Maybe Leo Cullen did the honourable thing, or maybe he drew the short straw, but for Stuart Lancaster it must have been manna from heaven at such an advanced stage of the season. Whereas Cullen oversaw the two-game safari to South Africa, Lancaster remained with the frontliners to prepare them for their Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final against Leicester in Welford Road next Saturday (5.30pm).
“What’s been really enjoyable, as well as coaching the group, is that we have been training against the lads who played for Ireland [Under] 20s,” said Lancaster yesterday.
“So, your Charlie Tectors, your Sam Prendergasts and Dermot Mangans; young, sub-academy lads who have had a fantastic couple of weeks because they have been rubbing shoulders with the great and the good.
“There has been a real focus to it and coaching is great, but I get my satisfaction from the weekend if we play well. And I know that we will have to play our best to win this game for sure, because I don’t think Leicester have lost at Welford Road for 12 months, and to go to Bordeaux and Clermont and these places and win, they deserve that position at the top of the Premiership.”
As if to underline the rationale for dividing the squad in two, Lancaster pointed out that the squad sent to South Africa only returned on Monday afternoon after 24 hours of travel over the last fortnight, and will have limited training today and Wednesday off.
“In the lead-up to a Champions Cup game, that is limited preparation with the best will in the world,” said Lancaster. “We felt that since we’d had a buffer in the URC, that gave us the chance to go with a younger squad [to South Africa] to get that experience. We got the two bonus points that we needed which we achieved our objective of coming first, which means we get a home quarter-final and semi-final, and potentially a home final in the URC.
“The risk is obviously that the team hasn’t played since Connacht. The challenge for me obviously, as a coach, is that I hit the sweet spot between preparation, both for the opposition and also physically to prepare them for the game, because they are two different things.”
Noting how Leicester were locked and fully loaded for their 56-26 thrashing of Pat Lam’s Bristol at Welford Road last Saturday, the Tigers’ 15th home win in 15 games this season, Lancaster admitted: “That will harden them and ready them. It was just a different scenario for us.”
However, he took comfort in recalling how Leinster coped with a Covid-related run of four weeks without a game over Christmas and into January, before beating Montpellier 89-7 and Bath 64-7.
“It was a similar scenario because we were doing an awful amount of work in terms of contact and getting match-ready in training. But I’d like to think that when we did return to play that Montpellier game in the RDS, and then when we went to Bath, the boys who then went into [Irish] camp with Wales were in really good shape. So we know it can be done.”
Tricky decisions
Furthermore, in addition to the 23-man squad employed against Connacht and others such as Jordan Larmour who missed out, Rónan Kelleher and Ryan Baird are fully fit and back training, leaving Cullen, Lancaster and co with tricky decisions as to the starting hooker and secondrow combination.
“Ryan [Baird] is back in the equation, Joe McCarthy has been training as well, Devin Toner, and your James Ryans and Ross Molonys. So there is a lot of healthy competition in the squad and the depth that we need at this stage of the year.”
Particularly so for the challenge next Saturday, which will be far removed from Leinster’s five romps in their previous Euro outings this season.
“It’s one of the toughest challenges we have faced for sure on a variety of fronts,” admitted Lancaster. “The tradition of Leicester, the energy the crowd have. Obviously we will have our own supporters there and they will give us energy, but they definitely play a part in the game.
“I’ve seen them in many games when they’ve won in the last five or 10 minutes, so their doggedness and desire to work hard for each other is abundantly clear. And they’re just really well coached to play an effective game plan that works.
“Every player, if they’re not an international then they’re international quality, so it’s a great match-up.”
Recognising the "remarkable" effect Steve Borthwick has had, Lancaster said: "If you take European games into consideration as well, they've played 30-odd games this season and lost only four. That's pretty impressive."
But Leinster aren’t in a bad place themselves.
Allowing for the frontliners’ lack of games, and while it comes with no guarantees, Lancaster admitted: “We’re in as good a place as we can be given this time of year. We’ve given ourselves a shot in Europe and a home quarter-final in the URC, and that’s where Leinster want to be.
“I’d certainly rather be in this position than obviously some teams that are out of Europe, staring into a couple of weeks off here and there, and waiting for the season to finish.
“We want to be here at the business end and our fans expect that and we expect that ourselves, and we want to make sure we do them proud at the weekend.”
