Lions ready for early French fire

THERE’S been a lot made of Bourgoin’s schizophrenic performances in the Heineken Cup.

Christophe Urios’ team have reinforced the old cliché about French sides, possessed at home, pathetic on the road, in their tussles with Leinster.

Should they continue to play to type today at the Stade Pierre Rajon, then their Irish visitors are in for a serious buffeting against a team unbeaten at home for over a year in the French League.

Last December, Leinster endured a roller-coaster 80 minutes there before emerging battered and bruised, but with a priceless three-point win.

It’s on the evidence of that experience that predictions of another royal rumble are being made today.

Delve deeper, however, and Bourgoin’s much-vaunted home record creaks at the seams in Europe. The home win over Glasgow last month was their first in almost two years in the Heineken Cup, with five defeats separating that result and their last victory there against Treviso in the 2003-04 season.

If Leinster can withstand the routine frenetic start better than they did last year, then that would lay the foundations for a less complicated afternoon.

“The rest of the game will depend on how we stand up to that first half-hour,” says flanker Keith Gleeson. “Half of the Leinster guys have played Heineken Cup in France before. We know it’s going to be more physical on their own turf but we have to concentrate on ourselves.”

Michael Cheika has named an unchanged team after last week’s easy win over the same opposition. Urios makes a number of alterations, the most significant of which is the return after injury of highly-rated second row Pascal Papé.

Unchanged Leinster may be, but the dizzying turnover of players and staff in recent times is highlighted by the fact that eight of the 15 who started in France last year will be absent at kick-off today.

Three of the front five are new faces and Gleeson accepts that today’s assignment will be the perfect barometer for just how far this new-look Leinster pack has come.

“In the last 12 months I suppose it’s been a case of two steps back for one step forward,” the 29-year old accepts. “Shane Byrne went overseas and

Victor Costello retired. They were two big losses out of the pack. That’s a natural part of rugby’s evolution.

“Unfortunately Irish genetics don’t produce 6’ 6“, 120kg locks every day of the week so we’ve had to devise and design a game plan that will suit the genetic make-up of this country,” he explains.

“If you look around the world it’s really only South Africa, France and England that produce big human beings on a regular basis so Leinster have gone down the road of trying to produce a very skilful team, skilful ball-handling pack and backs.

“French teams still love to run the ball. Last weekend, unfortunately for Bourgoin, a lot of ball didn’t go to hand but they were still trying to put a lot of ball through the hands. This weekend a lot of those passes will probably stick. It’ll certainly be a tougher game.”