O’Driscoll: We’ll get stuck into Scarlets

When Leinster take to the Parc Y Scarlets turf for their round two Heineken Cup pool tie tomorrow lunchtime they will be facing a team that, in many respects, should conjure up memories of themselves five or six years ago.

The Scarlets have long been a side, and a club, with considerable potential but it has always gone unrealised.

The general perception is of a stellar back line but one that is all too often undone by the scraps served to them by a less-than-menacing pack.

For a club with their talent, their history and one centred in such a hotbed of Welsh rugby, it seems almost ludicrous to think that the extent of their efforts in Europe has amounted to three losing semi-finals, the last of them in 2007.

Sound familiar? Leinster have gone through all that.

These days the old ‘Ladyboys’ tag is an anachronism but it isn’t so long since it was a jibe that cut all too deep and players like Brian O’Driscoll, Gordon D’Arcy and Leo Cullen would know that better than anyone.

“I’m always careful not to compare clubs to other clubs,” said Brian O’Driscoll.

“Everyone is their own person. What I do know is that they’ve a good coach in Simon Easterby. I played a lot of times with him (for Ireland) and he was always a very smart player, “He’s done his apprenticeship as an assistant coach and forwards coach the last number of years and I’m sure he has great ideas as to how he wants his team to play. He’s got the athletes to be able to play a really good brand.

“We’ve seen aspects of that this season and it’s a huge credit to him how they are trying to play because it’s an attractive brand but we’re not going to be sitting back and watching that this weekend. It’s about getting stuck in and stopping them from playing their game.”

Leinster’s difficulties have changed these days. Having taken so long to ascend the mountain, the reigning champions have proven particularly hard to dislodge but there have been questions asked as to whether their time at the summit is coming to an end.

A number of iffy performances this season have been dissected under the microscope and though lack of personnel has been an undoubted factor there are those who argue that maintaining their recent high standards is becoming more and more of a strain.

“It has probably given us a bit of a focus on areas that you can’t take for granted,” said O’Driscoll of their most recent stutter against Exeter.

“Every Monday, whether you win or lose and irrespective of performance, you always try and highlight areas for improvement.

“We have worked hard to identify them and we are making sure at training that we get those areas right in order to make it as seamless as possible and that we’re able to focus on the game-plan and strategy, rather than the silly errors that we’ve made.”

The good news this week is that coach Joe Schmidt is hopeful of naming close to the same team as the one that started against the Chiefs seven days earlier which will no doubt come as something of a luxury given all the chopping and changing of late.

The signs are that Gordon D’Arcy’s rib injury has healed sufficiently to allow him into the reckoning.

However, Rob Kearney’s return may well be delayed a further week despite initial hopes that he too would be ready to go after a back problem.

D’Arcy’s return to the squad at least leaves Schmidt with the kind of head-scratcher which he prefers and which he is rather more accustomed to given Fergus McFadden’s solid contribution at inside centre in the Wexford man’s absence.

Leave Wales with a win this weekend and Leinster should find themselves in a better place, injury-wise, when the Heineken resumes in December given Schmidt’s assertion that both Sean O’Brien and Luke Fitzgerald are expected back from injury in late November.

And there was further good news in that Dave Kearney and Rhys Ruddock have been pencilled in for some game time with the ‘A’ side in the British & Irish Cup.

Added to that, Eoin O’Malley may well return to the reckoning in a matter of weeks.