Cheika’s gamble proves perfect
Cheika’s selection of Isa Nacewa at full back was an inspired decision when convention suggested he should choose Mr Reliable, Girvan Dempsey, following the illness that ruled Rob Kearney out.
Nacewa was one of the most influential figures in Leinster’s crucial first-half try, a try that heaped pressure on the defending champions. But Cheika dismissed the suggestion that it was a brave decision to select the Kiwi in an unfamiliar role. “Team selection isn’t a burden: you make a decision to plot the best way forward for your team, sometimes those decisions work, sometimes they don’t work; win or lose today; it would still be a great team to be involved with.”
Given the amount of pre-match publicity that cast doubt upon the integrity if not the ability of this Leinster team, Cheika might well have felt justified in gloating at Munster’s demise. He didn’t; indeed heaping praise on Munster for creating an environment where Irish rugby teams no longer feel intimidated by international opposition.
He even had words of praise for Munster’s back row talisman Alan Quinlan, who may well face sanction for an alleged incident involving Leinster captain Leo Cullen.
“He (Quinlan) is a good operator, a good guy and I’ve got a lot of respect for him as a player. I don’t know what happened, but he’s a hard guy who plays it tough and I wouldn’t be interested in anything else; sometimes there’s a bit of a war on between teams. He came in (after the match) and congratulated us; he is someone who I have massive respect for so I don’t think there is anything else (to be said).”
Cheika believes victory was achieved despite what he viewed as an unacceptable return from the lineouts. “That was my one area for concern,” he admitted. Otherwise, he was pleased with the pack’s performance, notwithstanding the silly block that earned promising prop forward Cian Healy 10 minutes in the sin bin.
“We stayed pretty composed at the right times, we didn’t do too well at lineout time really, so we had to overcome that to get ball (possession) by other methods. Overall, we did pretty well,” he said.
Aggressive defence was crucial, he admitted. “We knew the defensive lines we wanted to take, we fronted up for the whole game and that allowed us to play the type of game we set out to play.
“I don’t think defence is an issue (problem) for us, we’ve got through two pretty hectic encounters; what’s important now is that we believe we can go take the next step, sometimes that’s difficult.
“We had a good game but the final is the prize, we can talk about this game some time later, we can look back and say how well we played, but the important thing is the final prize, about the trophy and whether we get it or not.
“We have to knuckle down over the next few weeks and understand where we are in the bigger picture, just to know that we have to be able to build on this result for the final.
“It doesn’t matter who we play; our preoccupation has been to get to the final ourselves. One way or another, we’re going to meet a team that’s in pretty hot form at the minute; we have to prepare accordingly and we will have to play accordingly on the day (of the final).”
As Cheika contemplates the possibility that Felipe Contepomi has played his last game, he is encouraged with the quality of his reserve strength.
“The bench is important, Jonny (Sexton) did fine when he came on, we lost Rob Kearney but had a guy of calibre to do the job; we lost Luke (Fitzgerald), we brought Girvan Dempsey on, he made a great tackle at the end which was encouraging. The bench, and our ability to utilise it, is of crucial importance.”
So too is the increased level of support for the men in blue. Thousands of tickets for the decider at Murrayfield on May 23 have already been sold in Munster. Many of them will be passed on; some will be used anyway by disappointed supporters from the south. Cheika hopes that some might wear blue.
Just for a day.
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