Gibbes confident Sexton will make starting line-up

RUGBY:LEINSTER WILL wait until lunch-time today before confirming their side for tomorrow's opening Heineken Cup match against Racing Metro 92 at the RDS.

The discussion points for coach Joe Schmidt and his staff relate to the fitness of captain Leo Cullen and outhalf Jonathan Sexton. As a result, a 25-man squad was named yesterday that included outhalf Ian Madigan and Argentine secondrow Mariano Galarza.

Cullen is in the final throes of rehabilitating a long-term injury while Sexton seems a certainty to start against the French side provided there is no reaction to his second-half cameo against Munster.

Forwards coach Jono Gibbes explained: “There’s an extra lock and an extra first five-eighth (outhalf) on the squad list.

“Obviously with Jonny, we are just being reasonably cautious and seeing how he reacts to the workload he’s had this week. I’d be reasonably confident that he’s going to make the starting line-up but we’ve just got to wait and see how he’s going to pull up after a decent hit out today (Thursday).

“Leo is coming back from a long-term injury and we just wanted to see how he was sitting. We want to give those guys as much time as possible; they are pretty influential members (of the team).”

Racing may not boast any European tournament pedigree but they are nouveau-riche; an expensively assembled and ambitious club. Their current pre-eminence in the French Championship underlines the magnitude of the task that awaits Leinster. There is also the small matter for the home side of last season’s campaign opener in which London Irish arrived in Dublin and left with a victory.

Gibbes pointed out: “This week we took a different approach (to last season). We didn’t force the recovery for Tuesday which would normally be our main work day. The boys really emptied the tank against Munster last Saturday and it has just taken a few extra days to get it back up again.

“Last year against Irish we came in after the Munster game on Monday and we used Tuesday as our big work day and when we got to Saturday we were a little flat. As I said I wouldn’t like to second guess last year. We won’t know whether we’ve got it right until tomorrow but from what I see that is the difference.

“The players are mentally very self-driven. You have a lot of experience through the spine of the team and a lot of those guys experienced the disappointment of that home defeat and the three months of anxiety.

“Mentally they are very clued into not allowing ourselves to fall into a similar trap. Physically we have gone about it a little differently in terms of the recovery on Monday and Tuesday. The signs are positive.”

The overwhelming physicality of the game between Leinster and Munster last weekend is in some respects the perfect stepping stone to tomorrow where the collisions will be equally ferocious. Gibbes expects a certain type of approach from the French, one that won’t deviate too much from a full frontal assault. They’ll look to try and dismantle the home side’s setpiece foundation.

The New Zealander admitted: “I think they are a pretty potent team. They possess a massive pack and are going to ask some massive questions of us this week. I guess that’s what it’s about, you want to measure yourself against the best and these guys are some serious operators.

“What they possess is the ability to play a long-kicking game, play territory and they have a big pack to try and squeeze our platform. I think they will try to put us under a bit of heat up front and disrupt our platform. And anything from 60 (yards) out they can kick penalties or droppies from. So I think that’s the first place they are going to ask questions of us – territory and our platform.”

The lessons of late season have been noted; tomorrow will illustrate if they have been absorbed.

LEINSTER SQUAD: R Kearney, S Horgan, I Nacewa, L Fitzgerald, F McFadden, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy, J Sexton, I Madigan, I Boss, E Reddan, C Healy, H van der Merwe, R Strauss, J Harris-Wright, M Ross, S Shawe, L Cullen, D Toner, N Hines, M Galarza, S Jennings, S O’Brien, D Ryan, J Heaslip.