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By the time Owen Finegan passed through Leinster he was no longer the Wallaby flanker who carried three Frenchmen on his back for a sensational try in the 1999 World Cup final.
It was 2006 when we encountered a more rotund version of Finegan on the downslope of a fine career. His 30-something body was stuck together after a decade of professionalism but he still timed runs, with defenders hanging off him, to get Leinster where we needed to be going.
On one cold and wet morning, I couldn’t help myself: “Melon, why are you still putting yourself through this?”
“We have the best job in the world, mate,” he replied.
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It doesn’t feel like Champions Cup semi-final week. Maybe that’s because I don’t lace up boots anymore. There is a distance now, which closed briefly the other day when I met Johnny Sexton and Rob Kearney in UCD. I brought my son, Lennon, along.
Johnny and Rob go all the way back to the breakthrough European campaign in 2009 and both seem to be living in the perfect head space ahead of Saturday against the Scarlets. They know they have the best jobs in the world. They also know it doesn’t last forever. Professional rugby is a cruel existence as much as it provides the fondest days in your life.
Lennon and I also bumped into Dave Kearney and Luke McGrath, who are recovering from injuries, and that reminded me of the other version of this week.
Dave and Luke’s jobs it might not feel so inspiring at the moment. Dave is definitely out, while Luke is fighting his ankle injury, trying to make the squad. I remember both scenarios. I remember being badly injured, and feeling isolated, yet realising how I behave when unable to play is just as important to the success of Leinster.
It only takes one bad attitude to infect a squad. Sulking is an unacceptable character trait in a team environment.
Dave can’t catch a break. The injury process must seem like an eternity but in 17 months time he could easily be a starting winger at the World Cup. If he’s mentally tough enough to stay the course. The ups and downs of a career are frightening but any player who makes it in this game, like Dave Kearney has done, and keeps coming back for more, again, Dave, means they possess a resilience that sets him apart from most people.
Successful culture
That’s what a successful culture is built upon and such fortitude can separate Leinster from the Scarlets and Munster from Racing 92. A Champions Cup semi-final is all about how deep you can dig. It’s about performing at your best in the most hectic atmosphere imaginable. I missed all that for a few minutes this week, but then I get over it and enjoy the occasional stumble into a high cholesterol performance zone.
I used to be on the inside where all the cool stuff happened. Leinster’s base in UCD this week remains a fascinating example of how a well-oiled sporting machine operates. I remember it well. The buzz of working towards a common goal with 50 other people is irreplaceable.
When you get injured all that gets stripped away as you are given a glimpse of the outside world. When I broke my arm I was put on a lone ranger rehab schedule. I may as well have been any random guy going to the gym. The day in, day out camaraderie of the Leinster squad became background noise. I wasn’t contributing so I felt irrelevant. That’s the other side of the game.
On a human day to day level, it's disrespectful to whoever wears the jersey in their place if someone decries the loss of a player
After meeting the lads I was thinking – they are in prime condition and everything seems on track for another huge performance. Then I remembered the amount of little things that need to go according to plan within the environment for the team to produce the standards Leinster attained in 2012 to beat Clermont in the Bordeaux semi-final. That remains the ultimate team performance.
Dave Kearney’s personal struggle is important this week. The smallest contribution he can make – the briefest chat with starting wingers about Steff Evans’ positioning – can prove the difference.
That is the essence of a high performance zone. There are always comings and goings. The return of Robbie Henshaw and Jack Conan will boost morale but nobody can miss a beat when key players fail to recover. The absence of Sean O’Brien or Rhys Ruddock or Luke McGrath is only a disruption if the group allows them to be.
On a human day to day level, it’s disrespectful to whoever wears the jersey in their place if someone decries the loss of a player.
Honesty is pillar number one in Leinster’s value system. If someone is not living their words, deliberately or not, it must be highlighted. You can’t carry that into a game because when the pressure comes the team will be found out (the coaches are tasked with weeding out such characters). If people have personal issues they are quietly asked to park them until the job is complete.
Value system
That value system gets tested this week. Players must learn not to seek excuses. Whoever trains Tuesday can say, ‘Okay, this is the team that will beat the Scarlets if we do what the coaches are telling us.’ So everyone gets down to work. The only players who need to think beyond that are Johnny, Scott Fardy on lineouts and Isa Nacewa, who goes off the game sheet when he sees good reason. Everyone else can follow the mantra of Bill Belichick’s Patriots: do your job.
Living by the culture of a team means Luke McGrath, while important, is not pivotal to Leinster success. Jamison Gibson-Park at scrumhalf means James Lowe also goes out but Gibson-Park is a quality player. That is enough for everyone else to not miss a beat. Losing Lowe means Isa and Fergus McFadden will play on the wings. I’m struggling to see a weakness there.
The media see it as a big issue but it’s just noise to the players (and they rarely listen).
Scarlets have a real chance if they play the way they did in Dublin last season when beating Leinster then Munster
I remember when this was not the case. Leinster without Chris Whitaker would have been a huge problem for us, or even further back going to an English or French club without Trevor Brennan was a disaster. Whose going to sort them out? That mentality needed to change. It helps that Leinster have a stronger squad now. Your culture has failed you if you do not respect and have total confidence in the players who come in.
Whoever starts, whoever makes it, I cannot see a dip in Leinster performance from the Saracens game. I don’t think pressure will alter the way Sexton operates, do you?
Scarlets have a real chance if they play the way they did in Dublin last season when beating Leinster then Munster. They are a serious attacking team but this is a Champions Cup semi-final, not the Pro 14, so it’s new ground for them.
The entire Leinster squad experienced failure at this juncture against Clermont last season. That is the advantage. Leinster know what it takes to win this game. Experience is valuable.
It’s an enormous moment in the career of Tadhg Beirne. Tadhg’s journey from Clongowes into the Leinster Academy and Lansdowne, before injury hindered his progress, is well told. Beirne would understand adversity quotient – the science of resilience – as well as anyone. From delivering pizzas to keep the money flowing to being nominated for European Player of the Season, he has proved just how much he wants to make it as a pro rugby player.
Best job
Tadhg Beirne will never be put in the ‘millennial’ category – the connotation of that phrase is younger people have normalised the ‘walk away and try something els’e attitude whenever something does not initially work out.
Beirne refused to quit when his Leinster contract was not renewed. His engine and genuine ball skills make him an Ireland international in waiting (probably this summer in Australia). Tadhg knows he has the best job in the world and I presume he’s signed a decent contract to move from Wales to Limerick this summer.
Leo Cullen and Stuart Lancaster have taken a calculated risk by putting so many players on ice since the quarter-final. It seemed to hurt them a little last season but they clearly feel it is better than risking Sexton, Kearney, Garry Ringrose, Dev Toner and others against Italian opposition.
Munster are on a very different journey – having gone to South Africa for a two match tour – but Johann van Graan’s risk was less calculated. They are being made do it the hardest way imaginable so everyone had to stay together, and sending on Conor Murray for a concussed James Hart against Cheetahs, while not ideal, worked to their benefit (it took 30 seconds for Conor to score a trademark try off the scrum).
They can frame it as old Munster reborn – everyone together on an odyssey to Bordeaux, via the highveld, to overcome Racing 92. They have a free roll of the dice but I’d back Munster’s culture, certainly when it’s compared to the Paris club, and they arrive battle-hardened.
In contrast, Leinster rested almost every player who featured prominently in the Six Nations. Vastly different methods have been adopted if both provinces are to make the Bilbao final on May 12th. Now that would be something.
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