Cheika warns against complacency

LEINSTER coach Michael Cheika has warned against complacency ahead of Saturday’s Heineken Cup clash with London Irish at Twickenham.

Following Llanelli’s shock victory over the exiles at Parc Y Scarlets yesterday, Cheika refused to accept his team’s qualification as Pool Six table-toppers is a done deal.

London Irish need at least a bonus point victory to give them top spot and that desperation is seen as a huge threat by the European Cup winning coach.

He was in west Wales yesterday to watch the Scarlets produce a courageous late victory that denied London Irish a losing bonus point and commented: “It was a result that went against known form but that’s what happens in this competition. Take your eye off the ball for a minute and things go against you – it was an interesting fixture to watch,” he said.

Cheika believes his side face a tougher task now that the exiles’ backs are to the wall. “You really cannot take anything for granted in this competition; they beat us at home and we need to right that; there is a home quarter-final to be had with a victory.

“Nothing is settled yet – not even qualification. It is not about bonus points, take anything for granted and you could end up losing.

“London Irish are a dangerous team, we saw how they scored their tries out of nothing and they could even have scored a bonus point victory the way that game was going.”

Cheika recognises that Leinster must improve on their laboured performance against French outfit Brive at the RDS on Saturday evening.

He added: “Irish probably thought they were finished with us after Round One (when they beat the champions) but now its going to go down to the wire despite their defeat. We have been on red alert since that defeat, we probably used the get out of jail free card but if I closed my eyes and thought about my time here (in Ireland) I still haven’t delivered a home quarter-final to this club and to our fans. We have committed to doing that and if we win next weekend we will deliver it.”

Cheika admitted the Brive experience was a bit unnerving.

“It was a difficult match to watch for me; if you looked at them (Brive) when they came and tackled Shane Horgan in the corner during the first half it exemplified their performance, they tackled everything they could and they tried to stop everything.

“From our point of view it could have been one of those nights, it was about how the guys kept their nerve when things weren’t going right. We played a bit like that against Castres in Dublin last year and didn’t get the bonus point. Maybe we learned something from that, ultimately it was a good result for us and a very good boost going into next weekend,” he said.

Not least because it provides Leinster with the perfect opportunity to exact revenge, it’s a game he looks forward to although he believes the larger pitch at Twickenham – as against the Madjeski football stadium – won’t favour either side. “If the Madjeski Stadium is supposed to be confined, it doesn’t stop London Irish from playing with a great deal of width, does it? Anyway, I reckon this game will be won in the tighter exchanges rather than in the wider channels,” he said.

In that case, Nathan Hines is already geared up for battle and he was happy to have had to endure a dress rehearsal of a fitting nature.

“Whatever happens next week, Brive helped us prepare; I wasn’t fooled by any suggestion that they would be lacking in interest. It was a tough encounter from a forwards’ perspective and I was happy with the way we coped, our set-piece play, scrums and line outs were good, very solid and I was pleased with that.

“I was disappointed we didn’t always manage to secure quick ball and that probably came doing to being a bit rusty in terms of game time. It was a bit frustrating although we picked it up a bit in the second half,” he said.

Hines is straining at the leash to get at London Irish, now that a quarter-final and a home draw is at stake.

“After losing to them in October, we have achieved that we wanted to achieve in the meantime, but it’s all to play for again at the weekend; we want to come out of this group as winners and we want a home quarter,’’ he said.