Cheika backs his old blue boys

RUGBY:The Stade Français coach tells MARK RODDENin Paris that Leinster are an even better team this year

A YEAR after watching Leinster go down fighting in hostile surroundings at the semi-final stage of the Heineken Cup, Michael Cheika has backed his old team to get their revenge over Toulouse on Saturday.

Twelve months ago Cheika’s side were reigning European champions when the French club produced a dominant performance on home soil to win 26-16.

However, Cheika, now the head coach of Stade Français, believes his former club have a much better chance of reaching the final this season.

“It’s obviously a big advantage playing in Dublin as opposed to playing in Toulouse,” he says. “But I also think that Leinster are a better team this year and Toulouse are probably not as strong as they were last year. So the combination of those factors all together point pretty clearly for me to Leinster winning.”

Although they have reached the semi-finals of the French Top 14 and the Heineken Cup yet again, Cheika is not alone in believing that Toulouse are a less formidable unit this season. And while there is little danger that a vastly experienced Leinster squad would read too much into those reports, he has some simple advice for Joe Schmidt and his players.

“They’ve just got to keep playing like they’ve been playing, really. They’re sharp, they’re aggressive, they’re leading each other, they’re hungry and they’re going really well.

“They don’t have to do anything special, they just have to be special on the day. They have to put in a special performance, because obviously it’s a big match and the other mob have got a big-match temperament. But I just think they’ll be too strong.”

With a bit more luck, of course, Leinster could have been targeting a third final appearance in as many years this week. After all, who knows what the scoreline might have been had Jonathan Sexton not missed last year’s semi-final through injury? Or, indeed, had Eoin Reddan not been held up inches from the Toulouse line in the first half.

In the end though, Cheika could do little as he watched Thierry Dusautoir and the rest of an unremitting Toulouse pack eventually break the visitors’ resistance in the second half.

Leinster later lost out in the Magners League final as well, but, with the benefit of hindsight, Cheika is proud of what his team achieved last season.

“We sort of had a funny progression, because in the third year we won the Celtic League and then we won the European Cup the year after. So I suppose the logical way to keep going was to try to have a crack at the double. I think Leicester may have done it, but it’s very difficult.

“In the Toulouse match itself, I actually thought we went pretty well. You can always look back and maybe think we could have done some things better.

“And even under a bit of difficulty we were able to stay competitive in the game.

“Then I think it just took that little bit out of us when it came to the final of the Magners as well.

“But I was really happy with the team last season. We’d lost Rocky (Elsom), Felipe (Contepomi) and Chris Whitaker, three very senior players in the team.

“And the team grew up a lot. Guys like Kevin McLaughlin and Seán O’Brien, they started coming to the party and leading on their own.

“I felt that the team performance in that year was actually better than in the year we won the European Cup, overall. I think now they’ve gone on and continued it this season and have gone up to another level again.”

Cheika has his own European semi-final to look forward to this weekend, as Stade Français play host to Clermont Auvergne in the Challenge Cup on Friday night.

Winning that competition, and the place in the Heineken Cup that comes with it, would be very welcome after a difficult first season.

The full scale of Stade’s financial difficulties has recently been unravelling, and on the pitch things have been difficult too, with Cheika’s side lying 10th in the Top 14.

Changes are on the way, with Cheika planning to offload between 10 and 15 of the 29 professionals at the club. It’s widely expected Felipe Contepomi will reunite with his old boss next season, though Cheika was diplomatic when asked about any possible move.

“I don’t know what’s happening with him in Toulon, but if it’s true what they’re saying about that, there’s going to be more than just a team like Stade Français on the market. I think there’s going to be plenty of people on the market for a guy like Felipe. His form is still excellent. We’ll just see what happens to him first. Obviously I’d know him pretty well, so we’ll see what happens.”

Contepomi and Cheika are likely to tune in to the action from the Aviva Stadium on Saturday to see whether their former club can reach another European final. Cheika has satellite TV installed in his Paris home and has been following Leinster’s fortunes as closely as time allows.

“Obviously it was a big part of my life, so I like to follow the team and the players and see how they’re going,” he says. “They’re getting better, and that’s a good thing.”