Gopperth ready to rumble again

HEINEKEN CUP POOL ONE:

Yesterday, the Kiwi was sat beside head coach Matt O’Connor as the last of the week’s media duties were taken care of at the RDS, all of which would suggest he will back up his start against the Ospreys with another against Castres tomorrow.

If only things were that simple.

O’Connor is too new to the scene in Dublin to plot a discernible line of thought on such issues, and his decision to go with Gopperth in Swansea after two run-outs for Madigan in the weeks preceding, only add to the intrigue.

Whoever starts, there is no denying the impact made by the unheralded 10 who hails from New Plymouth and O’Connor joked about broken records when asked for his opinion on the 30-year-old again yesterday.

“I’ve been lucky enough to coach against him in the Super Rugby environment and in Newcastle, and he delivers and facilitates for the team brilliantly,” said the Australian.

“Now, Jimmy and Ian are going to be involved every week. That’s the reality of it. They’ll be involved every game and it will be horses for courses and, if one of them takes the opportunity we’ll see how far that goes, and vice versa.

“But they’re both incredibly important players to the group and does it mean that Ian is out of the equation? Certainly not, he’s a quality footballer. He’s still learning his trade and he’s delivered for the team this season, and historically, so we’ll just approach it week to week.”

So, clear as mud then.

Gopperth is here over three months now but his superb goal-kicking, solid defence and game management has only prompted further queries as to why he gave four years’ service to the unglamorous Newcastle Falcons and why he didn’t fly the coop when they were relegated to the Championship.

Loyalty was the gist of his response but, though offers to leave had passed his way before, the chance to try his luck at Leinster was too good to spurn and he believes he arrived at the club a better player for his experiences.

“Yeah, I think my time at Newcastle, even though we didn’t have a lot of winning rugby, it helped my development hugely. Coming from New Zealand and being in a pretty successful team, we had a lot of go-forward ball, while at Newcastle we were on the back foot a lot.

“I think it’s developed my game management a lot and the control of the tempo of the game. I still feel young and like I’m in the best nick of my life. It’s given me an opportunity to see the whole game in a different way and taking options along the way.”

One man definitely not starting, or playing any part, will be Brian O’Driscoll, who continues to recuperate from a calf injury and, though O’Connor spoke of him possibly featuring the week after, it wasn’t convincing.

Zane Kirchner is also being held back a week after recent exertions for South Africa while Shane Jennings is not being ruled out and O’Connor will wait until the last minute before deciding on whether Mike Ross can take part tomorrow.

The Ireland tight head tweaked a hamstring and was replaced last week in Wales.

Martin Moore deputised brilliantly on his introduction and Leinster’s options have at least increased with Michael Bent available again after his own injury issues.

O’Connor also confirmed that the province expects to have its Ireland internationals available for the following RaboDirect Pro12 derby against Connacht after start-of-season player management discussions with Joe Schmidt.