Leinster keen to keep penalty count down with Ian Madigan on the beat

Leinster attack coach Felipe Contepomi. Picture: INPHO/Billy Stickland

Ian Madigan’s clutch goalkicking in Ulster’s dramatic Guinness PRO14 semi-final victory has alerted former province Leinster to the need to clean up their discipline ahead of Saturday night’s league final.

Madigan, 31, left his native Leinster for Bordeaux-Begles in 2016 but ended his three-season Irish exile this summer by signing for Ulster from Bristol. The fly-half repaid the faith shown in him by head coach Dan McFarland by coming off the bench last Sunday at Edinburgh to fire his new province into a first final since 2013 with a late conversion to tie the game at 19-19 before nervelessly sending over a game-winning penalty at the death.

For a Leinster side that has conceded 37 penalties in three games since the season restarted last month, there is plenty of incentive to clean up their act, as attack coach Felipe Contepomi highlighted yesterday.

‘Mads is a very good player and with such experience. That speaks how good and how much depth that Ulster squad has because they have Billy Burns and then Mads coming in and winning the game for them with those two kicks under pressure.

“It’s a good point, the discipline one. The penalties. There are some penalties which we can argue (about) but there are some others which we can cut down on, definitely. We have given away some silly penalties which we can cut down.

“That’s what we’re working on. I think we’ve improved since we started three weeks ago but still, there’s a long, long way to go to be a disciplined side that is not giving away penalties because the cruel reality is that in our past three games, we gave out more penalties than the opposition.

“Hopefully we can get it right and sooner rather than later and hopefully this weekend because they are a massive threat with such good kickers around the park.”

Former Argentina fly-half Contepomi’s last campaign as a Leinster player in 2008-09 ended in the same season that a 20-year-old Madigan made his senior debut in blue and he was impressed with the maturity the Ulster player showed on Saturday at Murrayfield to execute under pressure.

“It takes a lot of practice, I’d say, more than mental… I’d say he’s been practising a lot and that’s part of what you have to go back on.

“So when those kicks come you just have to believe in your practice and how you’ve been doing throughout the last training sessions and few weeks and so on.

“But definitely, it’s very good from him to step up and score, especially the conversion because that put them in an even position for extra time and then the penalty was like an extra.

“The conversion was very solid. Straight away when he kicked it he turned round and you could hear him on the mic, he was already saying ‘yeah, it’s gone in’.

“The last one, it took a while for him to just look, he wasn’t that sure but no, excellent. Good poise and good maturity from Mads to kick those kicks. Great for him.”

Contepomi believes Leinster will have to up the ante in performance terms this Saturday if they are to overcome an Ulster side he believes has been steadily improving since they lost to his side in the European quarter-final 18 months ago.

“Ulster for me are definitely one of the best sides in the league if not one of the best sides in Europe, in terms of the balance they’ve got.

“They have a very solid defence, a very well-coached defence by Jared Payne.

“A very good attack with Dwayne Peel there, and they’re a skilful team, a powerful team, they have punch going forwards, they’re a very complete team if you see them and they’ve been building. It’s not like they came from nowhere and suddenly they’re in the final.

“They’ve been building for the last few years and with Dan (McFarland) we can expect them to be really firing upfront, a good scrum and maul. So they’re a very complete side and when you analyse them… it’s hard to find any real weaknesses.

“So we know that to beat them we’ll need to go for 80 minutes from minute one because they’re a side that doesn’t give up but not only that they play really good rugby, with and without the ball.

“So I’m expecting a really big, big challenge from them and we need to step up one or two gears to be able to win the game.”

Contepomi happy to have Ryan back

Felipe Contepomi welcomed the return of Ireland lock James Ryan to the selection mix as Leinster began preparations for Saturday’s Guinness PRO14 final against Ulster.

Ryan, 24, has been cleared to play again following a procedure on a shoulder injury during lockdown, and Leinster’s assistant coach was hopeful he could play a part this weekend.

“It’s always great to have players like James available, and he’s been looking good,” Contepomi said yesterday. “I think he’s a guy with such a quality that if he’s fit it just shows the quality of the player he is, and he’s made a really good recovery. So I’m glad for him and hopefully he can be part of it on the weekend.

Ryan’s availability will be a major boost with a Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final against Saracens also looming in 12 days.

Contepomi was less certain about Tadhg Furlong and Dan Leavy returning from injury this weekend. Both will be monitored over the week before a decision is made with Furlong recovering from a back injury and Leavy out since March 2019 with a serious knee injury.

“It’s hard to say how likely. Like Tadhg, Dan, they’re doing all they can to be available and they’re quite advanced in their return. So we’ll have to wait and see more towards the end of the week if they’re available. It’s frustrating for (Tadhg) but we have to focus more on the whole group and keep training, and hopefully he’s available.

“If not, there are other guys that will step in and do the job as well.”

Leinster will also wait on full-back Jordan Larmour, who did not return to the field in last Friday’s PRO14 semi-final win over Munster following a Head Injury Assessment. Larmour is following graduated return to play protocols.