Mannix believes Leinster can win

HEINEKEN CUP SEMI-FINAL Leinster v Toulouse:RACING METRO coach Simon Mannix believes Leinster have everything that is needed to stifle Toulouse in their Heineken Cup semi-final on Saturday.

Leinster racked up over 30 points in both their victories over French side Racing in the pool stages of the competition and Mannix was impressed by what he saw.

“They are far and away the best team I’ve seen in Europe this year,” he said. “We got our arses kicked both times, albeit the second time we had a B team out. But they were very, very impressive when they came to our place.”

The former Sale and Gloucester outhalf also noted how the Irish province closed off space in their quarter-final win over Leicester and feels they will “follow the same blueprint” against Toulouse.

“I think Leinster have got everything to defuse the attack of Toulouse. I think they’ve got it all. They’re well organised, they’ve got a good back three, they’re good in the air and I know the guys they’ve got in their side work very hard without the ball – the likes of D’Arcy and O’Driscoll in the middle of the field.”

Racing currently lie second in the French Top 14 behind Toulouse, a team that Mannix has enjoyed considerable success against over the past two seasons.

The Parisian club have returned from the south of France with two losing bonus points in that time and have also won both home fixtures. The last of those was a brilliant 43-21 victory at the Stade de France last month, so Mannix seems well placed to assess how to get the better of Toulouse coach Guy Novès.

“You just don’t want to give those guys time,” he says. “So you need a defence that is going to really rush them, that’s going to be very well organised and shut down their space.

“You need a kick chase that is going to be extremely well organised because the way I look at Toulouse is their strength is possibly their weakness as well. That’s their ability to counter-attack and attack from anywhere, but they tend to do it non-stop.

“But if the chase is well organised you know what’s coming at you and you can close them down. They don’t tend to have a Plan B. If you close that down, then you can rattle them.”

Home advantage will be important and Mannix suggests fellow New Zealander Joe Schmidt would do well to make life as uncomfortable as possible for the French visitors.

“Toulouse want to play. They want to have quick ball – they want to have the space. To have quick ball, that means they need the breakdowns really clean.

“So they don’t want people coming in from the side, lying all over the ball, trying to cheat and slow down their ball. If that happens then they get into difficulty because their plan B is often just to go to up and unders from (David) Skrela.”

Overall, Mannix believes Leinster may be mentally and physically fresher than Toulouse, and are just the team to exploit their weaknesses. “It’s a case of closing down their time and space as quickly as you can. If you put them under pressure like that, then what are they going to do? That’s when they’ve fallen apart. We’ve seen it in Europe, maybe two or three seasons ago, when they lost against Cardiff. We saw Wasps do it to them this year. We’ve done it to them in the Top 14.

“As much as people will probably talk about Toulouse, and they’ll talk about the tradition of Toulouse, in reality I think it’s a match that really suits Leinster down to the ground.”