Pool Six/Leinster v Toulouse/Trevor Brennan's Diary: Toulouse's under-18 coach views matters from the other side of the white line

The start of the 2008 brings a momentous task for Team Leinster; needing two wins against Toulouse at home and Leicester away along with four tries and a bonus point in each match just to have a chance of reaching the quarter-finals. It can't get more soul-searching than that. As Ross O'Carroll-Kelly might say: "Lads, we're focked. Big-time focked."

However, miracles do happen. Lazarus rose from the dead; with the help of a few people I even managed to get a best-seller on the bookshelves and there are those who may console themselves with the thought that "no matter how great your troubles are or how tragic your defeats, remember that there are one billion Chinese people out there who couldn't give a fock."

The problem is that we're not in China and for the Leinster lads who have battled for years to win this trophy their chances are running out. For Shane Byrne, Victor Costello, Reggie Corrigan and now Denis Hickie, they have already gone.

For those still there, this is not the time to think their hopes are gone for another year but to believe in miracles. As Sara Henderson, an Australian outback station master and writer (1936-2005), once said: "Don't wait for a light to appear at the end of the tunnel, stride down there and light that bloody thing yourself."

Each year the question is asked of Leinster, namely why, with the quality of players at their disposal, they have never won a European Cup or even reached a European final. Well, I actually believe they do not believe they can win it, and I think their supporters don't believe they can win it either. It's a deep-seated, subconscious thing.

Leinster are coming up against a Toulouse side that are enjoying their rugby and believe they can win the European Heineken Cup - and their supporters believe it too. They have won five of their first six matches in the Top 14, losing only once - away to Clermont Auvergne before Christmas when they fielded some less-experienced players.

I watched the game on television and the cameras zoomed in on banners which read: "Le but pour Clermont est le Brennus."

The goal for Clermont is that elusive first Bouclier de Brennus, after losing their eighth final last year.

But in saying that, they're in very good form, and Munster will need to be at their very best to beat them. They have a very strong pack and probably the best number 10 in French club rugby in Brock James and with Rougerie and Malzieu on the wings play with great width.

It was a 500-kilometre trip up to Clermont on December 23rd and in the circumstances it was a fantastic performance. Toulouse lost 21-17 but could have won it if they'd taken all their kicks. The younger lads really did take their chance and to come away with a bonus point was an achievement. Last season Toulouse lost the same fixture by 46-9.

As the squad were given a break until January 3rd and most of the players were heading away before Christmas William Servat had invited over about a dozen of us for lunch and his father arrived from his farm on St Gaudens the night before with what looked like half a calf. A few vintage bottles of wine were opened, and hand-picked mushrooms from the forest were cooked along with the steaks and home-made chips. When Fabien Pelous left, more bottles were opened, along with two bottles of l'eau de vie. Don't be fooled by the name, "water of life". It's the equivalent of poteen.

The next day I had to make the trip to Carcassonne to pick up Beavis 'n' Butthead, my father and his friend Kevin Corcoran. Overnight, I'd been as sick as a small hospital. I wasn't too sure whether it was the steaks or l'eau de vie but I had several calls from the lads, who were also sick as dogs. We came to the conclusion it was definitely the food and William was given a hard time about it.

Most of the non-French lads went "home" for Christmas, be it to Argentina, Italy or South Africa along with about nine French lads who went over to visit Freddy Michalak in his new home in Durban. Apparently, you open the terrace door and you're on the beach; a serious MTV crib.

The lads say he has the life and with the Super 14 season a month away he is acclimatising well.

It's "brass monkeys" weather here and the boys seemed refreshed by their trip to South Africa. They resumed with a 44-23 win at home to Castres last Sunday, picking up their fourth bonus point in six games to lead the table (on 24 points) from Clermont Auvergne (22).

They are scoring plenty of tries, and Vincent Clerc is the top try scorer in France after his hat-trick last Sunday.

Patricio Albacete had continued where he left off in the World Cup in his first five or six games before unfortunately picking up that injury against Leicester.

