Whitaker enjoying Leinster adventure
His main concern before arrival seems to have been the weather — as if he had mistaken Ranelagh for Russia.
An archetypal surfing son of Sydney — his younger brother is an internationally ranked master of the waves — Whitaker seems to have equated the Irish wind and rain to a bad smell. All pervasive and impossible to escape.
“I thought the weather was — touch wood — going to be a lot worse and affect the style of games you could play,” he explained on a cold but crisp and sunny day in Dublin earlier in the week.
“Hopefully it stays like this because the style of rugby has been good.”
Even on the relatively few occasions when the heavens have opened, the 33-year old scrum-half has remained impressed.
“If you look at the Ireland v Australia game, Ireland just attacked in the first half for 40 minutes non-stop and I suppose it shows the skills and capabilities of the Irish players at the moment. They can attack no matter what the weather.”
It is a measure of just how far Irish rugby and the Heineken Cup have come in recent years that Whitaker should be so impressed.
In his last two seasons with New South Wales, he played in a Super 12 final and Super 14 semi-final, during which time the Waratahs never lost to another Australian outfit.
The Heineken Cup may not attract the same crowds in the same sort of glittering stadia week in, week out but Whitaker sees very little difference between the two competitions.
“The first phase of the Heineken Cup has got the same intensity, the same pressures. There’s a lot of must-win games and the pressure to stay on top of your pool and get through to the next round is very similar to Super 14.”
Whitaker knew Michael Cheika and David Knox well from their time at Royal Randwick and one look at the names on the Leinster team sheet convinced him that the Aussie overseers and the Irish side was a potential match made in heaven.
He added: “That was a huge factor and one of the main reasons I came to Leinster. Obviously too there was the fact that Michael Cheika and David Knox were here. I had been involved with them back in Australia and knew the type of game they liked to play. One look at the team and you could tell that it was a very impressive outfit.
“Some of the things that some of the guys can do is frightening. I don’t know what you’d call it but one pass, one thing that Brian O’Driscoll did against Ulster, I was chasing and actually stopped running because I didn’t know what was going on. Some of the skills have blown me away.”
More of the same would go down nicely today in Donnybrook (5.35pm, Sky Sports) where Leinster will be hoping to balance the books with an Edinburgh side that beat them with a last-minute drop goal at Murrayfield in the reverse fixture.
Whitaker sat out that through injury and, with Felipe Contepomi also spending time in casualty this season, Cheika has been unable to pair his stellar half-backs as often as he would have liked.
Though he has been here less than a wet week, Whitaker has already lined out beside four different out-halve,s making it difficult for him to develop a close understanding with the Argentinean.
“It’s (been) slightly difficult. Everyone takes the ball differently at ten. There’s not too many out-halves in the world who like to take the ball as far forward as he does.”
A sunny disposition becomes apparent when he talks about the silver lining that has been the game time afforded to the likes of Jonathan Sexton in the main man’s absence but Contepomi’s importance to the team cannot be underestimated.
“He’s different,” said Whitaker when asked to compare the Puma to other fly-halves he has partnered. “I’ve said it before but he’s probably not so structured as some of the tens I’ve played with but he’s definitely right up there skill-wise.
“Never in his mind is he thinking about defence, it’s always about attack. He’s exciting to play with.”
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