RUGBY HEINEKEN CUP:ADVOCATES OF a mid-season break may be given more ammunition for their argument over the next fortnight. Leinster resume their Heineken Cup campaign refreshed by an enforced two-week break but that still leaves Michael Cheika with a few tricky selection posers ahead of the holders' must-win game at home to Brive on Saturday.
The Leinster coach said despite the inclement weather of the last few weeks, training has not been disrupted unduly, and helpfully he had picked pretty much his strongest side for their last outing, the 15-3 win over Ulster on St Stephen’s Day. “I’ve got that weather crystal ball at home,” he quipped.
The same core group of players benefited from Cheika’s decision to rest them a week before the back-to-back bonus-point wins over the Scarlets in December. Their fixtures backlog, along with international restrictions, is not likely to help them in the Magners League, but may well assist the immediate priority of their season – namely qualifying for the quarter-finals.
That said, Cheika admitted he would have liked Shane Jennings especially and Jonathan Sexton to have had a run-out in last week’s postponed game at home to Glasgow. “Definitely, no doubt about it. Nothing replaces getting a few games, for Jennings even more than Sexton. Both of the players that took their places (Seán O’Brien and Shaun Berne) have played well, so it makes selection issues quite difficult.”
Expediency decrees that Sexton return to the starting line-up for his first game since breaking a finger in Ireland’s momentous win over South Africa and, in a curious way, while it would be tough on O’Brien, the postponement of the Glasgow game may oblige Cheika to start Jennings, for if not this week then he can hardly do so against London Irish at Twickenham in the pool showdown.
Aside from the possibility of a torrid game and “a real battle on the ground”, Cheika also conceded: “Shane is obviously a quality campaigner and he’s important to our team with regard to leadership. Seán O’Brien has done an unbelievably good job.”
Ruling out the possibility of playing both of them this week, regarding Jennings’ fitness Cheika added: “You never know until the games come but he’s trained really hard and whatever he plays – whether he plays from the start or from the bench – he’ll be blowing in the first five minutes. That’s guaranteed. That’s part of the deal and he’s just got to have to fight through that to get his match fitness up ASAP.”
CJ van der Linde has also resumed training and is included in the 24-man squad, with Nathan Hines, Ronnie McCormack and Simon Keogh also returning from the 22 on duty against Ulster, as Devin Toner, Stephen Keogh and Fergus McFadden miss out.
The Leinster coach also confirmed that Luke Fitzgerald’s rehabilitation is working well and forecast a return by the end of April/early May. “As you can imagine, he’s a fast operator when it comes to recovery. He’s well back into it.”
Since Leinster went to Brive in round two and won 36-13, the French outfit have coughed up back-to-back bonus-point wins to Leinster’s group rivals London Irish. However, they’ve also released head coach Laurent Seigne and promoted his assistants, Ugo Mola and Christophe Laussucq, and have won three of their last four games to climb to ninth in the Top 14, 17 points clear of the bottom two and effectively clear of relegation.
“The one thing I would say is the team we’re playing now is a very different team to the one we played in October,” said Cheika, who travelled to Brive to see them beat Toulouse. “In their last four games they’ve beaten Toulouse and Perpignan and they’ve had an away win in the snow down in Albi which was an interesting game to watch because the field was covered white. They’ve got a much more engaging philosophy now. They are much more forward-orientated: a lot of mauling, a lot of aggression and very hard on the ground.”
Standing just four points outside of the top six play-offs and Heineken Cup qualification for next season, whereas they’re stuck on zero points and out of contention in Pool Six, it would be no surprise if Mola rings the changes for this game.
Cheika maintained this game “could interest them” and give them confidence for the rest of their season, as was the case when a supposedly disinterested Castres beat Leinster in round four last season.
“They had nothing really to play for in that match in relation to the European Cup either. I think we’ve been in the business a bit too long to fall into that trap. There is a job there we have to do. We’ve put ourselves in a situation where every match is a cup final by losing the first game. We’re still right in the middle of that. Even though we’ve had a few wins since then, it changes nothing about the fact that we have to win this game.”
Indeed, not only did that opening defeat to London Irish leave the European champions with little or no room for manoeuvre, just as pertinently Brive are infused with a litany of English and English-speaking players. And as Munster discovered at home to a supposed second-string Montauban last season when scraping through 19-17 at Thomond Park with a late Ronan O’Gara penalty, such a selection can swing from the hip.
LEINSTER SQUAD (v Brive): (forwards) Leo Cullen, John Fogarty, Cian Healy, Jamie Heaslip, Nathan Hines, Bernard Jackman, Shane Jennings, Ronan McCormack, Kevin McLaughlin, Seán O’Brien, Malcolm O’Kelly, Mike Ross, CJ van der Linde, Stan Wright. (Backs) Shaun Berne, Gordon D’Arcy, Girvan Dempsey, Shane Horgan, Rob Kearney, Simon Keogh, Isa Nacewa, Paul O’Donohoe, Brian O’Driscoll, Eoin Reddan, Jonathan Sexton.
Tickets available on www.leinsterrugby.ie, from Ticketmaster outlets nationwide and can be purchased from the Leinster Rugby Store and Spar shop in Donnybrook.
