Home comforts now Leinster’s priority
A win, of any description, will suffice.
Joe Schmidt will have the comfort of being able to send his troops out into the historic old Stade Yves Du Manoir against Racing Metro 92 without any permutations or contingency plans ringing in their ears.
That he will be able to do so is of enormous credit to the Kiwi coach and his players and staff given the fact they were also saddled with Saracens and Clermont Auvergne as travel companions along the way.
Only Northampton and Toulouse stand above them in terms of points accrued after the first five rounds, so a win of any description will guarantee them, at the very least, a third seeding and home tie, regardless of what happens elsewhere.
“We have often spoken about the experiences of Irish teams in Europe and we know how important it is to have a home quarter-final,” said Leinster’s Eoin Reddan.
“It is huge. We have to produce a very big performance on Friday night to get the win. They are a very proud team at home. All French teams are, regardless of what is coming next. They have a lot of big names in their squad who all want to compete for places so they will be competitive at home.”
And what a home it is. Racing’s ground in the Parisian suburb of Colombes only holds 7,000 people and is a shell of its former self, but it once played host to the 1924 ‘Chariots of Fire’ Olympic Games and the 1938 World Cup final.
It served as the home ground for the French football and rugby sides for three-quarters of the 20th century and was the setting, though not the set, for the cult World War II movie ‘Escape to Victory.’
Racing’s ambitions are well-known and envisage a move away from the old place to a new 15,000 arena. But they have already began construction work on a side that boasts talent like Juan Martin Hernandez and Lionel Nallet.
Reddan will not need any introductions. “At scrum-half you have (Jerome) Fillol or (Nicolas) Durand who are very good players. At out-half you have Hernandez or Jonathan Wisniewski who is suspended, but they have massive ball carriers across the pitch with clever players in behind.”
Recently returned to the Top 14, their new-found wealth has yet to produce silverware and they face Leinster this week with a place in the Challenge Cup as the largest carrot on the table.
It is as benign a fixture as Joe Schmidt’s side could have hoped for in round six and a scenario they could have hardly dreamed up last summer when the Heineken Cup pools and fixtures were first released.
Leinster’s form has catapulted them towards the head of most observers’ list of potential winners and won them many admirers, but Reddan seems a tad uncomfortable with all the praise that they’ve attracted.
“Leinster are a very successful team, but there are a lot of people in this dressing-room who have won nothing for Leinster, myself included. When someone asks what you have added to Leinster, until you have got a medal and a trophy to show for it, you can’t really put your hand up and say you have added anything.
“We were trophy-less last year. I know we had a few new signings and we have a few more this year so if we have a trophy at the end of the year then a few of us can put our hands up. Until that day, that’s the way it is.”
It is an interesting point and one borne out by a glimpse at the province’s squad and the confirmation that, aside from Reddan, there are men like Nathan Hines, Mike Ross, Richardt Strauss and Heinke van der Merwe in the same boat.
Reddan does, at least, have the significant consolation of having claimed a winners’ medal with Wasps back in 2007 when he scored a try in the 25-9 defeat of Leicester Tigers in front of over 81,000 people at Twickenham.
“It is huge,” he said of that feeling. “Massive. The hunger to win more comes from winning it. People like to say you learn a lot when you lose but you learn a hell of a lot when you win, too, like how much you want it.
“There is a dressing-room full of people in there who have done that and people want that again. That is a long way off. We need to get through Friday and anything can happen between now and the run-in.”
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