Leinster sweating on Sexton

JONATHAN SEXTON faces another 24 hours of uncertainty before being confirmed in Leinster’s starting line-up for the Heineken Cup opener against French league leaders Racing Metro at the RDS tomorrow (1.30pm).

Sexton (quad injury) remains a doubt but his chances of playing were yesterday rated “good” by forwards coach Jono Gibbes, who also expressed some confidence that Leinster’s long-term injury victim Leo Cullen could be included in the 23-man match-day squad.

Hence, Leinster named a squad of 25 yesterday to allow head coach Joe Schmidt and his team every opportunity to draw a final conclusion on selection today.

Gibbes hoped it was merely a cautionary stance in relation to Sexton: “We’re just waiting to see how he reacts to his workload; I’d be reasonably confident that he will be able to make the starting line up, and obviously with Leo, coming back from a long-term injury, we wanted to see where he was sitting.”

Racing Metro, he believes, will provide the most daunting of opposition, suggesting their physicality was of particular concern.

“They have a huge kicking game for territory and a huge pack that will try to squeeze the platform that we would like for ourselves,” says Gibbes.

“They’re clearly going to try to put us under a bit of heat up front and disrupt that platform by making us play from deep. That’s the first place from which they’re likely to attack us.”

The emergence of this particular French side to set the scene in the Super 14 domestic competition hasn’t surprised Gibbes, given the calibre of players in Lionel Nallet, Sebastien Chabal, Francois Steyn, Mirco Bergamasco et al.

“It’s probably accurate to say that they have top name guys specifically recruited to do a certain job and they have fitted them around very effective players who will make each and every game a war of attrition.

“From that perspective, our pack doesn’t need too many talkers, we need people to do things, just as we did, I felt, against Munster. We’ve just to get on with it and get it done against teams like that. Munster was a big step forward for us as a mindset and we’re going to need that again because it’s another step up to the Heineken Cup.

“Last week was a very good dress rehearsal — because it was quite clear they (Munster) were going to attack our line-out; they kicked the ball out 17 times so that was a clear message they intended attacking one of our platforms. We managed to deal with that reasonably effectively so I guess that was a good dress rehearsal for this week when I expect the same kind of pressure. Maybe the next thing (to watch for) will be the scrum area because the French have a different philosophy and are maybe a bit different from what we’re used to in the Magners League. Overall, I think Munster would always ask questions of us up front and I suppose that might prepare us (well) for this week,” he said.

Even that might not have prepared Leinster for the scrum battle, however, given Gibbes’ take on how the French play the game.

“In France, some teams will look to play the whole game around the scrum; holding it in even if they are going forward. They will try to go again and get penalties, so it’s a different kind of approach and therefore a different challenge. Our guys, particularly the front rowers have put in a huge amount of work this week. Technically we know we have to be very accurate, and tactically there will be things we need to be sharp and street smart at. The players have taken a lot of initiative this week and hopefully they’ll be equipped to deal with the challenge. Still, it’s going to take a big mindset and huge concentration to cope with it.”