McQuilken keen to heed French lessons
It was last December when Michael Cheika’s side visited Castre’s Stade Pierre Antoine and suffered a three-point defeat in round four that took the shine off what had been an impressive start to their campaign.
“Early on against Castres last year we scored a try, kicked a penalty and then took the foot off the pedal, probably a bit mentally,” said the defence coach.
“We didn’t really hammer it home. They got more confident and grew into the game. We know now that we just have to go down there and hammer it for 80 minutes, really take on that mentality we finished with last year. We’ve just got to keep going, no-one put their head up above the parapet, just keep hammering away.”
The difference this particular time is that Leinster touch down on French soil with virtually no wiggle room after last weekend’s frustrating 12-9 defeat against London Irish in the RDS.
Leinster’s record under Cheika in France is an acceptable one and stands at played five, won two, lost three. Only once in that time, against Toulouse two seasons ago, were they blown out of the water.
Playing in France demands certain basics be adhered to. “You’ve got to start strongly, stop them getting a breach early on. If the French get their tails up early on, they’re very hard to knock even though (Brive) have a large English contingent down there.
“You’ve got to get mean early, get your line speed up early on and make a few impacts. You’ve got to hit the mark. With the likes of (Viliame) Waqaseduadua who’s very good on his feet and capable of breaching the line, we’ve got to get the line speed right.”
The Fijian wing is just one member of Brive’s ever-expanding United Nations roster that is bulwarked by English internationals like Andy Goode, Riki Flutey, Jamie Noon, Steve Thompson.
“At home they are tough, definitely,” said McQuilken. “Funny enough, they are very structured with their English contingent in there, very structured for the first couple of phases but they also have that flair in them, more than capable of having a go.
“If you can snuff it out early on you’ll be grand but if they start to fling it around they can be dangerous. From a defensive point of view, if we start dropping under and they get into those wider channels, that’s when they’ll hurt you cos’ they love to run it when they have the ball in hand.”
Leinster may have their backs to the wall in Pool Six but they look well equipped to deal with Brive’s attacking threat based on the evidence of the last few weeks in the Magners League and Heineken Cup.
The Irish province hasn’t conceded a try in over three hours of rugby thanks to the defensive nous and patterns established by McQuilken who joined Cheika’s coaching staff last season.
“Yeah, from a defensive point of view it’s good not to concede tries but, even though it hurts me, I’d be prepared to have let in a try against London Irish if we had won the game.
“From a defensive point of view, we are pretty good at the moment. We’ve got into our groove defensively. The line speed has picked up and things are looking alright but we’ve got to keep it going and put more consistency in it.”
Leinster’s problem last week – or one of them anyway – was that the Exiles’ defence proved just as tough a nut to crack. Brian O’Driscoll almost broke free for a try in the opening exchanges but Leinster failed to capitalise on a handful of similar line breaks in the first quarter before Toby Booth’s side found their defensive feet.
That made for a slightly frustrating, if still intense, game of rugby between two of the competition’s most exciting and in-form teams but McQuilken was, unsurprisingly, engrossed by the tactical battle.
“They have good line speed and they put in some big tackles so both teams cancelled each other out, really. It probably wasn’t the greatest spectacle but, from my point of view, it was interesting watching both defences and how the systems worked and how they shut each other down.”
The defeat won’t have sat well. McQuilken has reported that the Leinster players are “raring to go” on Saturday.
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