Robin McBryde mindful of basics as Leinster brace for evolving Munster

Leinster scrum coach Robin McBryde. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Robin McBryde is keeping an open mind as to the nature of the threat awaiting Leinster in Thomond Park this Saturday.

The hosts have impressed, not just in the quantity of wins bagged this season, but in the quality of their play. Munster have clearly moved on from the side that played such a one-dimensional brand of rugby last September when losing a Guinness PRO14 semi-final to their old rivals.

Felipe Contepomi, a colleague of McBryde’s on the Leinster coaching staff, spoke after that enervating tie four months ago about Leinster’s need to avoid being dragged into a game of contestable box kicks again. The hope is that this latest derby can prove more pleasing on the eye.

McBryde knows it isn’t quite that simple. A former hooker with Llanelli, Wales and the Lions, he was Warren Gatland’s right-hand man for 12 years with the Welsh national side and isn’t one to look far beyond the trenches.

The fact that Graham Rowntree is his counterpart over the Munster forwards is another reason to keep the focus on the battle up front given the pair plotted against each other for much of the latter’s time in charge of England’s pack.

“What’s the weather going to be? That will have a part to play, without doubt. They didn’t win that semi-final so they probably will change a little bit I imagine but it’s good to have that variation in your game, isn’t it, just to keep the opposition guessing.

“Yeah, we’re going to have to be at our best,” McBryde predicted. “We have to be wary a little bit more of the threats that they pose. I think we’d be very naive to think they’re going to come with the exact same game plan.

“It’s a game that both sides are looking forward to. Both teams were gearing up for Europe and had put themselves in a great position to go for it for the next two weekends and then get a weekend off.

“So it’s all to play for and as far as I know there’s no restrictions on international players being selected so it would be great to see both sides going hammer and tongs at it the week before the national squad is being announced as well.”

That’s the hope anyhow. No game is sure to go ahead until the first whistle sounds in the midst of this pandemic. This weekend’s encounter should have been done and dusted four weeks ago only for a problem to arise over delayed Covid tests on the Leinster side.

The question is whether elite sport should be happening at all right now given the number of positive cases and the restrictions imposed in an effort to break the third wave but McBryde isn’t alone in seeing sport’s continuation as a welcome distraction from the bigger picture.

Incidents of professional players, in various codes and in other countries, breaching team bubbles and being reprimanded for such actions have been mentioned to the Leinster players. Everyone seems mindful of the responsibility they bear to do the right thing.

“Responsibility is 100% the right word. We have got a responsibility because we’re very fortunate. When you’re given any sort of honour, you’ve got a duty to live up to that and at the moment we have the honour of carrying on playing.

“With that comes a duty that we’ve got to behave accordingly. Hopefully, we won’t have any such incidences in rugby in general really because we need as much good press, if you like, as we can get with everything that’s out there, and just focus on the good stuff.”

The virus, and its effects on all aspects of society, is never far away. Reports continue to emerge on an almost daily basis of its likely consequence for either the Champions Cup, the Six Nations, the Lions tour to South Africa or the PRO14’s proposed Rainbow Cup.

The prospects of that last tournament getting off the ground as planned come April seems wildly optimistic. Any change now could impact the current PRO14 season and its qualifying brackets for a knockout stage. Such uncertainty isn’t ideal given we’re already deep into January.

“There is light at the end of the tunnel at the moment with the vaccine etc,” said McBryde. “If the Rainbow Cup is able to go ahead safely without risk to anybody then all well and good. If not then it won’t. Simple as that.”