Cockerill says Tigers don’t fear entering Leinster’s lair
England’s hopes of an RBS 6 Nations Grand Slam were savaged by an Irish onslaught at the Dublin venue less than a month ago, with the Tigers’ half-back partnership of Ben Youngs and Toby Flood most notably failing to fire.
The duo had formed the fulcrum of England’s dominant performances in the tournament up until then, only to fall flat under and a high-intensity display from the Irish who ran out 24-8 winners.
Cockerill is expecting his men to be tested by similar hostility on Saturday night, and while he admits the Six Nations defeat may play on some minds, he believes a change back to club rugby ensures such matters will have little bearing.
“Human nature will dictate that they would like to go there and prove that they can play and do a good job, but it is a different scenario,” he said.
“We’ll see if psychologically it is a benefit or whether it is a detriment.
“It is a different team, different attitude and a different scenario so I don’t think it will have any effect on the way Ben or Toby or Louis Deacon or Dan Cole will play.
“What they can take from the experience is they know what intensity to expect they are not going to get caught cold by the physicality or the atmosphere in the stadium.
“Hopefully that is a benefit for us.”
Even without the echoes of England’s recent slip in the mind, a trip to Leinster alone represents the sternest of challenges.
The Tigers’ failure to top their pool has left them with arguably the toughest task they could have wished for in the last eight, with the Irish side having lost just once in their past 16 Heineken Cup matches in Dublin.
Leinster also have good memories from their last meeting with the Tigers when they beat them 19-16 in the final at Murrayfield two years ago.
Cockerill’s side will, however, take assurance from the fact that they are in good form on the road having won their past six away dates in the Aviva Premiership.
“We’ve been good away from home. I can’t remember the last time we lost away from home,” he said.
“In the last two weeks we have been away from home and have had late kick-offs, so it’s good preparation in that respect.
“Whether it is the best preparation I’ll tell you at eight o’clock on Saturday. It is probably the hardest draw we could have got, but these are the games you want to play in.
“You want to see as a club whether you have the mettle to go to these places and win. If you want to win this competition you’ve got to win these sorts of games.
“We would have preferred to be at home for obvious reasons, but we’ve only got ourselves to blame for that. Leinster qualified out of a very, very strong group. But when we get it right that we are difficult to beat too.”
Leicester had to come from 10-0 behind to beat Harlequins last weekend, but Cockerill warned his side they could not afford to allow a Leinster side, boasting the backline talent of Ireland stars Brian O’Driscoll and Johnny Sexton, a similar head-start.
“We have got to work harder in defence. We have got to get into positions earlier and we have got to make our shots,” he added.
“In the past couple of weeks we’ve been fortunate not to concede more tries in the early part of the game. If you do that at the Aviva then we could find ourselves in the mire.”
Cockerill will have to make at least one change to his front row after prop Marcos Ayerza was banned for two weeks on Monday after being found guilty of headbutting Quins prop Joe Marler.
That could pave the way for Italy international Martin Castrogiovanni to move to loosehead, with Boris Stankovich another possible replacement.
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