During the course of Leinster’s laboured win over the Scarlets at the Aviva Stadium in last Saturday’s United Rugby Championship (URC) quarter-final, co-commentator Ian Madigan said something that must have resonated with most viewers. “The buzz has gone,” said the former outhalf.
The Leinster players are only human, of course, and it’s hardly any wonder if the hangover from that dramatic Champions Cup semi-final against Northampton was still being felt. While they took out their frustrations a week later with a steamrolling of Zebre, the displays since – in beating Glasgow 13-5 and the Scarlets 33-21 – were what prompted Madigan to sum up his feelings in a nutshell.
Speaking this week, ahead of Saturday’s URC semi-final against Glasgow at the Aviva Stadium (kick-off 2.45pm), Madigan added: “I don’t say it lightly. I love Leinster and I love following them and I love bringing them to life and breaking down their defence and their attack and how strong their squad is.”
Amid the general sense of deflation hanging over Leinster’s season, Madigan also seeks to put some perspective on things.
“It’s been an incredible season,” he said. “They’ve lost three games. They’ve dominated the league, dominated Europe, but fell down against Northampton. On ‘losing the buzz’, it’s one thing just saying it, but the why behind it is what’s important to me.”
Nor is it a case of citing one example, but rather several. It leads Madigan to think “this team isn’t fizzing at the moment”.
Example one is the fact that Jimmy O’Brien earned his 100th cap last week. Acknowledgment of the milestone appeared to be in short supply.
“We don’t know what’s gone on in the changing room beforehand. Has there been a big deal made of it? But I was in the stadium doing commentary, he runs out and I didn’t feel there was a big buzz; players running out and giving him a high five, using that to motivate themselves. ‘Let’s make sure Jimmy remembers his 100th’.”
Madigan also didn’t see Leinster players celebrating big moments in the game. Similarly, he didn’t see the customary “next ball” focus after losing big moments.
“Then there was a rashness to the attack,” he said. “I associate Leinster’s attack as being really patient and then, when it’s really on, they decide to pull the trigger and it can look easy, but the hard work has been done. At the weekend, I was thinking it wasn’t quite ready to go there.
“They needed to do another phase or, on the other side of that, when they did get opportunities, I didn’t feel the communication. And the desperation within the communication was there. There were gilt-edged opportunities to get the ball out of shapes, move the ball to width and the players weren’t desperate enough in their communication to get their hands on the ball.
“That comes back to buzz. Not having the mindset of ‘I just need to do my job’. It’s having the mindset of ‘I’m going to have my best game today’.”
I think we’ll see a response from the supporters at the weekend
— Ian Madigan
Madigan has been an excellent addition to the punditry world of ex-players. He’s recently retired, does his homework, invests in it and is generally insightful and informative. He doesn’t do it for the extra cash, but because he loves it.
The lack of buzz was also evident in the decidedly muted celebrations at the full-time whistle. He feels Leinster missed a trick in not opting for a final launch play to score a try. There was no general hint of using the last half-hour to carry some momentum into the semi-final.
For Leinster coach Leo Cullen, it is another season where the team came close in the biggest competition, but not close enough.
“I feel sorry for Leo,” said Madigan with regard to the double-edged sword of having a dozen Lions. “It’s just human nature to have one eye on that and it’s really tough navigating that. Their best player, Jordie Barrett, has come over to win a Champions Cup. He hasn’t come over to win a URC, so how can you motivate him?
“And then the key guy in the control room, Sam Prendergast. It’s easy to forget how much he’s achieved in the last 12 months. He hadn’t played in the Six Nations or the Champions Cup. He’s been the centre of attention nearly every week of the season.
“You get so much traffic in the outhalf channel, no matter who you are. It’s been tough physically for him, but I think the bigger challenge has been psychological. He’s been part of 25 games. He went on the Emerging Ireland tour at the start of the season. He would have been central to the weeks and running the gameplan. That takes its toll and maybe it’s beginning to hit at the moment.”
