Leinster will need all new found character

TALENT is a trait that has rarely been questioned in Leinster. Mental toughness, on the other hand, has. Frequently.

Time after time the province have allowed their skills to be drowned by mental doubt, but there are signs of a backbone emerging. And not before time.

Last Sunday was do-or-die for Leinster in this season's Heineken Cup, and 20 minutes in they were 13-3 down away to Sale. All too often in the past, the province would have allowed to game to slide away from them, but not this time.

They regrouped, refused to panic, stuck to the game plan and ultimately reaped a superb away victory thanks to two beautifully crafted tries, and a defensive display with few flaws.

"We responded extremely well on Sunday," coach Gary Ella agreed. "When you look at it, they were winning 13-3, and you can say away from home it's going to be difficult to come back. But the guys rallied very strongly, they stayed with the game plan, they didn't deviate from what we wanted to do for the rest of the game and eventually we came out on top."

Ella also believes captain Reggie Corrigan's pre-match speech helped to get the players in the right frame of mind. The prop-forward was scathing of his side's efforts against Sale the previous week at Lansdowne Road and in the return game, Corrigan wasn't going to tolerate any passengers.

"I asked for each one of them to stand up and be counted," said the 32-year-old. "I felt we'd left ourselves and the supporters in the Sale game at home and I just felt it was time for us to reverse the situation. I asked them to have a look at themselves and ask was there anything more they could give. And they reacted very well to it.

"Sure, we went 13-3 behind but it was important we didn't panic and believed in the players we had around us and system we'd worked on all week. If you allow panic to creep in and too many people to talk, everything goes in about five or six different directions and you won't have any patterns or systems."

Against Cardiff at Lansdowne Road tonight, Leinster will need all their new-found character. A victory, with the four-try bonus point in tow, would raise the tantalising prospect of Ella's side automatically progressing to the knockout stages should Biarritz fail to defeat Sale on Sunday.

The Welsh side have shown a gradual improvement as the tournament has progressed, and will cause problems for the home side, especially out of touch. However, unless Leinster lose the run of themselves completely, they should run out convincing winners. "Our line-out needs to improve this week," said Corrigan. "It's an area we have done quite a lot of work on during the week and it's been a slight weakness in recent games. I'm sure Cardiff will be looking to target that area. Our scrum has been pretty solid but I do hope we can dominate there a little more."

An added incentive for Corrigan and his men will be the bumper crowd expected at Lansdowne Road tonight. Following attendances of 7,500 against Biarritz and 14,000 against Sale, the province hope to surpass Toulouse's record figure of 22,000 for a pool match tonight.

"The phones have been hopping," said Leinster spokesman Tom McCormack. "Last week's match will have down a lot and the schools are back which will help. It's Friday night football, the DART is working again and the lads have been out visiting schools and doing a lot of promotional work as well. The team have bought into this and I think they will reap the dividends."

LEINSTER (v Cardiff): G Dempsey, J McWeeney, G D'Arcy, S Horgan, B Burke, C Warner, B O'Meara; R Corrigan (capt), S Byrne, P Coyle, M O'Kelly, B Gissing, E Miller, K Gleeson, V Costello.

Replacements: J Moran, G Hickie, A McCullen, S Jennings, B O'Riordan, M Leek, D Quinlan.

CARDIFF: R Williams; N Walne, J Robinson, T Shanklin, C Morgan; N Robinson, R Powell; J Yapp, G Williams, B Evans, C Quinnell, A Moore, J Brownrigg, N Thomas, M Williams (capt).

Replacements: D Crompton, K Fourie, H Senekal, R Thomas, R Appleyard, A Moore, M Allen.