Leinster totem Toner taking ever-improving Treviso seriously

EASY to forget now after their blazing finish to the season but there was a point early in the last campaign when Leinster were pinned on the ropes.

This week’s assignment is a timely reminder.

Joe Schmidt was just a matter of months into his new role as head coach when the province took flight for their first competitive league game in Italy and they departed Europe’s boot on the back of a 29-13 defeat to Benetton Treviso.

It was just their third fixture in the then Magners League but their second defeat and it was one that heaped a lot of premature and unfair pressure on the Kiwi who was still in the process of bedding in his returning internationals. “I missed the Treviso game last year,” said Devin Toner. “I did my AC joint (pre-season) against Leicester and missed the opening three league games but I watched it on TV and remember the game. It was drilled into us again (this week), we just got bullied in that game.”

There were only 5,000 supporters at the Stadio Di Monigo that day but one was a Leinster supporter who somehow slipped into the post-match press conference and berated Schmidt for the team’s slovenly start.

An eight-point defeat away to Edinburgh followed a week later but that loss to Treviso remains lodged in the collective mindset as the low point, mostly because of the popular and unflattering perception of Italian club rugby.

Franco Smith’s side are doing their best to alter that. Currently sixth in the Pro12 table, they won four games on the trot before a loss to Edinburgh in the last round in a run which saw them put 50 points on the Dragons and beat Ulster in Belfast.

The tricky nature of Leinster’s tie on Saturday was made crystal clear again last weekend when the visiting Ospreys had to drag themselves back from the dead to claim a last-gasp draw in their European pool.

“They’re going absolutely brilliantly,” said Toner. “They’ve a chance to become the first Italian side to finish in the (Pro12) top four. They’re coached brilliantly well, they’re well-drilled and they have a great pack. We’re going to be up against it.

“They were unlucky not to get away with a win against the Ospreys. They had four wins in a row before losing to Edinburgh so they’re going to be looking to put the record straight. They’ve done fabulously well.”

Meanwhile Stephen Ferris and Rory Best will miss Ulster’s RaboDirect Pro 12 trek to Glasgow on Friday night due to Ireland’s Player Management Programme. However, despite the player welfare ethos which clicks in over the current swathe of 13 games, coach Brian McLaughlin still has Andrew Trimble and Tom Court available for the game at Firhill, a venue that has had not seen too much joy for Ulster over the years.

ULSTER SQUAD: (Forwards): P McAllister, C Black, T Court, A Macklin, D Fitzpatrick, J Cronin, A Kyriacou, N Brady, L Stevenson, J Muller, D Tuohy, T Barker, N McComb, M McComish, P Wannenburg, W Faloon, C Henry, R Diack. (Backs): P Marshall, I Porter, I Humphreys, P Jackson, N Spence, L Marshall, I Whitten, D Cave, C Gilroy, S Danielli, A Trimble, A D’Arcy.