Leinster working to establish continuity and rhythm

LEINSTER MOVE into a pivotal period of their season lacking their familiar rhythm and form, but with little sign of their disruptions…

LEINSTER MOVE into a pivotal period of their season lacking their familiar rhythm and form, but with little sign of their disruptions ending any time soon.

Still welcoming back their Irish frontliners – Rob Kearney is expected to make his seasonal return away to Connacht this Friday – 11 of their squad are currently in the Irish training camp, which will leave them with just one full training run tomorrow in readiness for their trek to the west.

All of which goes with the territory of being a multi-talented squad, and with it European champions and bulk suppliers to the Irish effort. A skeletal squad trained yesterday and will have today off. “It’s not ideal,” noted team manager Guy Easterby with a wry smile “in terms of continuity and rhythm, etc.”

By contrast, as Easterby noted, not only will Connacht be lurking in the long grass but they were relatively less discomforted by the Irish get-together. (After Mike McCarthy withdrew yesterday, Ronan Loughney was called up as one of the late additions.)

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“They made a decision to rest half of what would be termed their first-choice side I guess, so it looks like they are particularly targeting Friday night,” observed Easterby. “Their squad depth has definitely improved because it was a narrow loss to Glasgow. With Nathan White going there, and (Dan) Parksy is close to being back and they have (Danie) Poolman and (Mata) Fafita, they’ve certainly grown their squad and their depth.

“This isn’t making excuses but even last year they had a drop goal just below the bar in the last minute to win the game. We’ve always found it tough down there and there’s no doubt it’s going to be tough again this Friday night.”

Seán O’Brien, Rhys Ruddock, Dave Kearney and Isaac Boss are long-term casualties, while Richardt Strauss might also return this week. Even with an extensive injury list, Leinster have been obliged to manage the return of their frontliners and hence chop and change continually. “From the Scarlets to the Dragons we changed six, from Dragons to Treviso we changed 11 plus one positional, from Treviso to Edinburgh we changed seven and then obviously there’s going to be changes this week,” said Easterby a tad wearily. “In terms of integrating players and continuity we’re just not quite there at the moment.”

Perhaps, accordingly, Leinster’s performance levels have been patchy, even during games. They began well against Edinburgh, moving into a 10-0 lead, but let a well-drilled Edinburgh back into the game in part through a poor kicking game, loss of intensity and a misfiring lineout, also making heavy weather of a two-man advantage. While there remains a good shape to their attack through the phases, they’re missing the ballast of O’Brien to get them over the gain line.

About the only comfort is that all of this is nothing especially new. Indeed, in terms of results, this is their best start over four games in the Joe Schmidt era. “As Joe was saying, it’s been the same for the last couple of seasons. At the start of the year, because of the way it is set up, we do struggle and I feel for the players and the coaches because you can see them juggling balls and trying to give people game time while managing that around who’s available and who’s not and looking ahead.”

After Connacht, Leinster host Munster at the Aviva Stadium and then head into their opening Euro forays at home to Exeter Chiefs, who beat Saracens at the weekend to lie fifth in the Premiership and will be making their Heineken Cup debut against the champions, and away to the Scarlets. “It’s going to be a horrendously tough game in Connacht and post that we’ve got Munster and then the Heineken Cup. Whether the form will come with the rhythm in selection you don’t know, but you’d like to be a little bit further down the line in terms of form. It’s hard to tell if that is because of the lack of continuity, or it’s because we’re not in good form. I think it’s probably a little of both,” Easterby conceded.

According to Easterby, Kearney’s pre-season was extended due to “a couple of niggles”, adding that Leinster are “confident that he’ll be back”. Of further comfort is the news Gordon D’Arcy and Jonathan Sexton merely sustained bruising to their ribs and forearm respectively in the 22-16 win at home to Edinburgh last Friday night. Similarly, another player who was removed from the fray, Shane Jennings (illness), is expected to be available for the Connacht game while Eoin Reddan (minor quad strain) will be monitored by their medical team after he was a late withdrawal from Saturday’s line-up.

But Leinster’s problems are modest compared to Connacht, whose extensive casualty list has been compounded by Gavin Duffy sustaining a hamstring strain in Friday’s defeat to Glasgow which has ruled out their captain.

“We had 19 guys who didn’t train today,” revealed Eric Elwood. “A lot of the young lads have done well but we need a break. If we can get some of the senior boys back it would hopefully just lift us a little bit and give us a bit of confidence going into the next month because after Leinster we have Ulster (away) followed by two European games (against Zebre and Harlequins).”

* Ticket sales for Leinster's next home match against Munster at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, October 6th (6.30pm) have passed the 32,000 mark and are on sale from www.leinsterrugby.ie, Spar (Donnybrook), the Leinster Rugby Store (Donnybrook) as well as Ticketmaster outlets nationwide.

Gerry Thornley

Gerry Thornley

Gerry Thornley is Rugby Correspondent of The Irish Times