LEINSTER WING DAVE Kearney says his side must be hard on themselves in reviewing their recent defeat if they are to advance in the Amlin Challenge Cup.
Last year’s Heineken Cup winners will be the first of three Irish provinces to head into European action through Heathrow Airport this week.
Their destination, Wasps in High Wycombe. And after the wake-up call of a home defeat to Ulster after nine straight wins, Kearney is wary of the threat posed by a team coming into the game on the back of four straight defeats:
“Wasps are coming into some serious form.” He told Leinster TV. “They’ve a good record at Adams Park, I think only the last couple of weeks against Sarries, Harlequins (and Northampton) were their only downfalls this season.
“They’re backs have a lot of talent, Joe Simpson is only 24 and he’s got over 100 caps for his club. And in the back three they’ve (Christian) Wade and (Tom) Varndell out wide, and they’re scoring a high percentage – maybe 55% – of Wasps tries this season, so if they’re given a bit of space they’re pretty hard to stop.”
The dip in form has caused Dai Young’s side to slip down to seventh in the Premiership, but they will be keen on protecting an unbeaten run in this year’s Challenge Cup; with five wins and a draw in the south of France, their record is eerily similar to Leinster’s streak through last season’s Heineken Cup.
But streaks are there to be broken, and Leinster’s winning run in the RDS this season was another pillar to fall on Saturday.
“We were in it until the last second of the game and in the last 10 minutes we put on a lot of pressure.” Adds the wing, expected to win his 50th Leinster cap this Friday. “I still think we shouldn’t of left ourselves in that position in the first place. I suppose we need to be hard on ourselves and look at the video and look at what we can improve on.”
Chief among those things, is earning and retaining possession.
“It’s hard to score tries and score points when we don’t have possession and we spent a lot of last week, and the week before (against Glasgow), defending too much.”
