Cheika expecting scant ‘hospitality’ at Fortress Thomond

MICHAEL CHEIKA has experienced almost everything that Irish rugby has to offer in his 18 months on these shores and his local education will be complete when he takes his Leinster team to Thomond Park for the first time today.

With the old ground due for redevelopment in the near future, the Australian will be arriving just in time to sample its famous “hospitality” but Cheika has enough experience of Munster in the bank to realise the extent of the task awaiting his side.

“They’ve got a very unique atmosphere going on down there with their public but you could be playing Munster in a park in Afghanistan and it could be a hard game.

“At home in Limerick, they’ve got a very good record so I reckon it’s going to be a very tough match.”

The two provinces have met four times since the Australian took the reigns at Donnybrook, with both claiming a pair of victories to date and, somehow, the hype and expectation increases with every meeting.

With the two provinces riding high after recent Heineken Cup exploits, the bar will probably be raised further.

Though Leinster have twice enjoyed impressive wins against Declan Kidney’s side, including their last encounter in October, the two defeats have been painful.

The bones have long been picked off the pair’s Heineken Cup semi-final encounter but Leinster’s loss in the then Celtic League at Musgrave Park earlier in the season was, if anything, an equally sobering occasion.

“We got hammered down there,” explains Cheika bluntly. “It was very good learning for us. We were able to unload and open up to a few weaknesses in our team and our structure.

“If you don’t address your weaknesses you’ll never get rid of them. I think we’ve gone a long way to addressing those weaknesses.”

It’s been 12 months since Cheika first enjoyed victory over the southern cousins, in front of over 14,000 people, at the RDS and the memory of how the Leinster pack drove over for a pushover try just minutes after the first whistle is still fresh.

Twice the number of fans made their way to Lansdowne Road for the last meeting two months ago and again Leinster claimed the honours. Yet Cheika is anxious to take his rivals’ scalps on the road.

“They’re big games. They’re a big team and we love playing against big teams. We just want to perform and we want to perform down there.

“We’ve got to make sure that we take that intensity and aggression down to Limerick and give it our best shot.”

It’s been a strange week in both camps with preparations not helped by the fact that their internationals were in Portugal with “Team Ireland”.

In their absence, much of Cheika’s focus has been on the ‘A’ team. In action last Tuesday, Cheika was far from happy with the performance but it did serve as a run-out for players like Guy Easterby, Rob Kearney, Kieran Lewis, Harry Vermaas and Cameron Jowitt, all of whom needed game time.

Cheika gave the whole squad Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off, mindful of the punishing schedule to come.

Ulster await in the New Year’s Eve clash at Lansdowne Road and 40,000 tickets have already been sold for the ground’s “Last Stand”. It promises to be a draining week.

“We’ll just see how we pull up after this one as we come towards the Ulster match,” said Cheika.

“There’s a lot of rugby to be played in the next few weeks.”