Leinster forwards coach Robin McBryde believes that Toulouse, their opponents in the Heineken Champions Cup semi-final at the Aviva Stadium next Saturday (kick-off 3pm), will be “a step up again” following on from becoming the first side to beat Leicester in their Welford Road lair in a year.
Leicester put it up to Leinster at scrum time last Saturday but Toulouse also flexed their pecks in telling fashion during the first half against Munster. What’s more, they could bring on a replacement frontrow containing two French Grand Slam winners in Cyril Baille and Peato Mauvaka, as well as the USA Eagles’ 22-year-old, 123kg prop, David Ainu’u.
“Looking at the Munster game they really went at them at scrum time. [Julian] Marchand, Cyril Baille, they’ve got an appetite for scrumagging and as much as we had [Ellis] Genge and [Julian] Montoya and Dan Cole, I think there’s a little bit more about this Toulouse pack really.
“So yeah, we’re going to have to step up and improve again. They’ve got a very strong driving maul, so once again we’re going to have to make sure that we deal with that threat and when we get the opportunity we’ve got to take it.
“We had one opportunity against the Tigers with the lineout and converted it. We’ve got to have that ruthless edge about us again and be as clinical as we can when we get the opportunity.”
Toulouse have had to dig deep to reach the semi-finals for the fourth season in succession, but as reigning champions and five-time winners McBryde believes their threat is as acute as ever.
“Well, you can’t write them off, can you? They’re a quality team, the number of internationals they’ve got in their side. The Top 14 in itself is a very tough competition. It’s week-in, week-out. No easy games there whatsoever.
“So you’re battle-hardened because of it and that was a little bit of our concern going into the Leicester game. They’re the same playing in the Premiership in England, battle-hardened, whereas we’d had a week off or whatever. But no I don’t think they’re any weaker.”
Reflecting on their 23-14 win over Leicester, McBryde said: “There’s a lot of things to consider. Obviously everything is on their terms. When you play a home game you’ve got the advantage.
“They’ve got a pretty small pitch, the crowd are on top of you, and they had a flash flood for two and a half hours prior to kick-off,” he said in sardonic reference to the Tigers heavily watering the pitch.
“Because of the nature and size of the pitch the number of entries they get into your 22 is more than normal. That alongside the fact that we didn’t exit effectively enough to release the pressure gave them too many opportunities really. So they gave our defence a good work out and we stood up to it.
“Yeah, first half was really good, the second half not as good, but you know the quality of team that Leicester are, they’re going to have the wind in their sails at some stage. I’m just really glad that we were able to stand up to that in the second half.”
Leinster had their grumbles about their pool game away to Montpellier being declared a 28-0 win for the French side, but in truth they are now probably better off having come away from the Welford Road citadel with a quarter-final away win.
“We’re going to benefit from that experience at Welford Road definitely, to step into that cauldron, the noise. You can’t recreate that in training, as much as you try, and as hard as we can make training, you can’t recreate it fully. It’s always a fine balance, especially in say the World Cup for instance, where you’ve a small squad of say 30/31 players to choose from.
“At some stage the battle-hardened becomes the battle-weary. I don’t think there’s a right or a wrong way to be honest with you. Had we lost at the weekend, you could have said ‘you haven’t played enough rugby’ but that wasn’t the case. It depends on how you frame it and how you approach your preparation.
“I just think we’re getting to the stage of the season where it’s not going to make that much difference really. I think everybody has had enough rugby at this stage and I think the best team will win at the weekend.”
