Provincial coaches face serious time constraints

RUGBY:THE HEINEKEN Cup fixtures, venues and dates released yesterday present potentially serious time constraints for Irish provincial coaches as they attempt to reintegrate their international contingent after the World Cup.

Leinster head coach Joe Schmidt and his Munster counterpart Tony McGahan would be forgiven for not being cheerleaders should the national team progress to the knockout stages of the tournament in New Zealand this autumn. “We’ll even begin the Pro 12 with quite a fractured squad,” said Schmidt yesterday. “It’s inevitable – we just hope as many of our guys as possible get on the plane to New Zealand.”

If Ireland progress to the World Cup final in Auckland’s Eden Park on Sunday, October 23rd, it leaves the best home-grown players with less than three weeks to prepare for round one of the Heineken Cup. “Actually, it only gives us that week with them as they will be rested for two weeks up to that,” Schmidt explained.

The World Cup semi-finals are on October 15th and 16th, with the quarter-finals taking place on October 8th and 9th. As is the norm with Europe’s premier club competition, it gets serious right away as Leinster travel to Top 14 runners-up Montpelier on November 12th (1.30pm Irish time). The game will be played at Stade de la Mosson due to its 32,900 capacity.

Montpelier, coached by former French scrumhalf Fabien Galthié,were the surprise packages last season, eventually losing to Toulouse in their domestic final. The only guaranteed member of the France World Cup squad is out-half François Trinh-Duc.

With Jamie Hagan part of the extended Irish squad training in Carton House (last week and next week) and Mike Ross certain to go to the World Cup, Leinster have signed Chiefs tighthead prop Nathan White. However, he doesn’t arrive until provincial obligations with Waikato are completed in September.

New secondrow Steve Sykes landed yesterday from Natal, while outhalf Matt Berquist, having been Dan Carter’s back-up at the Canterbury Crusaders, is another imminent arrival to soften the blow of Jonny Sexton’s absence.

“We saw this situation coming but there is only so much we can do to mitigate against circumstances that we don’t control,” Schmidt continued. “I know Fabien reasonably well and have had the odd chat with him. He made a massive difference at Montpellier last season. They have also recruited really well with the likes of Yoan Audrin from Castres.

“They will be keen to play us in the soccer stadium to increase the numbers at the game. It is also unfortunate that they host Clermont the weekend after round two, when they go to Bath. They could well go hard against us, rotate a few players away to Bath and go hard against Clermont. We have fallen into a little bit of a circumstance we’d rather not have but we will prepare as best we can.”

Munster’s opening fixture is also on November 12th against last season’s European runners-up, the Northampton Saints, at Thomond Park (6pm kick-off).

Ulster also start at home on that Saturday against a Clermont Auvergne side primed to make a serious dual assault on domestic and continental honours in 2012, having signed nine players including Welsh fullback Lee Byrne, All Black wing Sitiveni Sivivatu and Leinster lock Nathan Hines.

Brian McLaughlin’s men then travel to Welford Road to face Leicester on November 19th as the ERC are forced to run off the opening two rounds a month later than usual. This is made possible by the absence of November internationals.

Ulster seem the most troubled by the World Cup eating into next season as not only must they plan without the likes of Rory Best, Tom Court and Andrew Trimble, their new tighthead prop John Afoa remains part of Graham Henry’s All Black plans, while Johann Muller and Ruan Pienaar feature for the Springboks against Australia this weekend.

Ulster’s third opponents, mercifully, are Italian side Aironi, who they meet twice in December.

Connacht’s first ever foray into the main European draw begins on Friday, November 11th at The Stoop against Conor O’Shea’s Harlequins. Eight days later Galway will be exposed to its first major Heineken Cup night as four-time champions Toulouse visit the Sportsground, with its extended capacity of 8,000, for another 6pm kick-off.