LEINSTER AVERTED A mini crisis last weekend by disposing of Ulster at the RDS but, with Munster totting up the Pro12 wins, another interprovincial victory is a necessity.
Eoin Reddan says the Ulster result will be rendered irrelevant from the moment the first whistle blows at the Sportsground on Saturday.
“We know it will be a very difficult game,” he said. “They had a different team out last week and a few more changes this week. We know they will be up for it and it will be a very tough game.”
The scrum-half featured in the narrow win over Pat Lam’s men in October and was grateful for a penalty try in the closing stages after his errant pass gifted a first-half try to Kieran Marmion. Reddan believes the festive interpros are the perfect fixtures to prime Leinster for their tricky Heineken Cup fixtures against Castres and Ospreys. He said:
The intensity is going to be right up there and it does definitely help. It does get you back into the swing of things pretty quick but at the same time, in terms of the league and this game on its own, we won’t be thinking about the Heineken Cup next week.
“It will be two games together and five days apart. You have to wait until Monday to think about them. If we do that we will be starting that challenge in a very bad place. We need to go and perform this week.”
The 33-year-old was impressed with Connacht’s away win over four-time Heineken Cup champions, Toulouse and feels the western province richly deserved the shock result. He commented, “Connacht are strong right across the park in plenty of different facets of the game. Not just the breakdown. They are very good at defending mauls, very good at getting off the line. They are good in the air. They are a very good squad.”
I’m harping on about how strong Connacht are at home, and obviously away to Toulouse, but I think that was a reflection of all the hard work that has gone in there and probably a reflection on a lot of the games where they have done really well and just haven’t got across the line.
“That doesn’t really grab the headlines but they have performed really well without always getting the results. If you are consistent with your performance, those results will eventually turn and that seems to be happening with them at the moment.”
Leinster will be hoping to replicate their breakdown dominance over the Ulstermen, last time out, but they were often guilty of getting penalised in the Ulster 22 when points were there for the taking. “Obviously there were things we really wanted to work on, particularly at the breakdown where we can get a bit quicker ball but I’m sure we will do that this week,” said Reddan.
“I mentioned the breakdown there, something we need to take the ref out of it in some way, make sure we are cleaning people out and they don’t have chances to infringe on your ball rather than waiting on the referee to penalise and slow the game down. That is something we will be working on, not just this week but in general.”
