HEINEKEN CUP:IF THERE is one thing Leinster coach Joe Schmidt has proven this season, it's that he can cobble together a wicked enough Leinster team from the squad remnants after injured players and rested internationals are taken from him.
Just who will play at fullback against Saracens, though, seems as much an Irish question as a Leinster one given the current injury concerns surrounding Rob Kearney and Geordan Murphy, who dislocated his ankle with Leicester at the weekend.
Yesterday Schmidt was ruling nobody out. Jamie Heaslip, another ankle concern, was galloping around Donnybrook, prop Cian Healy was there, Jonathan Sexton, and Luke Fitzgerald was taped on his left leg but gamely moving. Fitzgerald will, according the coach, be available for selection.
The curiosity is whether Schmidt will play Fitzgerald at 15 or put one of the best utility players around, Isa Nacewa, back in where he has played many times. Schmidt may also have been nudged a certain way with player positions given the current Ireland fullback difficulties.
“Look, I don’t think head office will try to send down any particular direction. They understand we will do what is going to give us the best balance,” said the coach. “Whether Luke starts or comes off the bench, either way he’s likely to be involved in the back three and if you’re playing wing or fullback, the other players we have used at fullback, like Isa, he plays a lot at fullback and he plays a lot at wing. If you’re playing in the back three it’s very much the same group of skills.”
That said, Schmidt’s conversations with “head office” are regular affairs. There is always a bigger picture, especially so close to the beginning of the Six Nations Championship. But few are relegating the Saracens threat below that of Declan Kidney’s needs at 15. “We chat fairly regularly. We chatted this morning, and there are certainly no requirements,” said Schmidt of “head office”. “I’m sure with Geordy Murphy having hurt himself, there would be a preference, but there is no encouragement to do anything in particular.”
Schmidt will have a better idea this morning just how his players came through yesterday’s run out at Donnybrook and whether they can be included for Saturday’s match, which he believes requires a significantly improved performance than the recent meetings with Connacht and Ospreys.
The nature of the Heineken Cup beast also means Leinster need to win, or, the pool could sour against them. At the moment it looks sweet. But Schmidt requires more convincing two matches out from the knock-out stages.
“They (Leinster) know if they put in the sort of performances we did against Connacht and the Ospreys on Friday that it won’t be of a level high enough to beat Saracens,” he says. “If they got four points off us they’d be up to 10 points. And if we remain on 14, suddenly they are within a win of catching us and getting past us with a home game and with us having to go to Racing Metro.
“With Clermont behind us and every chance of getting somewhere near us as well – unfortunately the pool isn’t over and we really need to win on Saturday. That’s the bottom line.”
In that light he expects “a more energised” Leinster team to face Saracens, one too that could see some of the younger players like winger Fergus McFadden also making a contribution. “Fergus has done a fantastic job. I think he’s done really, really well for us,” adds Schmidt. “On the other hand, with the situation Ireland are in at the minute, we’ve got two games coming up, which will certainly help Luke to get some game-time. Whether that’s starting game-time or off the bench game-time, will sort of depend on how he gets through this session and Tuesday’s session and we name the team on Thursday.”
