Leinster were lucky, admits Schmidt

A BROKEN nose to hooker Richardt Strauss is the only injury in the Leinster camp from last night’s joust with Connacht at the Sportsground, but coach Joe Schmidt is expected to make a host of changes ahead of next week’s visit to Cardiff.

“Lucky” to come out of the Sportsground with a two-point win, Schmidt says his squad will have to “roll up its sleeves” this week to maintain their momentum at the top of the table, now six points ahead of the Ospreys who were 17 — 12 winners over Cardiff.

“It is a six-day turnaround. We do have a lot of guys at national camp and not available, so there will be a lot of changes next week obviously.”

Leinster relied on the accuracy of Isa Nacewa’s boot for all their points, but they came under pressure in the final 20 minutes following the first yellow card handed out to Isaac Boss.

“When he was binned I don’t think we coped with it. We started to look rattled, we didn’t control the gameafter that and that is our responsibility and we’ve got to be to be able to cope in that situation. I think that effected everything we did try to contract and the game fell away.”

Schmidt sympathised with Connacht and their lack of luck on the night when Miah Nikora’s drop goal fell short. “I thought Miah Nikora did a great job taking the kick. I thought he struck it well and the gust of wind that maybe pushed it back a bit was unlucky for them and probably sums up their night.”

Eric Elwood’s injury woes continue ahead of their visit to Aironi. Brian Tuohy broke his leg in the 50th minute; Ronan Loughney has injured his shoulder and Johnny O’Connor has a possible fracture in his cheek.

“As well as losing the match, we have picked up a couple of serous injuries. Not a good night overall.” said the Connacht coach.

Elwood accepted Connacht’s lack of accurate goalkicking cost the game.

“Its disappointing — you outscore the European champions two tries to nil, but we couldn’t buy a kick — as simple as that. Again it was a good performance and great crowd participation, but unfortunately nothing to show for it, and we had them on the rack.”

There were some positives for Connacht. The crowd numbered 6,582 — the highest recorded at the Sportsground for a RaboDirect Pro 12 fixture, while Leinster's two yellow cards ensures Connacht are top of the league's Fairplay leaderboard.