O’Kelly wins fitness battle for Wasps clash

VETERAN second row Malcolm O’Kelly has won his battle for fitness and earns a recall to the Leinster team for today’s Heineken Cup clash with London Wasps at the RDS (5.30pm).

O’Kelly returns in place of young Devin Toner, who drops to the bench at Cameron Jowitt’s expense. These are the only alterations from the squad of 22 on duty against Edinburgh in last week’s successful tournament opener.

Mark Van Gisbergen and John Hart return after injury to join the Wasps squad, but both will be on the bench. Former Munster player Jeremy Staunton continues to hold down the full-back position ahead of Van Gisbergen for this tie, which is considered to be one of the glamour fixtures of the weekend.

However, Leinster might not treat it as glamorous; they are looking ahead to what they believe will be a bruising physical encounter. Scrum-half Chris Whitaker has warned that Leinster need to be vigilant and totally dedicated for the duration of the game against the two-time champions.

Wasps have a track record as being one of the most direct and hard-hitting club teams in the northern hemisphere. Despite a slow start to the English domestic season, they are producing form at the right time, and have a third European title in mind.

If physicality, as outlined by Whitaker, is their forte, Wasps are not restricted by a one dimensional style. “I expect it will be a lot more physical this week than last (against Edinburgh), especially around the rucks. They like to get a lot of go-forward with the hard runners, so physically we’ve definitely got to try and match them,” he said.

But Whitaker pointed to strengths in other areas, out wide for instance, and one (Eoin Reddan) close to his own personal combat zone.

Describing Reddan, he said: “He’s right up there, he’s world class. It’s not

like a tennis match, we don’t go one-on-one, so it’s not like I have that much to do with him apart from at the feed to the scrum. But he’s definitely someone the team has to focus on shutting down. Their nine and ten (Danny Cipriani) combination is very dangerous. They’re very good players and Wasps love playing through them because they create things.

“I suppose it’s a bit of a catch-22 situation for us really; we’ve got to keep these two under control, but we can only make a decent attempt at that if we get on top of them up front. We’ve simply got to be up to speed in every aspect of the forward battle; we just can’t give them the opportunity to dictate the way the game is played.”

Whitaker believes his former Australian international colleague Rocky Elsom could play a crucial role, now that he has settled into the Leinster pattern of play after three successive appearances.

“It’s good. He’s pretty quiet and he goes about things his way. He keeps to himself, but once you get on the field he’s a good man to have. He just goes

all day and he plays on the ball a fair bit, taking pressure off you and putting it on the opposition,” he said.

Panic isn’t in Elsom’s vocabulary, reckons Whitaker. “He’s a pretty cool customer; you’d never hear him raise his voice before a game, he’s a calming influence on the team but he’s great to have around when you need someone to make the hard yards.”

It’s two years since Whitaker last lined out against Wasps — in a Heineken Cup quarter-final at Adams Park — and it wasn’t a happy outcome for Leinster. But he insists there can be no comparison between the two occasions.

“That was a knockout match played in England, this is a pool game in Ireland. Personnel and other circumstances have changed, so the focus hasn’t at all been geared to what happened back then. This is all about now, what the teams have done recently and what we’re capable of this weekend.”

But Whitaker figures one thing hasn’t changed from the Lawrence Dallaglio era at Wasps — the ability to produce players that talk a lot on the pitch. He is determined to ensure Leinster don’t get thrown off course if such is the case today.

“Dallaglio was pretty yappy, especially at the ref. They (Wasps) tended to go all day, but there’s a lot of teams that do that and it’s definitely something we can’t let affect us. We’ve just got to concentrate on our game and not get sucked into that type of tactic.”

For Whitaker, the best approach is to take one game at a time, so last week’s bonus point win over Edinburgh won’t count for anything until, he hopes, the last game of Leinster’s pool campaign.

“Last week is over, but we have taken stock of the fact that we were fortunate enough to score off some of the breaks we made; ideally we would like to create some more, but it’s certainly going to be a hard task against a quality side like Wasps.

“It will, or should at any rate, be a very different type of game; there probably won’t be as many openings, so it’s going to be crucial to take whatever opportunities do arise.”