Leinster making Schmidt ‘nervous’

Leinster 22 Edinburgh 16

Joe Schmidt’s Leinster side have never had it so good at the foothills of a season since his arrival from Clermont Auvergne but there were few smiles or slaps on the back after this third straight victory on Saturday evening.

Kevin McLaughlin sat stony-faced in the press room afterwards, lamenting the shortcomings and his coach was similarly inclined as the European champions prepare to digest the main meat of this nascent campaign.

Connacht await in the Sportsground next Friday, Munster pitch up in the Aviva a week later and then it is the first two rounds of the Heineken Cup and the holders are none-too-happy even though they followed up previous speed bumps with two European titles.

“No, I am paranoid, I am nervous,” said Schmidt with a hollow chuckle. “There is no certainty that things of their own volition suddenly emerge and you get that great fluidity. We have one training session this week to prepare for a Friday game. It is a short turnaround. I thought Connacht did a great job going to Glasgow. Theyrested a whole host of players. The Sportsground is going to be verydifficult next week. I think I haveevery right to be uncomfortable about the prospect of going there with a compromised preparation.”

Leinster’s week had been, rightly, interrupted by the decision to abandon Monday’s training after the tragedy on the Spence farm and the staggered return of the Irish internationals was another contributing factor to this display. They have now, even at this early juncture, used close to 40 players and were further discommoded by the late withdrawal of scrum-half Eoin Reddan prior to kick-off and the loss of Gordon D’Arcy and Cian Healy during the 80 minutes.

All three are expected to be back in contention for the assignment in Galway in five days’ time and Rob Kearney — the last of the international contingent — is also expected to make it into the squad of 23, at least, for the first time since the European final last May.

Leinster’s difficulties weren’t all of their own making here, however. Edinburgh could have been swept away twice, initially after a porous opening 15 minutes and again in the second-half when they were temporarily reduced to 13 men.

That they weren’t would suggest that the arrival of Neil Back as forwards coach has succeeded in adding a layer of obstinance to a side that was hardly renowned for the same and they certainly earned their losing bonus point over the 80 minutes.

Time and again, Leinster worked a score that took them beyond the magical seven-point, one score marker and on each occasion they were pegged back by the Scots who ventured to Irelandwithout their main wing threat, Tim Visser.

Schmidt agreed. “I thought we had a couple of great opportunities in the game that would have put a bit of distance between us and them on the scoreboard and they deserve a fair bit of credit because they have more steel than they had last year, certainly in this competition.”

It wasn’t all bad. There was the win, obviously, but also the effervescent Brian O’Driscoll and the input of younger men such as Fionn Carr and Brendan Macken who touched down twice.

“Some of the lads did some lovely broken field running, turning scrappy situations into attacking opportunities,” said Kevin McLaughlin. “But it’s the rest of our attack we need to look at, from our structured phase attack.

“We need to hold on to the ballbetter, be more clinical at the breakdown and get through phases. That’s what we did so well at the back end of last season when we won the Heineken Cup.

“We need to start doing that again.”

LEINSTER: I Nacewa; A Conway, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy, F Carr; J Sexton, J Cooney; C Healy, S Cronin, M Ross; L Cullen, T Denton; K McLaughlin, S Jennings, J Heaslip.

Replacements: B Macken for D’Arcy (27); J Murphy for Jennings (48); H van der Merwe for Healy (52); D Toner for Cullen (59); J Hagan for Ross (59); I Madigan for Sexton (68).

EDINBURGH: G Tonks; L Jones, N De Luca, M Scott, T Brown; G Laidlaw, R Rees; J Yapp, R Ford, G Cross; G Gilchrist, S Cox; S McInally, R Grant, N Talei. Replacements: WP Nel for Cross (36); R Hislop for Talei (51); A Titterrell for Ford (74).

Referee: N Hennessy (WRU).