RUGBY:THE LEINSTER machine rolls on. An Easter holiday crowd of over 1,700 turned up at the RDS yesterday for the Heineken Cup semi-finalists' open day. After the one-hour session, the squad divided into two to patiently sign autographs at either end of the pitch – over an hour later Isa Nacewa, Nathan Hines and Shane Horgan were last to leave.
Last season, their RDS open day was held in March, and it rained in bucketloads on a crowd of about 500. But yesterday continued similarly successful ventures this season in Mullingar, Wexford Wanderers and Clondalkin – all part of building for the future, and a pleasant break from UCD. “To be honest everyday is an open day for us because our ‘trainings’ are open to anyone,” smiled coach Joe Schmidt. “To make it an official open day is great because every open day we have had we have had really good weather. I’d be delighted if people came if we got this type of weather every time.”
Seemingly everything Leinster do now they do well. On Saturday week against Toulouse, they will fill out the Aviva Stadium for a fourth time this season, which in turn will help to take their average attendance for the season to almost the 24,500 mark.
Last Saturday’s annual Ladies Night raised over €8,000 for Action Breast Cancer, one of many charities they are involved in, all of which reflects well on their marketing department. They are currently conducting a brand survey to help plan for the future off the pitch, while their academy continues to churn out talent as good as anywhere else in Europe.
Retaining their core identity, they have also consistently bought cleverly, Nacewa, Hines and Richardt Strauss following on from Felipe Contepomi, Rocky Elsom, Chris Whitaker and co. Equally shrewd in their choices of coaches, Schmidt and his assistants have cemented the foundations of the five-year Michael Cheika reign.
The key is results, while their brand of rugby helps. The so-called under-achievers of yore followed their Heineken Cup win of 2009 by last season reaching the semi-finals, and earning a home Magners League final. Granted, they’ve won nothing yet this season either, but are again on course to reach the semi-finals in Europe and domestically, something only Toulouse have emulated in both the last two seasons.
True to his word, Schmidt has helped to improve the team’s skills’ set and finishing. Their try ratio has increased from 51 in 28 games last season, to 66 in 27 matches this season. Furthermore, they have improved on last season’s ratio of 40 tries conceded in 28 games to 33 in 27 so far.
Schmidt will not be able to take in Toulouse’s game at home to Bourgoin on Saturday, though he is not especially inclined to anyway. “I managed to sneak over and get a look at Leicester playing Bath and I don’t think it was that productive – it just made us that bit more scared of Leicester as they gave Bath their biggest hiding ever on their home ground.”
Nor does Schmidt want Leinster to take their eye off the prize of a home league semi-final. To this end they may still need nine or 10 points from their concluding games away to Aironi and at home to Glasgow, while maintaining the difficult balancing act of keeping everybody in the squad involved and fresh; hence his pro-active use of the bench last Saturday night.
“We are hoping someone else helps us out and . . . eight will do,” said Schmidt. “So, it is a balancing act. Even with Ulster – they were maybe a bit unlucky a couple of times and could have finished closer to us. So yeah, it was a calculated gamble then and we might gamble a little with Aironi, but we might not get that luxury.”
Brian O’Driscoll, Gordon D’Arcy, Kevin McLaughlin, Leo Cullen, Seán O’Brien and Jamie Heaslip took limited or no part in training. Schmidt was hopeful D’Arcy or O’Driscoll will travel to Italy, but is still not sure which one, while McLaughlin, who has carried a heavy load of late, will surely be rested, as might O’Brien or Heaslip, given Shane Jennings, Rhys Ruddock and Dominic Ryan are straining at the leash.
Cian Healy is likely to start too, after his three minutes as a flanker against Ulster, for Saturday’s non-televised game, which Schmidt views as a “banana skin”, adding: “The danger with there being 50 competition points between us on the points table is that there is a little bit of complacency and there is not the respect they deserve to have shown to them.”
Reflecting on Leinster’s edgy 21-16 win over Aironi last February, Schmidt said: “They took a five-metre tap penalty at one stage that could have made it 16-16 and the guy knocked it on. We managed to get down the other end and score a try but they came away from here with a losing bonus point. They have seven losing bonus points, three games at home they have lost by a point. So, while they have a solitary win they haven’t been far away very often.”
Leinster lost on their previous visit to Italy, a 29-13 defeat to Treviso in September. “It is a world away from were we are now. I think it is more relevant to look at our last Aironi game and take a little bit of warning from that.”
