THERE’S NOT MUCH left to be said within the Leinster camp this week.
The performance against Connacht was a low point of Joe Schmidt’s tenure.
But from Monday’s hard-hitting session at UCD, the gloomy cloudy surrounding the European Champions appear to be dispersing.
Munster are on the horizon, but mustering intensity out of nowhere is never a problem in a derby of this magnitude.
Jonathan Sexton arrives in the boardroom of Leinster’s new on-campus base in relaxed pose. He has a session behind him and he’s not long out of the shower, wearing flip-flops to keep his ankles fresh.
His team-mate, Kevin McLaughlin, spoke of a “quiet dressing room” on Wednesday, but Sexton found it an altogether different experience.
“I don’t know what dressing room he was in.” Says Sexton, shirking his neck back into his shoulders.
“There was honest words spoken Monday and we got on with our business. We’ve tried to lift things up a bit, we’ve been pretty disappointed the last couple of weeks.
“So hopefully we can move on this week, start getting a bit of continuity in the team, it is tough when guys are coming in and out, but at the same time we need to be better than we have been.”
Munster have formed the opposition for Sexton more often than most. The fly-half made his full debut in Thomond Park as a 21-year-old in 2006.
He landed two penalties in a 25-11 defeat, but he says it was strange to be up against a man he looked up to that day – a man who kicked 2o points. Ronan O’Gara will be back opposing him tomorrow evening.
‘A strange day’
“It would have been OK,” he jokes about the December day, “except for the scrum-half I played with was absolutely brutal.” A pointed dig at Guy Easterby, present at the back of the room.
“It was a strange day, I was told early in the week that I’d be playing because a couple of guys were injured – Felipe (Contepomi) and, I think, Christian Warner – so it was a long old week waiting.”
With Leinster’s current injury crisis, Sexton points out that a similar situation my be thrust upon one of the province’s current young guns.
“There’s a few guys this week who could be getting their first big start for Leinster, the first game at the Aviva and those are the games they’ve been waiting for since they came out of school.
“Some of them are going to get their chance. You get you breaks and you have to take them.”
John Cooney, Jordi Murphy, Andrew Conway or Luke McGrath could all find themselves, if not in the starting line-up, with a role to play when the team is announced this afternoon. And Sexton, ponders back upon his own debut to consider some advice.
“Once they’re on the pitch they’ll know it’s just like any other game.” He says, perhaps revealing his icy nerve. “You settle pretty quickly into big games and it just becomes like any other game.
“I’m sure the adrenaline of the whole occasion will look after them. You find out a lot about those guys on days like this. I’m pretty confident that whoever is picked at the weekend will step up.”
Beside Sexton, Jono Gibbes nods sagely, the forwards coach is as keen as his fly-half to banish talk of Connacht. Another inter-pro, eight days on is the only way to do that.
“Regardless of results, Munster brings the intensity up a level anyway. It’s become a bit of a traditional fixture down at Lansdowne Road.” Says the Kiwi, adding:
“What’s gone before, we can’t really fix: Connacht were far superior on Friday night and we can’t take anything away from them. We know we weren’t at our level, but the outplayed us fair and square and we’re just trying to put a little bit of focus on what we do.”
That focus, he says, is trained upon preparation and sharpness for the visit of Rob Penney’s side. The rest, he hopes, will be aided by the “rhythm” injected by the prospect of his international contingent returning to the setup for a prolonged three-week stint.
The talking is nearly over.
Leinster report that over 43,000 tickets have been sold for the game and the remaining will be available on the day.
