Leinster must pounce during Toulouse lulls

RUGBY:The French side are still a powerful unit but have a bad habit of taking their foot off the gas, writes LIAM TOLAND

SITTING IN O’Connor’s Bar last Saturday morning in beautiful Cloghane, Co Kerry, I couldn’t help but think about great journeys. This one I was embarking upon was deep in the Dingle Peninsula, the start and finish of many great journeys on the Dingle Way.

We were located at the foot of Mount Brandon, overlooking Brandon Bay, and were about to attempt the Faha Ridge.

The journey made all the more interesting as Michael O’Dowd’s parting words were quite clear, “Don’t go along the ridge.”

With Leinster facing Toulouse tomorrow it would be easy to focus on last year’s defeat. But in looking at tomorrow we must understand that Leinster’s journey up that mountain started long before 2010. Eight times these two have clashed and one in particular comes to mind. This time in January 2002, I was on the bench for a match that was only five days after the great win over Newcastle Falcons.

All the more unusual there was Brian O’Driscoll at outhalf. There were 1,146 in Headingley and 6,746 in Stade Municipal. Tomorrow there’ll be over 50,000 in Aviva.

When I eventually arrived on the pitch Leinster, including myself, were clueless as the waves flowed over us. The final score was horrible, 43 points to seven. Two weeks later Leicester Tigers tamed Leinster 29-18 and went on to beat Munster in the final.

How times have changed, no longer do Leinster fear these two great teams, having beaten Leicester weeks ago and tomorrow, along the dangerous ridge of the Heineken Cup mountain, Leinster should repeat the same.

With the titanic Brive battle behind them, Munster will know no other way of playing when they face Harlequins in the Amlin Cup. The visitors bring a mighty game to Thomond Park, but more of that anon.

For Leinster, it isn’t quite that simple, especially in a one-tie fixture. Away from home, leg one and facing an attack-oriented German side, Manchester United would be forgiven for tightening the screws on FC Schalke, ditto Barcelona away to Real Madrid.

Both visiting sides imposed their play on the home side, who were a shadow of themselves, frightened by their opposition; Madrid especially so.

Leinster in January of 2002 would have fallen into the same trap. Not now.

Considering Toulouse’s eagerness for quick ball, the inclusion of Shane Jennings would make perfect sense. Although Jennings has been immensely important to Leinster’s journey up that mountain, he is not the player he was prior to his Leicester sojourn.

That’s no negative but he is different. Prior to Leicester, he was a beautiful openside with pace and buckets of football. He appears to have been hardened by injury and his time in Leicester and now he is a crucial leader, a battler and, most importantly, a winner.

Not knowing the starting team, Joe Schmidt has a tough call to make. Does he want a battle on the ground with Jennings or in the air with Kevin McLaughlin?

Jennings’ role is so important as Toulouse become frustrated when the ball is slowed down.

What of Toulouse’s threat? Against Biarritz, their early tries were a combination of sound asleep defending and pure natural, ridiculous talent where Maxime Medard and co were sublime.

It’s a nasty habit to get out of and a real combat indicator of their mental state as they immediately switched off. The danger for Toulouse is if they fall asleep they don’t have the generals to wake them up. They have the class in their backline but not in the key positions.

They’ll miss Byron Kelleher terribly tomorrow and lack a driving force at 10. Leinster must recognise these lulls in Toulouse and maximise the opportunities with almost flawless play.

Toulouse hammered Bourgoin 33-0 last week but don’t be fooled as many of their scores were individuals pouncing on half-chances, not unlike against Biarritz. If you accept you’ll have the ball half the time then Leinster must dictate their play as Manchester United and Barcelona did mid week.

This will fatigue their muscle men, task their half-backs (starve them of time) and neutralise their counterattack. When attacking, Leinster must continue as before, targeting every lateral metre across the pitch.

Leinster’s biggest asset, however, is their disciplined defensive shape emanating from their front five and culminating in the Gordon D’Arcy-Brian O’Driscoll axis.

Toulouse can, and will, attack from anywhere. Bourgoin conceded scores from Vincent Clerc that looked brilliant but the elite, organised defence in Blue will cope far better, especially for Thierry Dusautoir’s try which was embarrassing.

I’ve been very impressed by Harlequins over the past weeks. Not necessarily by their statistics (brilliant defence etc) but by their comfort on the ball, either in traffic or space. Against Leicester they were magnificent, opening the brutes at will through Toulousesque offloads and angles of play.

They are abundant with athletes and loosehead prop, ’Second-Last of the Mohicans’ Joe Marler, is a wonder to watch. He’s like a lad who took up the game by accident, doesn’t know exactly what the rules are or that he’s not quite big enough to dance with the tinker’s daughter. But watch him closely tomorrow, especially at scrum time when Quins have a scrum. He does have a welcome habit of hammering all comers.

Harlequins suffer a little, like Ulster, in the building phase and lack the experience to compete when real Munster/Leicester pressure comes on, as it will tomorrow. Of all the teams Ive watched this season Harlequins create the most “positive errors” of all. They compete extremely well with any team in what to do with the ball, but that fifth+ pass can be cruelly error-strewn.

This is in massive contrast to Munster, who have the game, game management and street smarts to soak up Quins.

In doing so Munster will have to really attack when they don’t have the ball, forcing Quins into the forced error. Quins’ lineout is very decent but their scrum should cause Munster concern as it did Leicester some weeks back.

The danger for Munster is an over-reliance on their back three, to the detriment of killing the Mighty Quins at source.

Either way I hope Munster and Leinsters view in Thomond Park and the Aviva are equally as pretty as that from the Faha Ridge, Mount Brandon.