Wicked twist of fate for Schmidt

RUGBY NEWS:FATE OCCASIONALLY displays a wicked sense of humour. Josef Schmidt idly speculated about the chances of Leinster and Clermont Auvergne been drawn together in the Heineken Cup knock-out stages in a conversation last week with his future employers. The New Zealander, currently backs' coach with Clermont, will take over from Michael Cheika as Leinster's head coach in the summer.

First he will try to plot the downfall of the Irish province after the Heineken Cup’s final round of matches decreed Leinster would meet the French club, probably at the RDS on the weekend of April 9th-11th. The preferred option for Leinster is to stage the game at the RDS and to that end they are investigating the scope to increase the capacity from 18,500.

Clermont head coach Vern Cotter was anticipating the game might be switched to Croke Park when he ventured: “The atmosphere will probably be unbelievable and will be a great, special occasion. Few players get the opportunity to experience such occasions. It will be a real honour for the club and something to look forward. It will be a match of huge intensity, very difficult.”

At present his wish looks like being unfulfilled for several reasons not least because Leinster would like to play the match on their home turf in a stadium that will be chock-full. The French club’s manager, Jean-Marc Lhermet, was more attuned to what the club had accomplished in edging past the Ospreys and Leicester Tigers, qualifying first in the pool: “At this stage there are only great teams; irrespective of whether it is Leinster, Munster, Toulouse or any of the others. We came out on top of a very difficult pool because of some great performances. Leicester, last year’s beaten finalists, didn’t make it out of the pool. It shows what our players are capable of.”

All eight quarter-finalists may register three additional players for the knock-out stages, one of whom has to be a frontrow player. They cannot have played in this season’s Heineken or Amlin Challenge Cups, nor can they be contracted to Super 15 franchises.

Leinster are unlikely to have Luke Fitzgerald available for the Clermont game while Munster and Ireland backrow Denis Leamy could be out for the rest of the season. That’s not to say either Irish province will be trawling the world with a chequebook in hand. In bringing in a player on a short-term contract, he’d have to be guaranteed of making the match-day squad.

Northampton Saints coach Jim Mallinder was philosophical about a return to Thomond Park and a third clash with Munster in this season’s tournament. “Either Biarritz or the Ospreys would be very difficult opponents for us . . . It is a great incentive, but there is no point in looking past Munster for the time being, especially because we have first-hand experience of playing at Thomond Park and how tough it can be.

“Nevertheless we were satisfied with how we competed on Friday night, especially in the set-piece, at the breakdown and in defence. It is an indication of how far we have come in the past two years that we were disappointed we didn’t win at a stadium where Munster have lost just once in European competition . . . we will have a chance to have another go at Munster in a few weeks. So while the Heineken Cup quarter-final is something for everyone at the club to look forward to, as a group of players and coaches we cannot get ourselves too carried away.”

Munster secondrow Donncha O’Callaghan, who came off against the Saints, will have his knee injury assessed by the Ireland medical staff. It’s not thought to be too serious. The Ireland squad convened in Limerick yesterday evening to begin preparations for the Six Nations and an Ireland A side for Sunday’s game against the England Saxons in Bath will be announced at lunch-time today.