Keeping the moving parts together has become Leinster coach Leo Cullen’s prize for the success so far of his squad.
Two weeks in South Africa with significant frontline players remaining at home and he has a team focused on The Sharks this week in a humid Durban with those in Dublin plotting their way towards Welford Road.
Layered over that is that some of the Dublin players will possibly travel for Leinster’s second match against The Stormers with others coming home. Cullen hopes for all to fall into place come the European Champions Cup quarter-final against Leicester on May 6th.
“There has been some pretty tight selections with the international guys coming back in,” said Cullen on arrival in Durban.
“That makes it very challenging. We had Connacht away in the URC without the international players. Then we had Munster away where some of them came back in, started some guys and had others off the bench.
“We made other changes then for the Connacht game away and then with the likes of Ronan [Kelleher] and Andrew [Porter] coming back in for the game at the Aviva after injury.
“There are lots of moving parts, as we know. We discuss it all the time so for the guys that are here it is a great window and a great opportunity and we hope that they all go well because a number of them have been unlucky with selection over the last number of weeks.”
Cullen is expecting considerable physical challenges from The Sharks with humidity the principal anxiety issue. While rain has been the story so far, the heat remains just as stifling.
Other moving parts are how to adjust to conditions before replanting several players into a Leicester setting after two weeks in South Africa. For now, though, Cullen will play what is in front of him this weekend. He is not blind to what the team faces in ‘The Shark Tank’ and for some players it represents opportunity.
Humidity piece
“Very physical,” says Cullen. “A lot of their game is based around some of the front rowers they have. In particular, Ox Nche, Bongi [Mbonambi], [Thomas] du Toit, those three, and they have a fair bit of power everywhere else.
“The conditions here are probably the biggest thing for us to get our head around because it says sunny day, 32 degrees, but it actually looks like it’s raining. It is the humidity piece, trying to get our head around that. So, it’s how you manage the game off the back of those conditions, because playing can be quite a challenge.”
Kelleher and Porter will be looking for game time, while some warmth will not hurt either. Others such as Ciaran Frawley will hope, as Cullen explains, put their hands up for quarter-final consideration.
“We always, as coaches, have an eye on what’s coming down the line, whether that’s next week or beyond,” says Cullen. “So, we would have had a bit of a look at Leicester. Even Clermont we would have had a look at just in case as well. And you’ve an eye to the South African team, who we know [we are playing], so we’re always in that sort of mode anyway.
“So, a fair bit of work has gone into Sharks before we arrived here, with some of the guys that, say, wouldn’t have been in the match-day 23 last week. Some that were in the 23 would have been solely focused on Connacht.”
That has been Leinster’s season so far, a churn of players and hoping the moving parts click on the day. So far so good.
