform and haven’t really created too much with the ball which is disappointing and it’s something we’d like to turn around. So if we can get the platform we’ll certainly look to play, but it’ll probably be relatively simple because we will have changes again.”
Basically, Leinster need to secure clean possession from their own scrums and lineouts.
This is a problem they will need to solve quickly because the season could be as good as over in three weeks. After Munster come the rich Parisians Racing Metro 92 – with Sebastien Chabal, Frans Steyn and Juan Martin Hernandez on board – followed by Saracens and their South African contingent at Wembley Stadium.
“It’s tough enough, we seem to be shuffling the deck a lot more often than I would have liked.”
Lots of chips on the table already. Time to play a clever hand.
