SHANE JENNINGS INTERVIEW: Johnny Wattersonfinds the athletic flanker does not believe in bad luck or bogey teams. He reckons hard work will turn things around for Leinster
SHANE JENNINGS does not believe in bogey teams. From a Leinster perspective, his rejection of supernatural or psychical matters such as Edinburgh being a bogey team for his province makes some sense and, more importantly, gives comfort to those who see a shaky Heineken Cup trend developing.
Why is it, one asks, if Leinster go to Murrayfield in the Magners League and put a few dozen points on them, do they beat Leinster once the Heineken Cup begins? Because they are their bogey team, right?
"No, no, no, not at all," says the flanker. "Over in Edinburgh, we've beaten them by 40, 50 points during the season so I don't think you can say they are a bogey team. They are a team that are very difficult to play up in Edinburgh. If you ask Wasps are they their bogey team, if you ask Leicester are they their bogey team, they'd say the same.
"They're a good team up there and they have a good bunch of players, a proud bunch of players . . . they'll obviously see that they are playing in fits and starts in the Magners and I'd say they're targeting the European Cup to get their season off.
"I'm sure their coach (Andy Robinson), who is a very wise coach, will be seeing this weekend as an opportunity to get the ball rolling."
As well as declining to worship at the altar of the hex or the juju, Jennings is something of a pragmatist. The defeat to Connacht last week hurt, even though he watched it from over 100 miles away in his Dublin home. Rotation is becoming the bugbear of the modern rugby player and on that issue questions have been rightly put about whether Michael Cheika got any closer to knowing what his strongest starting team for today should be.
But Jennings refuses to round up clichés or excuses to explain Leinster's recent form. Perhaps it is as much a flanker's way of thinking as it is the way of a player who looks towards hard work to iron out the more obvious problems of ball retention.
A game based on toil, getting around the pitch and making tackles is a game of attrition, discipline and technical ability. Piseogs don't come into Jennings's mind when there's a 19-stone galloping man to be floored.
"It hurts. Yeah, jeepers it hurts," he says of the Connacht defeat. "But you address it, see where you went wrong, and if you do correct those mistakes that will lead to better performances and that's where you get the results. But at the same time it does sharpen the mind.
"Nobody likes losing. It will hopefully give us the biggest kick up the arse we ever needed. But that doesn't help your play. You have to address what you are doing wrong on the pitch. That's going to help you more than a mental kick up the arse.
"Over the last two weeks we haven't performed and you deserve the flak you get from that and the players know that and deserve that. Connacht wasn't a blip. We didn't perform well enough to beat them. They dogged it out, played some good rugby and scored a good try and we failed to do that. We've got to man up to the fact that we didn't do some basic stuff well."
Jennings started the league match against Munster in the RDS but was rotated out for Seán O'Brien when the team went to Galway. There were others missing from what around the Ballsbridge area is being classed as a withering defeat.
Brian O'Driscoll was rested, as were Malcolm O'Kelly and Girvan Dempsey. Those who had been screaming for all of the young talent to be collectively bundled into the team at the expense of some older heads may now be beating a hasty retreat.
Edinburgh is a game for experienced players, like Jennings.
"Look," he says, "Cheika has already said it. He hit the nail on the head when he said we are not looking after the ball. If we want to compete with good teams such as Munster, such as Connacht - and we are going to meet better teams later in the year - we've got to look after the ball better.
"Don't get me wrong. We're making mistakes but we're doing some things right as well and we have leaders in the squad. We've got great experience. I don't think there is anyone pressing the panic button just yet.
"From a leadership point of view I think Leo (Cullen) is doing a fantastic job. It's strange that after just one game people are asking questions about that (leadership). It's a matter now for the senior players to grab it by the neck and take control. It's only the players who can sort it out."
Perhaps that's why Cheika declined to face the media after the Galway match and again for the regular Tuesday update this week. Maybe the players have not responded to his demands and the last thing a coach will do is put his players in the dock.
Brian Ashton was vilified when he said in a post-match interview the Ireland team he was coaching did not follow his instructions. He washed his hands of them.
Normally Cheika is available and good at communicating in front of microphones but there is bound to be concern.
He wasn't worried after the game against Munster in the RDS. But the same thing happened in Galway. Doubtless, pressure is building. But perhaps Leinster's requirements are just as Jennings has described: small adjustments and fractional improvement.
"It's early in the season and we just have to keep reviewing our performances and correcting our mistakes," he says. "I'm no different. I certainly don't think I'm playing to the best of my ability and I certainly don't think I'm playing all that badly either. I can play to a higher level.
"In the last few games we haven't played that much rugby and it has been hard for individuals to perform to the best of their ability. I think if we get that right you'll see certain individuals playing an awful lot better."
Playing or talking, Jennings always gives the impression that he doesn't flinch, that the right answer is always the honest answer, even when it hurts.
He knows too that while players talk about performance, a win is needed in Murrayfield to wipe the Leinster slate clean. The season begins afresh today.
