Bold enough to continue thinking big

Gerry Thornleytalks to Leinster coach Michael Cheika who is completely at ease with his tactical decisions and his achievements with the province

GIVEN THE huge ramifications for Leinster this weekend as to how things pan out for them, one would imagine Michael Cheika is a coach under severe pressure, but if so he masks it well and, indeed, word from the camp is that they have remained highly focused and together these past two weeks as their Euro hopes come down to the line.

“Mate, you can only do your best in preparation and playing. We do our best all the time, we really do, and you gotta be at peace with how you prepare your team, how you select the team, be confident with all those things, and I really feel that we do a good job, and the players give it everything we’ve got.”

Leinster almost appear to have completed a volte face this season, or at any rate have been far less true to type. Think back to the bonus-point win at Bath at this juncture in Cheika’s first season, and the initial length-of-the-pitch try instigated by a Felipe Contepomi tap penalty under his own posts and completed by Shane Horgan which inspired a five-try, 35-23 win. Or the ensuing 41-35 quarter-final win away to Toulouse, decorated by the daring, Contepomi-instigated counter which culminated in Denis Hickie scoring one of the greatest tries in Leinster’s history.

RIGHT NOW Leinster aren’t pulling us to the edges of our seats. Against that, nor are many others, and since the Castres defeat they’ve eked out three hard-nosed wins and extracted a bonus point from last week’s early 10-point deficit, rash of injuries and yellow cards against Wasps where before they might well not have. “I think our character has been unquestionable this season,” says their coach.

It’s clear Cheika has sought to change the culture at Leinster, and eradicate what was perceived to be something of a soft underbelly. Compared to the first-choice pack of his first season – which starred in Bath and Toulouse – only Jamie Heaslip starts tomorrow now that Malcolm O’Kelly has been suspended. He has signed Rocky Elsom, CJ van der Linde, Bernard Jackman, Trevor Hogan, Stephen Keogh, Leo Cullen, Shane Jennings, Ollie le Roux and Stan Wright. He admits he recruited very much with character in mind, not always because they were the best players; Le Roux instilling more belief and Elsom raising the bar on and off the pitch with his professionalism and the standard of his play. The pity is, of course, Keith Gleeson followed Hickie into retirement, but the coach is happy that there’s been a change.

“A lot has changed, and I see that. As much as I understand it’s a results-orientated business, I’m really happy with my experiences here and what we’ve done with the club, because we’ve given the club a lot of stability.” In this, he points to “a great roster (of players), a great work ethic and the team spirit is the best I’ve ever seen it. There’s a real camaraderie from youngest to oldest.”

Against that, the tries have dried up in the last two games, though everyone’s defence is improving, Cheika points out, and Leinster are no exception. They have conceded a miserly 11 tries in 15 competitive matches this season. In their first 15 games of last season, they had conceded 24 tries, including just three in five European games.

A much more compressed Magners League table supports his theory that on any given day anyone can beat anyone else (witness bottom-of-the-table Connacht beating the top two of Munster and Leinster), not to mention Glasgow topping Toulouse away last week. “That’s one big change I’ve witnessed here. The Northern Hemisphere has got much better players now.”

THERE HAS, AS he concedes, also been a discernible shift towards more aggressive, blitz/rush defences; Wasps having set the template, but while bowing to the vast knowledge of Cheika and backs coach Alan Gaffney, you ask him to explain Leinster’s continuing preference for a flatter alignment – in stark contrast to the greater depth which, say, Munster employ, and resultant width. It is striking how often Munster hit Keith Earls in the outside centre channel, whether he has 13 or 15 on his back.

In comparison, one can scarcely recall Leinster bringing their fullback into the line or moving the ball to their wings, such are the spate of car crashes in the middle of the pitch. “I think people will talk about a flat backline attack and not really understand,” he says. “It’s not like reinventing the wheel with some new, unique thing. A lot of teams around the world play with a flat backline – it’s how you get that flat backline. We’re aware we need to put more pace on to the ball. But we just want to get that pace on to the ball and hitting people with flatter passes as opposed to throwing the ball back.

“I understand what people say when they talk about flat alignment, but it’s not like we say to the guys ‘everyone stand in a (flat) line and let’s have a go at ‘em’. The idea is, when it’s right, get the ball with pace as soon as possible and that’s the most difficult thing to defend. So we prefer to excel in that type of football than become more conservative and throw it deeper, and allow teams to drift on to us and then play more of a kicking game. Now sometimes that can get cluttered up, so we have to be good as coaches and players to maybe change it a little bit to get around certain defences or through certain defences.”

It comes with the territory of being a capital city club, as well as one with Leinster’s tradition and era of backline marquee names, that their fans expect a certain degree of entertainment even if that has come with criticism for sometimes self-inflicted defeats.

With the advent of the ELVs and crackdown at the breakdown, the levelling-out of standards, the greater risk of conceding three points if running the ball in your own half, the increased age profile of the longer-serving backs or the departure of his kindred attacking spirit, David Knox, you also wonder if Leinster are encouraged to play with the same ambition as of yore.

“Definitely (there is) the ambition as far as the conception of how we want to play, without a doubt. And I think we would like to have a bit more action from deep as well, because that’s where it really comes in.”

But it’s far riskier to do? “The attacking team is being penalised more,” he acknowledges, and statistics on their own games confirm as much, which, he admits, has led to a little more mental uncertainty in his players for fear of conceding three points. “But we’re here to play. We want to play attacking football, we’ve in fact been criticised for being too attacking, and trying too much.”

Damned if they do, damned if they don’t? He doesn’t want that. But he’s also noticed how opposing teams now regularly play four-up against them even deep in Leinster’s half, whereas in that first season it was more often three-up. Good attacking is also about playing with heads up and being selective. “So if it’s four-on-four in our own 22, you’d be telling me to kick it too, wouldn’t you? I’ve got to back them up in that. I can’t tell them to run it no matter what.”

AS FOR THE form of Brian O’Driscoll, Cheika says: “I’ve been really happy with his performances because within the team he’s doing what the team needs and sometimes the team needs him to come back and crash it up, and sometimes the team needs him to play a really defensive role, and he’s doing that. And sometimes that may not be to his own fluent benefit. I’ve been really happy with him.”

So much changed since Cheika first arrived. That was the first season at the RDS, and Leinster only played their Euro games at the venue. They’ve basically outgrown Donnybrook, and such has been their increased brand name, marketing and income, that the likes of Rocky Elsom have joined. But with all that, the stakes and expectations have gone up. That is, a minimum of reaching the quarter-finals?

“Yep, and that’s our expectation,” says Cheika candidly. “And not just that. Our expectations are to be a top team. And sometimes, like a lot of other big clubs, it doesn’t go your way, like last season for us. I think it takes courage to have that ambition. We could just stay compact, and use excuses, but we want to provide the best possible team to go out there and play for our supporters every week. We’re not going to hide behind a lack of ambition, and then we’ve got to back it up off the field, on the field and most importantly for our supporters . . . For me personally I’ve only had positive vibes from them, always.

“We’re really proud of the achievements we’ve made over the last four years. We want to keep that going on Sunday by reaching the quarters . . . then we want to try and defend our (Magners) league title. That’s how you acquire that winning culture, by thinking big all the time.”

To that end, and no less than the supporters, he says he couldn’t have had more backing from the Leinster Branch. It’s been a good time to have been Leinster coach. He’s learned plenty, he says he enjoys it as much as ever (and you hope he does) and he ain’t finished yet.

“We know only one team can win that competition, but we want to be it. So it’s a pretty simple equation.”