Wary Hines eyes Tigers test
Joe Schmidt’s side let slip an 11-point half-time lead at Thomond Park against their fiercest rivals and, in the physical and aggressive Leicester Tigers, they face an opponent cut from a similar cloth to their provincial cousins.
“They (Leicester) do what they do, and if we’re not more accurate and effective than we were last weekend then we could end up on the end of the same result,” said the Scottish international.
“It’s a pressure game, isn’t it? They have got extremely effective forwards, a strong front five and a pretty quick and mobile back row. If they get any sort of ascendancy up front, then they have got Floody (Toby Flood), a good distributor, and good runners off him.”
The onus, Hines added, is on the Leinster pack to front up. So often the platform for victories, they came off second best to a hungrier Munster eight after the break at the weekend and Hines wasn’t slow in holding up his hand.
“We lost a little bit of momentum. We were a little bit inaccurate. I got turned over by Rog, of all people and we didn’t run out. We lost a bit of shape. Just bit by bit, Munster got back into the game, got a couple of penalties that relieved a little bit of pressure and they kicked some penalties as well.”
Referee Andrew Small didn’t endear himself to the visitors with some of his penalty calls but that won’t have held any water with Joe Schmidt who kept his side in the video room half an hour longer than planned prior to training yesterday.
They can hardly afford to dwell long on the defeat. Leicester have recorded two impressive wins on the road in the English Premiership since the Six Nations — running in five tries in Bath and grinding out a four-pointer on Harlequins’ Stoop.
For Hines, the tie will be a glimpse into what might have been as he revealed yesterday that there were moves afoot to bring him to Welford Road in 2002 at a time when he was also considering a more concrete link with Northampton.
In the end, he stayed with Edinburgh for a further three seasons before decamping to France and Perpignan and he will return to the Top 14 after the World Cup when he begins a two-year term with Clermont Auvergne.
He will be 34 by the time that contract expires so it is unlikely that he will ever get the chance to ply his trade in the English domestic scene but he needs no introduction to Leicester and what they bring to this quarter-final.
“You have to be able to do what you do on the weekend — and they do. They bring their physicality every weekend. We have to fight fire with fire and on a couple of occasions we have done it this year. We’ve just got to make sure we bring that intensity this weekend.”
The sides know each other well, having claimed five wins apiece in previous European encounters but Geordan Murphy has declared the English league leaders to be underdogs given the venue and the recent boost of Ireland’s success against England there. Murphy was in the stands for that one and his will be a watching brief again this weekend thanks to the ankle injury which has restricted him to the off-duty roster since early January but good news is in the offing for both club and country.
“It’s very disappointing to miss out on these big occasions and games against Leinster are extra special for me so I’m even more gutted to miss out.
“It’s a bitter pill to swallow when the crowd gets going and you’re sat on sidelines but fingers crossed that I will be back before the end of the season. I have an operation on April 12 to take the pins, screws and wires out of my foot, then it’s all about how quickly I can recover. If I’m jogging in April, then I’ll have the opportunity to train with the rest of the squad and if I’m sprinting by mid-May, then hopefully I could make the end of the season.”
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