Cheika upbeat despite Leinster injury crisis

MICHAEL CHEIKA is giving out a positive spin, but the suspicion remains that the gods are conspiring against Leinster as they open their Heineken Cup campaign against Bath in the RDS on Saturday.

The Australian had ample time to prepare for the European opener without captain Brian O’Driscoll and even scrum-half Guy Easterby, but he must now devise a battle plan minus Denis Hickie, Christian Warner and Eric Miller after a catalogue of bad luck.

Warner picked up his injury last week in the Celtic League defeat of Cardiff in Dublin while a bruised foot is keeping Miller sidelined longer than expected.

Hickie’s loss is the cruellest blow of all, the Irish winger dislocating his right fibula in a routine training session on Monday night that will keep him in cotton wool until the New Year.

Cheika is trying to take a philosophical stance: “That’s part of the game mate: You’ve got to train, you’ve got to have the physical work in training. In fact, Denis was in my office only two weeks ago saying he thought the backs needed to do a bit more contact work.

“I’ll bet he’s regretting that now, but you’ve got to look at the positive side. When it happened, I thought we’d lost him for the season. The result is not a good one but it’s better than we thought.

“He has an opportunity to get back for the next round of the Heineken Cup and for the Six Nations which is important for the player himself.”

Before all this, it was Leinster’s pack being fingered as the potential stumbling block, but now Cheika finds himself re-jigging his back line at the last minute.

Felipe Contepomi will step into Warner’s shoes at number 10, Shane Horgan will probably partner Gordon D’Arcy at centre while Robert Kearney and Kieran Lewis are expected to be given rare starting berths for a European tie on the wings. Malcolm O’Kelly has been named in the extended squad but further fitness analysis will be required to see if he is even ready take his place on the bench.

Bath lie just one rung from the bottom of the pile in the Guinness Premiership but they pack more than enough punch to cause Leinster serious problems, especially if the home side misfire.

“Obviously I know (their coaches) John Connolly and Michael Foley’s style from Australia,” said Cheika. “They’re a big rumbling team. They like to play the game physically, at close quarters. At the same time, they’ve got some good pace out wide with Frikkie Welsh and (David) Bory.

“Matt Perry’s a good counter-attacker, he’ll take the ball back all day. So, you’ve got to be very careful in the way that you set out your game strategy.”

Last year in The Rec, despite grabbing a hugely fortuitous win, Leinster were destroyed up front by a makeshift Bath pack while they managed to win only six of 21 line-outs.

Leinster have struggled in the same areas at times this year though Cheika isn’t one to look to the past for clues on the future, especially when he was thousands of miles away at the time.

“You can’t say ‘this happened last time, so this will happen this time’. We’re a totally different team from last year and so are they.”

LEINSTER:

Backs: B O’Meara, B O’Riordan, E Hickey, F Contepomi, J Hepworth, K Lewis, S Horgan, R Kearney, G D’Arcy, G Dempsey.

Forwards: R Corrigan, R McCormack, W Green, E Byrne, B Jackman, D Blaney, M O’Kelly, B Williams, B Gissing, D Dillon, C Jowitt, C Potts, K Gleeson, N Ronan, J Heaslip.