Leinster must rue lack of full-time defensive coach

ON RUGBY:If Leinster lose their next three games their season will already look somewhat goosed by the third week of October

SO THE palindrome opens its doors properly for the first time on Saturday. It ought to be a cracking atmosphere, and both more colourful and noisier than the more expensive November Tests, whatever about the match itself. Incredibly, Leinster go into this fixture against Munster already a dozen points adrift of their rivals, not to mention six and eight points behind Connacht and Ulster. Thus, regardless of next weekend’s results, Leinster will be occupying next season’s Amlin Challenge Cup place at the end of the first tranche of matches as this season’s Heineken Cup embarks.

With Racing Metro, one of the early-season pace-setters in an unpredictable Top 14, first up at the RDS followed by heavy-spending Saracens and their board of millionaires at Wembley, Leinster are facing something of a make-or-break point in their campaign. Lose the next three games and already their season would look somewhat goosed by the third week of October. As the panicky geezer in Dad’s Army used to scream: “Don’t Panic.”

Leinster were always more likely to have the trickier start as well given the upheaval off the pitch over the summer. Furthermore, the golden generation had reached their Promised Land which may, or may not, have dulled their hunger and competitive edge. Although last season they made light enough of Rocky Elsom’s departure – thanks in the main to the inspirational Jamie Heaslip – last summer also saw them lose a cabal of experienced heads in Malcolm O’Kelly, Bernard Jackman and Girvan Dempsey, not to mention CJ van der Linde, a real weapon when fit, which wasn’t too often. But none of the replacements so far have filled the voids.

This has been compounded by early-season injuries to captain Leo Cullen, the workhorses Stanley Wright and Kevin McLaughlin, as well as Jonathan Sexton and Shaun Beirne, not to mention the Irish player welfare programme. The net effect left them with only Shane Jennings of last season’s starting pack come kick-off in Edinburgh last Friday.

Munster coach Tony McGahan has placed a greater emphasis on continuity of selection by bringing back his Irish frontliners on a more gradual basis, with most of them obliged to sit on the bench a couple of times before making their return to the starting line-up. It takes a run of three games for a player to start reaching his customary performance levels.

One feels a good deal of sympathy for Leinster coach Joe Schmidt in being handed these cards, but along with Jonno Gibbes and Guy Easterby, they possibly haven’t helped Leinster’s cause by chopping and changing more. Already missing Wright and Cullen, it seemed curious to rest Nathan Hines and thereby sacrifice his ballast and experience at a ground, Murrayfeld, and against opponents, Edinburgh, he knows so well, all the more so as John Fogarty and the hard-carrying Seán O’Brien were also rested, while Cian Healy and Heaslip were on the bench.

Few of the tight five last Friday are notable carriers or defensive workhorses, although to his credit, Richardt Strauss had the highest tackle count of any of them and missed none, even though tight five forwards were responsible for at least eight of the team’s 21 or so missed tackles.

Even in the win over Cardiff there was evidence the defensive system had, almost literally, gone backwards. While it is tougher in this season’s changed game to realign and push up as quickly in the face of quicker recycling, teams such as London Irish (where Dave Ellis still doubles up with his role in France as defensive coach of Les Bleus) have continued to do so.

It was striking to see Brian O’Driscoll shoot up off the defensive line when faced with an overlap in the 69th minute in Murrayfield, for it was almost the first time any Leinster player did so this season. A player is more likely to risk this when he has trust in those around him to cover his rear. That trust seems to have vanished, for aside from the missed tackles, Leinster’s line speed has almost evaporated in what has become quite a passive defensive line.

The vibes emanating from the Connacht and Munster camps about their new defensive coaches Mike Forshaw and Anthony Foley – have been equally positive. Even Michael Cheika subsequently admitted he made a mistake by also assuming the defensive duties in his first year, an error which he rectified the following season with the capture of McQuilkin. Given Cheika had made it clear his two-year extension would be his last contract with Leinster, and that McQuilkin had made his intentions clear even before Schmidt was chosen last December, it appears to be a regrettable oversight not to have hired a full-time defensive coach.

Cheika and Leinster struck gold in McQuilkin, and high-calibre defensive coaches tend not to fall out of trees. But pending a suitable replacement for McQuilkin being found, it wouldn’t seem unreasonable to allow Les Kiss work with them a little more.

Losing in Edinburgh is hardly a novel experience for Leinster. Their competitive head-to-head in Europe and Celtic action now reads 11-1-11. But it’s the manner of the defeats (third-quarter collapses a common thread) and the body language which has accompanied the three away losses so far which is the concern. The frontliners may be well rested come November, but they mightn’t be in the best of form.

Departures, injuries and selection left them seriously short of dynamism in the collisions last week, as well as leadership. Cullen’s demanding organisation is missed at lineout time and the evidence suggests that, forced completely onto the back foot, the captaincy is compromising Shane Jennings’ performances. In a pack of mostly followers, it was noticeable how much they picked up their intensity when Heaslip gave them something to follow.

Presumably Heaslip, Healy, Hines, Fogarty, O’Brien and Sexton will all come back into the equation, for this is a match designed for those with “previous”. Cheika subsequently admitted the intensity of this derby caught him by surprise. Schmidt has no such luxury.

All week long we will hear players and coaches from both camps telling anyone and everyone that “form goes out the window before these derby matches”, and to a degree there is some truth in that. The sight of the auld enemy in red, and the heightened sense of occasion, may be just what Leinster need to kick them into life. You sometimes see it, say, when Liverpool are going through their usual horrors whereupon the sight of Manchester United galvanises them into a ferociously intense, one-off performance.

Profoundly concerned Leinster supporters will sincerely hope so.