RUGBY: JOHNNY WATTERSON hears coach Joe Schmidt laud his backrow while Saracens' Mark McCall outlines why the Leinster team are the 'real deal'

AFTER THE storm the calm. Joe Schmidt was recalibrating Leinster’s upwards graph and his arithmetic brought him to the number 23. After their six-try win over Saracens, thoughts moved across the sea to Paris and Racing Metro.

With qualification into the knockout stages guaranteed, now only a home quarter-final will do, and, with an eye on the other clubs slashing and burning their way through the pools as Leinster have done, Schmidt’s revised target is 23.

“To be certain of getting a home quarter-final you need to get 23 points, that’s with the various manifestations that can occur,” said a pleased Schmidt.

“Obviously Northampton are flying, Toulouse appear to be flying, so those two are going to rack up the two top spots, and after that it’s a scramble from the other pools as to get the most points on the board.

“Someone asked me six months ago how many points could win this pool and I said I think 15 could win this pool,” added the coach. “You win your three at home and try to scramble something away. To be where we are I’m delighted with the effort and the way we played today in really tough conditions against a tough team.”

These days Schmidt’s role has been talking the team up in the changing room and talking them down to the media. The fine balance between criticising performance and boosting confidence is one he has played delicately.

Leinster have been on something of a winning spree but Schmidt has little appetite to blow the team trumpet too loudly. Knowing well the swing of fortune from one week to the next, his team has given him what he has asked for, with some individual performances also obliging him with aspects of play he had not foreseen when he first arrived here at the beginning of the season.

As Schmidt rightfully acknowledges, in a glamour reversal, it’s the guys over 16st in the backrow who are the pin-up boys this weekend, especially after such a buccaneering win.

“I’m a realist, you can live in the illusion that the media can create and love your own press,” explained Schmidt.

“Live the reality and keep your feet on the ground, because if you lift your feet off the ground you’re very easy to carry backwards and there’s a few guys at Racing who will do just that to us next week.

“We’re going to have to go over there and take what we can get.”

Shane Jennings, Dominic Ryan and Seán O’Brien did rather well. Half of the tries going to backrow players in a running game was just reward for some exceptional work, and it could so easily have been a try each had Jennings not selflessly off-loaded on the line to Ryan for his second. Were they ever so feted?

The “rough diamond” O’Brien, the rookie Ryan?

“If you look at some of the passing before (the tries), there was some really good interplay between the backs and even the tighties,” said Schmidt.

“I think the backrow is becoming the pin-up boys and I think the backs would take umbrage with that. They’ll hopefully be back with a vengeance and get some tries themselves. I think it was 50-50 by the end of the game.

“I’d only got here at the start of the year and I’d only seen Dominic Ryan play once and I thought there was a lot of work to be done. But he has the raw attributes, they’re are all there and he’s working really hard, he’s developing really well, and the evidence of that is he’s been picked for some really big games early in the season.”

Saracens coach and former Irish centre Mark McCall was effusive in his praise. The Ulsterman particularly saw Schmidt’s investment in attack as already paying dividends. You could say, well, he would, wouldn’t he? – but losing coaches are not always so generous, particularly after a six-try defeat.

“They are as good defensively as they have been in past years but their attacking has gone to a new level under Joe,” observed McCall.

“They certainly put us under huge pressure any time they had the ball today, so I think they’re the real deal.

“They’ve got quality across the board, they’ve strength-in-depth, they’ve got some experienced players, but some unbelievably good young players coming through as well.

“I just think they have threats all over the park. Joe’s very clever, it’s not just a wide threat or a backline threat, because if you get too wide in your defensive spacing they’ve got power runners to get between defenders,” added the Ulsterman.

“They’ve got an off-loading game, angles of run, angles of support. It’s really across the board, they’re a top-quality attacking team and probably the best side we’ve analysed this year I must say.”

And there it was unadorned. A potted biography of this Leinster team that has now become one of the serious contenders.

Schmidt’s job may just only be beginning.