Three-point plan in place for pack battle

Interview with Emmet Byrne: John O'Sullivan gets the big prop's views on how Leinster can combat the Bourgoin scrum on Saturday.

Beware the backlash, appears to be the clarion call ahead of Leinster's Heineken European Cup clash with Bourgoin at Stade Pierre Rajon on Saturday afternoon.

Last season is offered as a case history, when the French side recovered from the mortification of a 92-17 drubbing at Lansdowne Road, succumbing only to a late tour de force from Brian O'Driscoll six days later in losing 26-23.

Last Saturday evening at the RDS, Leinster thrashed Bourgoin 53-7, but the trip to France is an altogether less appetising prospect. Pride, large and vocal home support and a better grasp of Leinster's attacking gambits should ensure that Bourgoin muster a more resolute challenge.

It'll start up front, where the scrum will be a principal battleground.

Leinster's Emmett Byrne is a renowned technician in this facet of the game, and, while unlikely to start, he offers a revealing insight into the vagaries of getting up close and personal with a French frontrow.

His first experience on French soil was for Leinster against Toulouse in a European Cup match in 1997 as a 24-year-old.

"They had a frontrow which included (French internationals) Franck Tournaire and Christian Califano, who were at their peak back then.

"I remember exactly my experience of the first hit, because Shane Byrne ended up sitting beside me and he just goes 'that's not to happen again'. I actually came on for Angus McKeen who had come off quite early.

"Califano's hit surprisingly wasn't that hard, but when the ball went in the pressure was absolutely enormous. I was lifted up into the stand somewhere.

I just made a vow to myself, 'that will never happen again'. In fairness, I dug in for the rest of the game. I pulled every trick in the book just to survive. It was a baptism of fire. That's the way the French play the game over there. It's eight men, all pressure."

The penalties for transgressing in the modern game and the proliferation of cameras mean that the hand-to-hand combat of the frontrow and its dark arts are largely a thing of the past. Byrne smiles.

"It's cleaned up an awful lot. My first experience of a dirty match was against the old (infamous) Begles Bordeaux frontrow, who were then playing for Stade Francais: Serge Simon, Vincent Moscato and Philippe Gimbert.

"They didn't talk so much, maybe a few profanities in French. It'd be more what they were doing in the scrum, trading a few headbutts, among other things."

Asked to distil the frontrow contest into three imperatives from a Leinster perspective, Byrne volunteered: "(The scrum), it's not just the front row. The French use their full eight and we have to use our full eight in return.

"The second thing is the hit in the scrum is probably the most important (aspect), that first engagement.

"An awful lot of the time a hit will just cancel each other out and the scrum will settle. A lot of the time the French will get an early or a very quick hit, they get momentum after the hit and they drive almost immediately after the ball goes in. That disintegrates scrums. We have to be very aggressive in the hit.

"The third thing is body height. Even though the French scrum is very hard they have a tendency to go a bit high in terms of their bodies. Generally a lower scrum will win out. (In essence) it's concentration as a unit, big hit and height in the scrum."

Byrne will probably start on the bench, which he dislikes, because it is so much more mentally difficult, but he knows that he'll probably see game time. He knows what to expect. Bourgoin loosehead prop Olivier Milloud, who fulfils the same role on the French team, is someone Byrne rates: "He's strong and aggressive.

"They'll scrum on every scrum. It's their way and they'll scrum all eight guys. They'll be more wound up, nigglier and a bit dirtier.

"They don't like losing in front of their home crowd."

They're the rules of engagement and he wouldn't have it any other way. It's the ultimate proving ground.