Madigan thinks Prendergast’s instincts are excellent; when to pass short or wide, or carry, or go back to the short side.
“I think his ability to plot the team two, three, four phases ahead really appealed to Andy Farrell and that’s what’s needed in international rugby. You can’t play the game phase-to-phase because once you lose momentum you’re in big, big trouble. If you back that up with a poor kick you’re probably behind your sticks quite quickly, and you saw that in the French game.”
He added: “What I’d say with Sam, last weekend I didn’t think his instincts were as sharp. Quite often, that comes down to fatigue.”
In all of this, Leinster are victims of their own high standards and Madigan feels for them, not least as supporters share their post-Champions Cup disappointment and are looking for reasons to pick the players up. “And I think we’ll see a response from the supporters at the weekend.”
Madigan also notes the recent Saturday afternoon kick-offs and the volume of home games overlapping with the All-Ireland championships.
“A lot of people support the Dubs and other counties. It’s been a long season and that needs to be looked at, but that’s a separate conversation,” he adds, also noting that this is “a third game against Glasgow in two months as opposed to the Bulls or Sharks coming to town”.
“But at the same time, it is the reigning champions. Can we stop [Sione] Tuipulotu? Glasgow are very creative, they function well as a team. That should be enough to get Leinster motivated.”
Glasgow’s injury crisis earlier in the season has suddenly led to a freshness about them, particularly Tuipulotu. Leinster’s 52-0 win against the Scottish team in the Champions Cup quarter-final now works against them.
“Leinster were on a ‘going day’ that day. They would have beaten anybody on that ‘going day’; the same when Ireland played Scotland in the World Cup. I’m convinced we would have beaten anybody that day but the following week we didn’t perform against New Zealand and we got beaten. Similarly with Leinster against Northampton.
“Tied in with that, I think it’s about Leinster not necessarily seeking perfection but bringing patience back into their game and bringing their buzz back.
“Glasgow are a really feisty side. Their rivalry with Munster is brilliant over the years and for Leinster, I think it’s about celebrating those small wins and building momentum into their performance.”
Madigan believes this semi-final will be tight, very physical and as against the Scarlets, Leinster will employ their kicking, territory game, while eschewing opportunities to counter-attack or take quick lineouts.
There weren’t enough of those big moments from Leinster
— Ian Madigan
“I thought they had a big fitness edge on the Scarlets. The second-half was played at a snail’s pace and I think Leinster will be quite cagey and play that territory game again, but the big difference I expect to see is patience in attack and the willingness to break Glasgow down physically.”
On many levels, winning this season’s URC would surpass any of Leinster’s previous eight “league” titles.
“The South Africans have been a game changer and if we’re told tomorrow that they were leaving, we would be devastated,” he added. “For Leinster, winning the URC is not going to solve all their problems. That is not going to happen in my opinion until they win the Champions Cup.”
But this is, Madigan adds, knockout rugby. It brings both an opportunity and a need to go outside the game plan, a la Henry Pollock’s try against Leinster for Northampton.
He namechecks former teammates Isa Nacewa, Brian O’Driscoll and Sean O’Brien as examples of players who can conjure a moment of brilliance out of nothing.
“There are players within the team that are there to make their tackles, hit their rucks, but there are box-office players that can go off-script. When they see an opportunity, they take it and everyone else rows in behind them.
“And that was the biggest thing lacking for me in the Northampton game. They thought that if we just stick to the system, we’ll get over the line in the end, and they didn’t. We needed a big moment, a line break, a big hit, sidestepping someone, a big aerial win.
“There weren’t enough of those big moments from Leinster; they came from Northampton.”
So, the big one has eluded Leinster again, but there is still another one to win – an opportunity to avoid another trophyless season.
Madigan said: “There comes a tipping point where you go: ‘Do you know what, the supporters are demanding a trophy here’. And I actually think we’ve reached that tipping point and Leinster really need to win a trophy this year more than last year.”
