O’Driscoll wary of Bath

LEINSTER have been here before. The Heineken Cup. The ever-increasing levels of expectation. The feeling that everything is going their way, that this could be their year.

With an injury-ravaged Bath side and Benetton Treviso to overcome in their last two group games, and the English side seven points adrift of them at Pool Two’s summit, even underachieving Leinster could be forgiven for approaching their next two assignments with less than 100% focus.

The mere mention of the words ‘Perpignan’ and ‘Sale Sharks’, and the unforeseen damage both did to their aspirations over the past two years, should be enough to focus any wandering minds on the business at hand, however.

Tomorrow at The Rec, Leinster have the opportunity to become the first ever Irish side to depart the West Country with a win-bonus in their back pockets but, injuries or not, Bath’s own European aspirations still remain afloat.

“It’s always a very physical game every time you play Bath and that will be added to by the fact we’re meeting them at The Rec,” said Leinster and Ireland centre Brian O’Driscoll.

“They know that they are in the last-chance saloon. It’s a must-win game for them and it’ll be more of the same as we got from them in the first game at Lansdowne.”

The visit of John Connolly’s side to Dublin last October spawned more column inches in the news pages than the sports sections after Stan Collymore’s allegations against some of the English club’s players after an incident outside a city centre nightclub that same night.

Yet Leinster’s 30-11 win that evening wasn’t quite the non-event the scoreline might suggest. It was a good 60 minutes into the contest before Declan Kidney’s men began to emerge with their necks clearly in front.

“It was very tight for a long time at Lansdowne but you’re not going to win games in the first 10 or 15 minutes anyway. You win games in the last 10 and you know every time you’re playing Bath you’re going to have to roll your sleeves up and we’re expecting the very same against them on Saturday,” said O’Driscoll.

In Bath’s own back yard, the expectation would normally be that repeating that result would be far more complicated, although the home side’s litany of woes sees top-class centres Mike Tindall and Robbie Fleck among the nine players expected to sit out the game.

Even that isn’t enough to lower O’Driscoll’s guard.

“Yeah, they seem to have a lot of injuries, particularly among the backs. With Tindall and Fleck out they might have two young centres in but they have a good squad there, good players coming through the academy.

“Whoever comes in will be eager to make a name for themselves and we have to be wary of that. I don’t like to speculate on how some games might go or read into things beforehand.

“Those guys are getting their opportunity and they’ll be looking to take it.”

With O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy their direct opponents, whoever Bath throw the number 12 and 13 jerseys to will face one of rugby’s most daunting tasks, although one ray of hope is the pair’s lack of match practice recently because of D’Arcy’s own injury travails.

Last week’s loss to Munster was their first start together since the 19-point win against Bath in Dublin, so how did it feel to be back together?

“It felt alright. D’Arce and myself are quite similar players and you might say it’s not the perfect partnership because of that, but we do well together.

“I enjoy the style of rugby we play together and we’ll see how it goes in the next few weeks. We haven’t played much together in the past few weeks and it will take a few games to gel.”

So yet again, the carrot is there and the Irish captain certainly thinks the province is more capable than ever of sticking with the task at hand.

“The difference this year is we have more confidence coming into the last 10 minutes than we did last year.

“We have a lot of guys playing international rugby and that certainly helps. Having seven or eight of those guys on the pitch helps pass more confidence around the pitch.

“Even if we’re a few points down coming into the last 10 or 15 minutes we have the confidence to go on and win it.

“Winning becomes a habit and we’re looking to continue that on Saturday.”