Servat is back in form at hooker. He really adds to the Toulouse scrum and probably deserves a call-up to the Six Nations. Thierry Dusautoir has lost a bundle of weight and is playing out of his skin.

Florian Fritz appears to be making a point after being left out of the World Cup. Valentin Courrent, who came here last season as back-up scrumhalf to Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, has filled the shoes of Michalak and Jeff Dubois. Not an easy thing to do, he's making the number 10 shirt his own.

The club signed six new players this season but only two have stood out, Byron Kelleher and Shaun Sowerby, who was the Stade Français number eight. Toulouse have been missing a classic number eight. No one had been able to replace Isitolo Maka, but Sowerby is doing just that. He's a real technician when it comes to lineouts, he's very good at kick-offs and he reads the game well. He seems to pop up wherever the ball is, and he's keeping Jean Bouilhou and Finau Maka off the team.

Also, Yannick Bru has brought a new dimension to the forwards' training. With the insight of a recently retired hooker, nothing passes him, and I think the lads work harder now. He seems to be first into the club in the morning, and last to leave.

He has shortened the video sessions, whereas in the previous couple of years we seemed to have videos about videos. He's very vigorous about time-keeping. He's distanced himself straightaway. He's brought in one-on-one meetings with players to tell them what they need to work on and is armed with the relevant stats.

He's a fresh face on the coaching ticket, which the club needed. Everything is more structured. The players are in at 10am and have lunch by 12 noon; back at 3pm and finished at 5pm; whereas before we'd come back at 5pm and we mightn't finish until nine some nights. There might have been a video for an hour-and-a-half and you'd be out on the pitch at 6.30pm, and depending on when you finished you mightn't have been out of the shower until 9pm.

The back three of Clerc, Cedric Heymans and Clément Poitrenaud are amazing at the moment, and are dangerous against any side in Europe if they click. Remember, these three don't go onto the pitch with a game plan; it's second nature. They play spontaneous stuff. If you make mistakes against them, they'll make you pay, but at the same time they can become frustrated if they're culled by a strong, tenacious defence.

If you look at what Leinster did in the first half of the first meeting over here the tackle count was massive, with the likes of Shane Jennings, Leo Cullen, Keith Gleeson and Malcolm O'Kelly putting in a huge amount of work. Leinster were a little unlucky that night because they picked up injuries to Chris Whitaker, Girvan Dempsey and Gordon D'Arcy. But they need to sustain that work-rate and defensive effort over 80 minutes.

Take last Sunday. At half-time Castres, who had played well, led 20-13. Toulouse looked very flat. Sitting in the stands, I was thinking, "The boys haven't turned up today."

I should have known better. Heaven knows I've been in that situation enough with them over the previous five years. They can score four or five tries in the first half and none in the second, or the other way around.

Guy Noves made two replacements at half-time. Finau Maka and Julien Ledevedec were hauled off and Dusautoir and Gregory Lamboley brought on. The whole game changed as the two boys brought an extra bit of gas and Toulouse won 44-23.

Clerc and Heymans were outstanding. It just shows that you cannot let your guard down against them.

I was in the dressingroom after the game. I'm still very much part of the whole club - well, I am part of the coaching staff now! I'm coaching the club's under-18s. We're the only unbeaten team in the club this season, seven wins out of seven, the last of them away to Auch. Next week we're away to Bayonne and I'm enjoying putting something back into rugby.

Hopefully we can bring a trophy to the club this year. But nothing is ever taken for granted in Toulouse and nobody celebrates until something is in the trophy cabinet. And only then is it a successful season.

I'm looking forward to today's match, and the after-match. I'm going to hit the chippy for a nosebag and then hit Kielys for a few Die Hard Brennans and Lightning Brian O'Driscolls, and meet up with some of the players and friends. With a few Heinos, as they say in D4, to show off my "elemecution" lessons and a few songs, I'll be back on the flight the next day with Dublin in the Rare Oul Times ringing in my ears, saying to myself, "Never again, never again. This retirement lark is harder than I anticipated."

As for my prediction for the match, as Ron Atkinson once said: "Two great sides, either team could win, either team could lose, or it could be a draw."

In an interview with Gerry Thornley