Biarritz give advice to Perpignan

BIARRITZ centre Marc Stcherbina has some simple advice for Perpignan as they consider how to beat Leinster later this month: hang on for dear life and hope you get the ball.

The Australian, who nearly broke Leinster hearts until Girvan Dempsey halted his injury-time breakaway, was hugely impressed by the Irish side coached by fellow former Waratah Matt Williams and thinks they will be hard to stop in this year’s Heineken Cup.

“They’ll be hard to beat,” Stcherbina said, “and if they can get over the hurdle of Perpignan, you’d be a brave man to bet against them in the final, especially at Lansdowne Road.

“Perpignan will ask different questions of them than us, but they’ll have to hold on for dear life like we had to in defence and hope they can create something.”

Stcherbina replaced Joe Roff at Biarritz last summer having abandoned hopes of representing Australia in this autumn’s World Cup and alongside fellow Aussie Jack Isaac has formed a resolute midfield defensive unit that kept Leinster at bay for most of the first half.

Trouble was they did not get enough ball of their own and that will be the key for a Perpignan side led by yet another Aussie, Manny Edmonds. Stcherbina said: .“If Perpignan have enough ball, who knows. It will be a very good game and I’m not going to bet either way.”

Of Leinster, Stcherbina said: “They played a fantastic game, hard and fast; they conserved the ball and I think we struggled with that a little bit. I think that’s very hard for anybody to defend for as long as we had to defend.”