Victory just the tonic for Schmidt

A FREEZING cold day in Ravenhill probably wasn’t the most obvious prescription for someone suffering from a bad head cold over the Arctic-like Christmas period but Leinster’s visit to Belfast worked wonders for an under-the-weather Joe Schmidt.

Prior to that, it had been something of a miserable festive season for the Kiwi, who had spent the 25th on his own after his family returned home to New Zealand to spend the holiday season with their nearest and dearest for the first time in four years.

The rest of the Schmidts said goodbye to layers of snow and temperatures of minus 10 for a toasty 28-degree welcome back home but the old man was left feeling just as warm on the inside after an impressive and comfortable 30-13 win against Ulster.

“I hadn’t eaten for two days and I needed a lift myself. For the team it was a great lift as well. We talked before the game about the fact that they were six points ahead of us if they had won it. With a game in hand it could have been 10 points ahead of us effectively, so we needed the result. It was great to get it.”

The empty house may have taken some getting used to but Schmidt is well versed in the demands asked of rugby players and coaches at this time of year after his successful stint assisting Vern Cotter at Clermont Auvergne.

The Top 14 is a competition that pays little heed to festivities or holidays and his old buddies are currently in the midst of a three-game, 10-day slog which puts Leinster’s dual dates with Ulster and Connacht over the same period into better perspective.

None of that is to say that this is an easy few weeks, but Leinster’s recent form in the Magners League and Heineken Cup is suggestive of a team that dealt with most of the season’s speed bumps soon after the new coach’s arrival.

“For me, the most challenging part of the season was definitely the start,” Schmidt explained. “Just because I didn’t really know the players and I had never tried to coach a team under the system that operates here now.”

One of the new challenges which Schmidt has had to get his head around has been the IRFU’s unique player welfare programme which determines when certain internationally contracted players can and cannot feature for their provinces.

Brian O’Driscoll was allowed to start in Ravenhill due to his relative lack of game time in recent months but the Irish captain will not double up against Connacht at the RDS on New Year’s Day although the likes of Sean O’Brien, Eoin Reddan, Isaac Boss and Devin Toner may.

O’Driscoll and O’Brien are among those Leinster players who were called into this week’s two-day Ireland camp — other notable call-ups include Mike Ross and Leo Cullen — and it will be tomorrow before Schmidt has the necessary information with which to name a team.

Not ideal then, but his hand should at least be strengthened by the availability of long-term absentee Kevin McLaughlin and Eoin O’Malley, who has been restricted to the sidelines since suffering a cracked rib in his impressive European bow in Clermont earlier this month.

The likes of O’Malley and Fergus McFadden have melded seamlessly into the first 15 in recent weeks while the form of more experienced but less than stellar lights such as Ross and Isaac Boss has also contributed to a dramatic upswing in fortunes.

Most prominent of all of late has been O’Brien, whose juggernaut runs with the ball and voracious tackling prompted Schmidt to describe him jokingly yesterday as the sort of guy who would scare a passer-by on the street.

“Seanie is just so dynamic and abrasive. He gives opposition defences a really hard time. It’s often not a one-man tackle that brings him down, they have to commit two and if he gets a metre or two forward he’s just a little bit of a handful for them, which has been great for us.”

Leinster could do with him again at the weekend after his two-try haul against Ulster because, while Connacht are second from bottom, they have rarely failed to make life tough for their more illustrious cousins when the sides have crossed paths in the Magners league.

Connacht have claimed the battle honours five times in their 19 meetings since 2000.

Nine of Leinster’s wins in that period have been by single-digit scores and the westerners have already proven stubborn opposition earlier this season when going down 16-8.

“They are incredibly competitive,” said Schmidt. “How many times do they get hammered? I don’t know how many times this year they have had a losing bonus point. Even against us, they were unlucky to let that slip at the end of the game. They are always competitive. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them really taken to the cleaners.

“Even last year at the RDS, I had a look at the Leinster team and it was a good team they had out but it took a Johnny Sexton kick at the end of the game to win it.

“Sean Cronin got held up over the line and could have won it for Connacht. You will underestimate them at your peril. They have a real tigerish attitude that makes them really difficult to break down.”