Schmidt warns players to be wary of backlash

JOE SCHMIDT takes his Leinster team back to the Aviva Stadium tonight looking for a similar return against pool rivals Bath (6pm) as they achieved at the same stage last season against Clermont Auvergne.

Schmidt’s first taste of the Aviva as Leinster head coach came in round four of the pool stages when his players, backed by 44,873 fans, scored a bonus point win over his former club en route to being crowned Heineken Cup champions.

After an opening day draw in Montpellier, followed by wins at the RDS over Glasgow and Bath at The Recreation Ground last Sunday, Leinster are in better shape than a year ago when they lost the first of their back-to-back ties with Clermont in France the previous week.

“Certainly last year we were under more pressure simply because we lost that game and had a number of injuries,” Schmidt said, “we had to glue guys together.

“This time we’re in slightly better shape, but at the same time Clermont were massively disappointed (that) we managed to get a bonus point last year.”

With more than 46,000 tickets already sold for tonight’s clash, Schmidt is looking to build on the away win in Bath when Leinster went tryless but ground out an 18-13 win.

Bath, with a newly-assembled team that has World Cup-winning fly-half Stephen Donald at its heart, will be out for revenge having scored the only try of the game last week and Schmidt is wary of the threat posed by the visitors.

“They threatened often and didn’t quite get the reward at times. They dropped a couple of balls when we were under pressure and some of it was really good defending by our guys.

“You look around their team, they have the characters to play the way they want to.”