Reddan urges fringe players to seize opportunity

ANOTHER week, another anxious wait on the fitness of Brian O’Driscoll and it seems as though Leinster will wait until the last minute before deciding whether their number 13 is fit to face Clermont Auvergne at the Stade Marcel Michelin on Sunday.

The odds are heavily against.

Joe Schmidt has until Friday to decide on O’Driscoll who cracked a cheekbone against Argentina. He is already without Rob Kearney and Luke Fitzgerald although Jamie Heaslip, Cian Healy, Isaac Boss and Jason Harris-Wright are available after missing the draw with Scarlets.

The November internationals have taken their toll on the Irish province ahead of their double-header against the French champions but Eoin Reddan clearly believes in the old adage about one window swinging open just as another slams tight.

“The ideal would be that people just slot in,” said the scrum-half.

“You lose certain people’s strengths but the guys coming in will have strengths and try and replace them. It’s a big opportunity for the guys who come in.

“Some of the players who are missing took their big chance a few years ago and the players who do get to play will be thinking ‘this is my chance to have a go here’ and play some good rugby and further their career. So, there’s positives and negatives to it.”

Among those looking to make a statement will be Fergus McFadden and Eoin O’Malley who would probably start on the wing and at outside-centre respectively were Schmidt to keep O’Driscoll bubble-wrapped until the return at the Aviva Stadium.

Leinster, in fairness, are not the only side coming to terms with the international calendar of the month just passed but their opponents this weekend are licking mental wounds as much as those of a physical nature.

Backs Aurelien Rougerie and Morgan Parra, as well as forwards Thomas Domingo and Julien Pierre, started the galling 59-16 loss suffered by France at the hands of Australia on November 27. They will be looking to wash that taste from their mouths on Sunday.

“They might have a point to prove and their confidence might be low,” said Reddan at a launch announcing Champion Sports as the official retail partner to Leinster Rugby. “Often you get a boost going from a provincial team to go into an international camp because of the size of the games. And, to be honest, you often get a big lift again coming back working with all your friends. You have been away from the group for a while and you are back with the coach that you know and all that kind of stuff.”

Leinster, too, will be hopeful of washing away past sins as they return to France for the first time since their scrum was destroyed by Toulouse in the Heineken semi-final at Le Stadium last May. A similar trauma had been visited on the Leinster front eight just weeks before by Clermont and Reddan accepts that this latest tussle with the French will be a useful barometer for a department that has struggled.

“The scrum is going to be massive. The last time they came over here they did a bit of damage to us. Both the quarter-final and the semi-final of the European Cup last year was a bit of a watershed for us as a team.

“The whole forward unit has worked very hard. We are going down to a very tough place to scrummage this weekend but our scrum has definitely improved since we played them last year and this will be a big challenge and a very important part of the game this weekend.”

Last April aside, Reddan has faced ‘Les Jaunards’ twice before, in the group stages whilst with Wasps when the English side let slip a losing bonus point and a winning one and thus opened the door for Munster to emerge from the cliched group of death.