Exiles and Leinster set for Twickenham

LONDON IRISH are set to confirm today their Heineken Cup round six encounter against the champions Leinster on Saturday, January 23rd will be moved from the Madejski Stadium in Reading to Twickenham. This switch has largely been forced on them by Reading’s involvement in the FA Cup.

The Berkshire club are due to face Liverpool in a third-round replay next Wednesday, and while the odds are against the lowly-placed Championship side winning at Anfield, nevertheless the winners of that tie have been drawn at home to Burnley and Reading have informed London Irish that if they were to progress then that fourth round tie will take place at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday, January 23rd.

London Irish would prefer to have hosted their probable pool decider against Leinster at the Madejski Stadium and its 24,100 capacity, but in the circumstances they have little option other than to move the game to Twickenham and negotiations with the RFU are believed to be at an advanced stage.

As for this weekend, Leinster remain reasonably confident tomorrow evening’s Magners League game against leaders Glasgow, for which 13,500 tickets have already been sold, will go ahead. “At the moment the (RDS) pitch has been covered. It’s frozen in some places but we have a plan to bring in a marquee and heaters on Friday and we’re very confident that we’ll have the pitch in a fit state to play come 8pm on Friday night,” said Leinster CEO Mick Dawson yesterday.

An earlier kick-off of 5.45pm had been considered, but the advice to Leinster is to retain the 8pm kick-off so as to allow the heaters to have maximum effect. An inspection will take place at 11am this morning, prior to the Warriors’ scheduled departure from Glasgow at 3.25pm.

Assistant coach Jonno Gibbes fronted a press conference in the David Lloyd Centre in Riverview yesterday following the announcement of a 27-man squad featuring Shane Jennings and the fit-again Jonathan Sexton, with Gibbes’ own position in next season’s scheme of things under new head coach Joe Schmidt unresolved.

Gibbes’ continuing involvement with Leinster is largely at the behest of Schmidt, but with Kurt McQuilkin rumoured to be heading back to New Zealand it would make sense for both Leinster and Schmidt to retain faith in the latter’s fellow Kiwi.

Gibbes is a relatively young forwards’ coach who has cut his teeth over the last two seasons with the province and thus ought, in theory, to be a better, more experienced coach now than when he first arrived.

Leinster are expected to make an announcement about the new coaching ticket in the next two or three weeks but Gibbes revealed he had spoken to Schmidt – whom he knows from their time under the Chiefs umbrella with Bay Of Plenty and Waikato respectively – in the last three weeks and also welcomed the way the new man has already been named.

“From my point of view, it speaks volumes for Cheiks (Michael Cheika). He gave the club plenty of notice, allowed the club to get into a process where they could do all their due diligence before they made an appointment, and I think now that the club have announced the coach for next year, there is a degree of stability, there are no smoke and mirrors and everyone can move on.”

Gibbes played against the Bay of Plenty and Auckland Blues, with whom Schmidt was backs coach – Schmidt also turned down an opportunity to become the Blues’ head coach last season due to family reasons – and said of Leinster’s new man: “He’s highly regarded in the New Zealand system. Of all the backs coaches going around, his name kept popping up. He’s an out-of-the-box thinker, he’s his own man with back attacks, and his ideas are different to some of the established coaches in New Zealand rugby.”

It’s clear too Gibbes would like to stay on. “Yeah. I’ve really enjoyed my time. It seems to have gone really quickly. I’ve definitely really enjoyed the players that I’ve worked with. I really enjoy the forwards I work with day to day. They are highly motivated, pretty intelligent – not all of them,” he quipped, “and deep-thinking rugby guys.”

Yesterday’s snow-bound session in Donnybrook was a novel experience for Gibbes. “Where I come from it doesn’t snow, so this is my first day of being out on a rugby field training in the snow. It was a novelty for about 20 seconds and then it was just miserable,” he said, adding that disruption so far this week had been minimal.

Given their game against Connacht last weekend was postponed, Gibbes expressed the hope the Glasgow match will go ahead, not least in that it will afford Jennings (named captain on returning from his 12-week suspension) and Sexton badly needed game time.

“Twelve weeks is a long time. He’s been doing some pretty rugged game-like conditioning,” Gibbes said of Jennings’ stint in Australia training with the ACT Brumbies and a rugby league franchise. “But it’s not the real thing, and if he gets a run that would be really good for him.”

A game prior to resuming their Heineken Cup tie against Brive would be useful, but Gibbes added: “It’s also important in that we are back at the RDS and get to face the top-of-the-table team, who are really confident and are consistently performing. We get to measure ourselves. It would be less than ideal to go into those (European) games without two weekends of rugby.

“In saying that, if those are the cards we are dealt, it’s not the worst thing. Some players have bumps and bruises so two weekends off might be a blessing in disguise. If I could choose, I’d definitely like to play the game.”

LEINSTER SQUAD (v Glasgow): Forwards: John Fogarty, Cian Healy, Jamie Heaslip, Nathan Hines, Trevor Hogan, Bernard Jackman, Shane Jennings, Stephen Keogh, Ronan McCormack, Kevin McLaughlin, Seán O’Brien, Malcolm O’Kelly, Mike Ross, Richardt Strauss, Devin Toner, Stan Wright. Backs: Shaun Berne, Girvan Dempsey, David Kearney, Rob Kearney, Simon Keogh, Fergus McFadden, Isa Nacewa, Paul O’Donohoe, Brian O’Driscoll, Eoin Reddan, Jonathan Sexton.

Tickets can be purchased from www.leinsterrugby.ie and Ticketmaster outlets nationwide and the Leinster Rugby Store and Spar shop in Donnybrook.