O’Shea: Leinster have had ‘nice’ layoff

Conor O’Shea says the fact Leinster’s internationals have an extra week to prepare for Sunday’s European Rugby Champions Cup clash gives them an advantage over his Harlequins side.

But O’Shea insists his men are ready for battle and is not concerned the Harlequins scrum will be targeted by the visiting pack.

Ireland’s perfect Autumn campaign finished with victory over Australia on November 23 and Matt O’Connor was able to rest the likes of Mike Ross, Devin Toner, Jamie Heaslip and Rob Kearney for Leinster’s victory over Ospreys on Saturday. But, on the same day, Chris Robshaw, Mike Brown, Joe Marler and Marland Yarde were turning out for England in their fourth game of the Autumn Series, beating Australia after narrow defeats to New Zealand and South Africa, and a brutal win over Samoa.

That has led O’Shea to admit Leinster have had a ‘nicer’ route into the crunch clash at the Stoop between two sides who have won both of their games in Pool Two. And he says the scheduling of European rugby so soon after an international block should be looked at in the future.

“A few of Leinster’s internationals played on the weekend but they were able to pick and choose,” said O’Shea.

“Ian Madigan started, for example, but Jamie Heaslip and Jack McGrath were rested. There is no doubt that is a nicer way to come into this game but that is how the fixtures have fallen. The calendar does need to be looked at because it’s a ferocious schedule. I don’t think it’s too much for those guys because it’s early in the season, but certainly after the Six Nations we have to give them a week off. Robshaw had a spa day on his day off and he knows we’ll give him a week off in the New Year. Same for Browny.”

And O’Shea is adamant his side will not collapse at the set piece. Quins conceded 13 scrum penalties and had three props sent to the sin-bin during Friday’s defeat at Bath but the former Leinster full-back insists it was simply a bad day at the office. But with Quins being frustratingly inconsistent – they have won just four of nine Aviva games and are ninth in the table – he has challenged his side to punch above their weight this weekend.

“It was tough, conceding 13 scrum penalties in one match,” he said. “But this same pack rolled over Gloucester, and rolled over Bath – who in turn rolled us over. We know we have ability and we haven’t shown it consistently this year. But we have massive ambitions and massive faith in ourselves. We can go on a run and we will.

“On any given day we can beat anybody. We just have to give ourselves a chance. It will be tough and Leinster will put out a squad with 23 internationals. Forget Toulon, Leinster have been the best team in Europe in recent years. They’ve won three Heineken Cups. They had a bad year last year and won the still won the Rabo. It was a good bad season.”

And O’Shea admits it will be special to face Leinster having scored the province’s first try in Heineken Cup history. O’Shea was a member of the Leinster team that won in Milan in 1995 and, despite having joined London Irish in the meantime, returned for their semi-final defeat to Cardiff later that year.

“It’s 19 years since I scored that try in Milan and they rewarded me by giving me a fiver to go and buy a meal after,” he laughed.

“Then I moved to London Irish but our game was frozen off. Leinster were playing Cardiff that night so I gave the team manager a call and said I could come over if they needed me.

“I got a flight over and I played in the semi-final at Lansdowne Road. We lost unfortunately, but I scored.

“When I was growing up playing for my school, then Leinster and then Ireland was all I ever wanted to do.”