It has never happened in the modern era that Leinster have had to look for a reset after the first competitive match of the season.
Being “nilled” in South Africa by the Stormers (35-0) means this week the coaching staff are desperately looking for a rebound performance against the Bulls on Saturday (5.30pm Irish time, live on Premier Sports 1).
Round two of the United Rugby Championship (URC) has rarely looked so fraught for the reigning champions.
A wake-up call and figuring out how to turn a stunning defeat into something positive will be central to assistant coach Robin McBryde’s brief this week.
RM Block
Selflessly McBryde is holding his hand up and saying that a lot of what went awry, especially Leinster’s inability to launch any attacks off the lineout last Friday, was his fault.
It is likely the players will have a different view and accept responsibility, too, but the former Welsh hooker was this week taking a bullet for the team.
“Everyone is scratching their heads with regard to where Friday night came from, really. We didn’t see that coming,” McBryde said.
“I’ve apologised because I didn’t prepare the forwards well enough. We didn’t provide the platform to launch any type of attack really, so that’s on me.
“I’m not one for standing still and I like to move things forward and stretch people, but, yeah, obviously, have I done it at the right time, with the right group of people? Maybe not.
“So, yeah, I can only apologise for that. But listen, nothing focuses the mind better than the Bulls on Saturday, next up. So, you know, there are going to be similar challenges for us on Saturday.”
Entirely different teams and all that, Leinster beat the Bulls in June in the URC final to save their season after losing to Northampton Saints in the Champions Cup semi-final.
This week’s meeting in Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria won’t have the freight of an end-of-season final, but for this group of players the prospect of two opening defeats in South Africa is a huge driver for those who wish to be involved in what lies ahead.
Jamie Osborne and Cormac Foley will be unavailable for the game. Osborne picked up a minor hamstring injury against Stormers and Foley suffered a calf injury. Both will be unavailable for a few weeks. Further assessment is required for Jordan Larmour, who picked up a foot injury in round one.
But a round-four match against Munster in a swollen Croke Park is one of those games everyone wants to be part of.
Coming so early in the season before the November international matches there is a strong aspect this weekend of it not just being about the points on offer, and trying to avoid going zero for two, but, with the Lions contingent absent, players needing to make themselves immediate and visible.
“We’ve got to make those changes pretty quick because it’ll be a poor reflection on us if we don’t turn up on Saturday,” McBryde said.
“We circled up in the changing room and in certain results you don’t need to say a lot. I think everybody knew, the feeling in the changing room, and you don’t get that very often.
“I suppose it’s down to individuals how quickly you manage to turn that round. You’ve got to have a certain amount of grieving process, I’d imagine, on your own, in your own time, in your own head, in your own head space to get over it. And then you come back fighting.
“In the long run, and I’m saying in the long run, I wouldn’t have chosen to do it, but it could be the best thing that ever happened to us.”
It is an interesting take and to climb out of such a bad beating is a challenge this group have never had to face.
Reacting to adversity and redoubling efforts to appear as close to the real version of the Leinster that everyone wants to beat could make or break reputations.
As McBryde says, the squad are much better performers than they showed last Friday in DHL Stadium.
“Leo [Cullen] came back from the coach’s conference at the start of the year, and [the] feeling was that everybody’s going to come out gunning for us because we’re the reigning champions. So, it’s to be expected,” McBryde said.
“As we found following our loss against Northampton Saints, there’s not that many people who sympathise with Leinster when the team loses.
“So it is very much up to us now and we’ve got to stand up to it and come out fighting and earn the right to put on the shirt and be a part of Leinster rugby.”
For now, McBryde must convince players they are much better than a 35-0 hiding and explain to them what is expected when they are in the shirt of Josh van der Flier, Andrew Porter or Joe McCarthy.
“One hundred per cent, and we’ve got to remind the players of that,” McBryde said.
“You know, we haven’t become a bad, that bad, a team overnight. We’ve just got to make sure that we show that on Saturday. It’s all well and good saying it, but we’ve got to actually show it.”
Man for man.
