Defence key as Leinster plot end to drought

Leinster's inability to claim a single trophy since 2022 and a ‘European’ crown this past five seasons ranks as nothing less than a serious underachievement and Lowe knows it.

DEFENCE IS KEY: Leinster's inability to claim a single trophy since 2022 and a ‘European’ crown this past five seasons ranks as nothing less than a serious underachievement and JamesLowe knows it. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Some clichés are so baked into the sporting firmament that they can’t help but flavour our perceptions. The theory that the science of preventing scores is more integral to success than the art of creating them has long been a staple.

Alex Ferguson had it that attack wins games but defence earn titles. Bear Bryant, one of those near-mythic American football coaches, swore by the mantra that while offense sells tickets it is defence that wins championships.

Maybe Leinster feel the same way.

So much of what the province brought to the field in recent years was dictated by senior coach Stuart Lancaster whose imprint was visible across the province’s attack and defence and maybe not least in the very culture of the club.

Lancaster had almost seven full seasons in Dublin, during which time they won the Champions Cup in 2018 and four league titles, but the silverware dried up before his move to Racing 92 last summer with the last two campaigns finishing without reward.

His replacement, Jacques Nienaber, arrived almost five months later, after his intrinsic role in Springboks’ retention of the World Cup and, while the South African has been employed as another ‘senior coach’, his brief is focused much more on work without the ball.

He has brought with him the famed and feared blitz defence that was utilized by the Boks and James Lowe could only smile when reminded of that Bryant quote and whether this tweak in focus could be the difference in their bid to restore that winning feeling.

“Yeah, hopefully,” he said. “I’ll tell you in a few months’ time if it works.” 

It’s not that defence was a major issue for Leinster before now.

They had the best defence in the URC’s regular season this last two campaigns. They were particularly tight about conceding tries in last year’s playoffs and still fell short to Munster in the semi-final when Tadhg Beirne claimed the latter’s only five-pointer.

Their Champions Cup numbers weren’t particularly brilliant or terrible in the 21/22 season but they tightened that up somewhat last time out and still came up painfully short in the decider for the second time in a row.

Sometimes it isn’t so much what has changed as change itself that can be most beneficial and Nienaber’s impact does seem to have been met favourably in a dressing-room which is preparing for Saturday’s Champions Cup round of 16 tie against Leicester.

The new man, who arrived in late November, explained that it would take 14 weeks for his system to embed. Lowe, whose work on defence has improved immeasurably after a rocky point at the start of his Ireland career, is keeping it simple.

If his centre moves in he moves in. When the centre moves out he moves out. Line speed is obviously key to the blitz and after that it’s just about winning your collisions. Yep, he’s as comfortable with it as you can be at this rarified level.

“Oh yeah, I can’t complain. No-one is trying to give me shit anymore. That’s always good. I was always a bit joué and in New Zealand there probably wasn’t as much focus on it as there is now. I’ve also been seriously lucky to work with some of the best centres in the world.” 

And the rest. Leinster’s squad is still ridiculously talented and deep. Their inability to claim a single trophy since 2022 and a ‘European’ crown this past five seasons ranks as nothing less than a serious underachievement and Lowe knows it.

“The only way you measure it at the end, whether it’s been a good season or not, is trophies.” 

They have done everything right so far in this competition. They went to La Rochelle and exorcised some demons on a pig of a day, and they secured home advantage through to a possible semi-final by beating the Tigers in Welford Road.

But they have done similar before and come up short.

“At this level, knockout games are about such fine margins. Both teams have a game plan, coaches that think we can exploit different areas. I think you can probably do the same. In certain games, literally it can be the bounces of a ball. It can be an interpretation from a ref.

“It’s about just building your scoreboard pressure and giving yourself enough of a buffer that if those things happen you have a bit of leeway. Look, we put ourselves under pressure at training. We’ve got a lot of good boys that don’t play week in week out and who would definitely start in other provinces.

“We’ve got that sort of competition floating about that if you don’t come to training you are not going to get picked on a Saturday, so we try our best to put ourselves under pressure without being d***heads and whacking each other.”