Why Welford Road trip might be what Leinster need right now
Robin McBryde: "Anything that doesn't require talent, we've got to be better than them. And a little bit more." Pic: ©INPHO/Grace Halton
Robin McBryde knows what’s coming for Leinster in Welford Road this Friday, and he couldn’t be happier about it.
It’s 24 years since the Leinster forwards coach was part of a Llanelli side that pushed a Leicester Tigers side beginning its Heineken Cup defence all the way in a dog of a pool opener in the English midlands.
The only points came courtesy of seven penalties from Tim Stimpson and Stephen Jones, the Tigers ending an at times fractious Pool 1 encounter 12-9 with a team packed to the rafters with some of the game’s greats.
Leicester had a backline boasting Rod Kafer, Andy Goode and Austin Healy. A front row of Graham Rowntree, Dorian West and Darren Garforth. Martin Johnson and Ben Kay were the locks. The back row contained Martin Johnson, Neil Back and Martin Corry.
The latest generation of Tigers isn’t nearly so frightening but the test awaiting Leinster still bristles with the promise of a blood and guts engagement and McBryde can’t wait after an unsatisfying start to the Champions Cup in Dublin last weekend.
Leinster still scored over 40 points at the Aviva, the bonus point was bagged before half-time, but it was a curiously meh sort of occasion against a weakened Harlequins side that posed far more questions than seemed possible beforehand.
“It just felt flat,” said the Welshman. “I think everybody felt flat. The game didn't really get going for whatever reason. So you can look for things that sometimes aren't there, and you can put rocks in the road that don't need to be there.
“Where we're going on Friday, you’ve got to get it right because the level of the opposition, the venue, the European stage, everything needs to be ironed out. There's no get out. We’ll have been together a bit longer, hopefully that understanding will be a bit better.
“Sometimes you need a game just to go ‘right, here we go’. And there's no bones about it, you’ve just got to roll your sleeves because Leicester will challenge us. Anything that doesn't require talent, we've got to be better than them. And a little bit more.”
Leinster are still in mid-gear.
Leo Cullen has spoken already about a disjointed start to the season off the back of their historic British and Irish Lions squad contingent and others late returning to UCD after their own summer exertions on tour with Ireland.
There’s a fine line to be struck with that. Acceptance of that situation and its consequences is one thing but it can’t be allowed to bleed into an excuse – conscious or otherwise – for some of the failings seen three days ago.
Leinster were frustrated by Harlequins’ focus on the ruck, their discipline wasn’t great, their defence was shredded with an uncomfortable ease on two occasions and too many attacks were ended by an error of their own making.
Why this is the case isn’t all that important. How to fix it is the priority. Leinster have another eight weeks of uninterrupted rugby to work with now, but they will lose the bulk of their best players again come the end of January. They need to be in a groove by then.
“We need to get that right, because that problem is not going to get any better. It's going to get harder, if anything, with the number of international players that we lose on duty. The reintegration and the integration, that's got to be as smooth as it can be.
“And also the balance between performance and development, because we need to develop players with the number of players that we lose during international windows. But when we are faced with the need for performance, we need to get that right as well.
“So there's a little bit of a mixture, especially coming straight off an autumn series, player welfare, etc. We chose to give the following week off to those players. Other teams would have done it differently. So I don't know what the answer is, but we want to get better doing it.”
As ever, there is contrasting news on the availability front.
James Lowe is back in contention again having sat out the Quins win with a calf problem. James Ryan is another having served the suspension earned for his red card against the Springboks last month. That’s the good.
Jordan Larmour is a no go, the winger undone by a hamstring problem picked up in his man of the match effort at the weekend, while RG Snyman (shoulder) and Garry Ringrose (cramp) are still being assessed.
