Point to prove
PORTENTS of doom have enveloped Irish rugby like a fog since the national team’s World Cup meltdown and, for those of a superstitious bent, the location for last Monday’s Heineken Cup launch offered little in the way of comfort.
Twenty yards away from the ERC’s HQ on Stephen’s Green there lies a cemetery — a French one, no less, of Huguenot origin — and the mood among the sport’s followers here will be equally grave if our worst fears are realised in this year’s European showpiece.
Rarely, if ever, has the draw for the pool stages been so unkind to Irish hopes. Leinster have Leicester and Toulouse while Munster’s task is even harder with Clermont Auvergne, Llanelli and champions Wasps all vying for the right to reach the last eight.
Ulster, who have been the most frequent Irish visitors to the proverbial group of death, haven’t been quite so unfortunate, but their recent form doesn’t generate much optimism.
It is all a far cry from the opening round of last year’s tournament when Munster turned Leicester over at Welford Road, Leinster picked up a bonus point win at home to Gloucester and Ulster hammered Toulouse by 27 points at Ravenhill.
“I don’t think things are as bad as everyone is making them out to be,” says Leinster captain Brian O’Driscoll.
“You are only ever one good game away from having a big performance.
“It’s a question of not putting too much pressure on ourselves. If you put yourself under too much pressure the performance is forced too much. It’s about relaxing and making things happen.”
Any mention of the World Cup at Monday’s launch made everyone a little uneasy and brought to mind that episode of Fawlty Towers where Basil took a knock to the head and couldn’t help but scream ‘Don’t mention the war’ in front of his German guests.
O’Driscoll is adamant that he has moved on from the tournament and is anxious that everyone would do the same, but it isn’t that simple.
As team captain his views on what occurred are more sought after than most, and there is also the fact that the evidence of Ireland’s disastrous autumn is still visible on his face.
The scar from Mikaera Tewhata’s cheap shot punch in the warm-up game against Bayonne in August refuses to go away, but O’Driscoll believes the internal healing process has been a far quicker process.
“I don’t think that (scar) is going to go in a hurry,” he laughs. “I feel grand. I’m over the whole World Cup thing. I put it down to one of those things. There are possibilities and opportunities of winning things with Leinster this year. That’s the great thing about the Heineken Cup.
“It’s a new competition and new hope. It’s just a matter of starting well in this competition. If you start well competition grows. If you start badly then you can find yourself under serious pressure and out of the competition before the pool stage is even half over.”
With only one team likely to make it through Pool 6, and a trip to Toulouse to come after tomorrow’s opener against Leicester at the RDS, Leinster could well find themselves dangling over the precipice with four games still to play. The French side are three-time winners while the Tigers have lifted the trophy twice and finished second best to Wasps in last season’s decider.
“We’re in with probably two of the toughest teams in Europe this past five, six years and then there is Edinburgh against whom we won and lost in this competition last year. It is a potential pool of death but we’re not the only ones who have it tough. Whoever comes out of it will have a great chance to go out and do great things in this competition.”
It may be a new campaign for Michael Cheika’s side but they enter it with some of the same old caveats hanging around their necks.
Consistency, or the lack of it, has long been their Achilles heel, and things have been no different in the Magners League this year with a superb 11 point win over the Blues in Cardiff sitting incongruously alongside a 29-point home defeat to the Scarlets.
Their preparations haven’t been ideal, with their five Irish internationals managing only the last two outings against Connacht and Ulster together. Felipe Contepomi has yet to pull on a blue jumper.
“I guess that was one of the good things about getting knocked out of the World Cup so early,” said O’Driscoll with tongue in cheek, “we got the chance to gel as a side. We’ve got to spend the last few weeks together. A lot of the players we have coming back from international duty are good individual players so I don’t envisage it being that difficult a transition.
“It’s a great atmosphere within the squad this year. Everyone is enjoying one another’s company. With a bit of luck we can translate that onto the pitch.
“The camaraderie has definitely developed over the last few years and it is the third year of Cheiks’ three-year cycle, so it is the one where we have to produce it.”
WITH 10 of their employees recently returned from the World Cup, Leicester have had their own gelling issues, but the Tigers have been masters of rotation for many years and will hardly notice the extra aggravation.
The last time they travelled to these shores was in January when they ended Munster’s proud unbeaten European record at Thomond Park thanks to a Trojan effort by their forward pack.
Leinster’s grunts have never been viewed in the same light as their cousins down south, but Michael Cheika believes his current crew of forwards is the most capable he has assembled in Dublin.
Shane Jennings, Leo Cullen, Ollie Le Roux and Stephen Knoop have all been added this year, but the 80 minutes against some of the Guinness Premiership’s prime beef this weekend will be the true barometer of their abilities.
“Every game is won in the pack. If your first five, and the eight itself, manage to get the upper hand on the opposition you are halfway there. I’m sure we’ll get another big performance from our pack.
“They have been doing well this season. We just need to get a consistency of performance going. Not only from one to eight, but everywhere. We need to play a varied game that keeps the opposition guessing.”
The presence of Jennings and Cullen after their stints at Welford Road adds another measure of spice to proceedings, but any insights they might have into the Leicester psyche will have been diluted by the arrival of new coach Marcelo Loffreda.
“They will have points to prove having been there for a couple of years.
“The guys are very ambitious anyway, so I don’t think it matters that they are playing their old club. They were beaten finalists in the Heineken Cup last year, and they will want to go one step further. Hopefully they can drag a few lads along with them.”
A win over Leicester would add welcome ballast to the team as they contemplate a visit to Stade Ernest Wallon for the first time since that never-to-be-forgotten victory two seasons ago.
The hope is that it, too, does not become yet another French boneyard for Irish ambitions.
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