Schmidt: Clermont have been bitten by travel bug

Yesterday’s Leinster press conference was up and running for nearly 10 minutes before Joe Schmidt felt obliged to remind everyone that the province had a Heineken Cup game against Clermont Auvergne to play at the weekend.

What with all the questions and answers about Mike McCarthy’s summer switch from Connacht, the game that will make or break the reigning European champions’ season somehow sat ignored in the corner.

Not for much longer.

Distractions of any kind can hardly be afforded on this of all weeks. Only a single unsuccessful Jonathan Sexton penalty kick separated the sides in the Stade Marcel Michelin last Sunday and a similarly tight affair is expected at Lansdowne Road tomorrow afternoon for the return fixture.

No one needs reminding what is at stake. Clermont would dearly love to win and all but eliminate Leinster after so many years under the blue yoke. Vern Cotter and his players have admitted as much. So, too, has Schmidt, who believes the visitors will blossom away from home where a run of 51 games unbeaten is becoming as much a burden as it is an honour.

“Yeah, I honestly think Clermont will be better this week,” said the coach. “Talking to a couple of them [after the game], I think they are getting a little bit suffocated from the record they have amassed there.

“They will feel a bit more liberated to play on a quicker field in front of a very loud, blue audience. Their motivation is very high and they would like to see the back of us out of the competition and that’s motivation for them. I guess its motivation for us to stay in the tournament.”

A French team that prospers more on the road rather than at home? It’s an interesting phenomenon given the parochialism of the Top 14 but then, as Schmidt pointed out yesterday, this is a club that employs players from 11 different countries.

That said, he has been able to discern a wholesale change in attitude among players and staff with whom he worked so successfully before making the switch to Dublin in 2010.

“Massively. I remember my first year at Clermont, we drew the pool on 19 points with Munster and when we went away to Munster we made 14 changes. There was just no real interest in the Heineken Cup, it was all about winning the Top 14.

“When the Bouclier du Brennus [championship trophy] comes from your region and it’s never been back there in over 100 years, that’s a big carrot. That is now something they have achieved and they’re looking more to Europe.

“I’ve never seen Clermont rest a number of their top players against Toulouse [as they did two weeks ago] so they can be better prepared against Leinster in the European Cup.

“That would be the clearest indication of the swing that they’ve made.”

Schmidt spoke about a “gradual swing” in attitude and traced Clermont’s newfound sense of confidence and purpose away from the Massif Central back to the one-point loss to Leinster at the RDS two years earlier, when only Brock James’s wayward kicking let them down.

Cotter has added quality in the shape of players such as Sitiveni Sivivatu, Napolioni, Nalaga and Gerhard Vosloo in the intervening period while Leinster, for all their combativeness last week, remained weakened by the absence of Brian O’Driscoll and Rob Kearney in particular.

They may yet have to make do without Kevin McLaughlin tomorrow, too. The flanker banged heads with Shane Jennings towards the end of last week’s encounter and, though both suffered cuts, the former has struggled to shake off the effects.

Heinke van der Merwe has recovered fully from a shoulder injury while Eoin O’Malley and Dave Kearney have also trained fully this week.