Nacewa: All eyes trained on Ulster
There can be no doubt Leinster head coach Joe Schmidt is putting into place his game plan for the European showpiece against Northampton Saints in Cardiff a week tomorrow but Nacewa, the players’ player of the year in both Ireland and his province, said it would be “completely” easy to concentrate on the immediate task ahead tonight.
“It’s a week to week thing. Never look more than a week ahead or else you might get into trouble and slip up along the way,” Nacewa said.
“You don’t worry about next week, we have a tough job ahead of us so we’ll just focus on that.
“It’s knockout stages so there is no second place this week.”
Leinster will start as hot favourites in front of a crowd of more than 14,000 at the RDS tonight given their sparkling form, their home and away wins over Ulster in the Magners League this season and their long record of success against them in Dublin, the northern province having last won there in August 1999.
Yet Nacewa believes complacency will not be an issue.
“Competition within the squad is keeping everyone on their toes, there are guys who want to hold their hands up this week for the weeks ahead. There were a few changes last weekend and a lot of the guys stepped up so every one is on their toes.”
With 29 appearances from a possible 30 this season, there is no danger of the Auckland-born Nacewa being required to up his game and he has once again been retained at full-back in Schmidt’s team to face Ulster.
Brian O’Driscoll returns after being rested from last week’s 38-3 win over Glasgow in the final game of the regular season and the Ireland captain is set to make his 150th Leinster career appearance as he partners Gordon D’Arcy in midfield.
Also back in action is first-choice fly-half Jonathan Sexton, who will partner scrum-half Isaac Boss while Fergus McFadden, who kicked 18 points in the Glasgow win switches from left wing to right tonight in a back three including Nacewa and the returning Luke Fitzgerald.
Schmidt will deploy his front five of choice with loosehead Cian Healy making his 50th Magners League appearance for Leinster alongside hooker Richardt Strauss and tighthead Mike Ross. Leo Cullen captains the side from the second row alongside Nathan Hines with Shane Jennings, Sean O’Brien and Jamie Heaslip completing the pack.
Kevin McLaughlin and Devin Toner both revert to the bench following their outings at lock last weekend with scrum-half Eoin Reddan the third Irish international serving as a replacement.
In contrast to the seven Leinster changes, Ulster coach Brian McLaughlin has made just one change to his starting XV from the win over the Newport Gwent Dragons last week that secured third place in the Magners League.
That change is at lock, where Tim Barker replaces Dan Tuohy who injured a hamstring against the Dragons and was ruled out after an MRI scan. Neil McComb comes into the replacements for Barker in the only change on the Ulster bench.
That means there is no comeback for Willie Faloon, who injured his shoulder in training two weeks ago and will undergo surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff.
Ulster face a big challenge in trying to inflict a first Magners League away win at the RDS since last season’s Grand Final success by Ospreys, which is Leinster’s only Magners League defeat at the stadium since September 2008.
Not that they are without good recent form of their own. Ulster have lost just once in their last nine Magners League matches.
Alas, that defeat, a 34-26 loss, came against Leinster, at the RDS last month, when the home side blitzed the visitors with a three-try burst inside the opening quarter-hour.
At the start of a pivotal stretch of games that could garner two trophies, Schmidt will be grateful for a similarly conclusive fast start.
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