LEINSTER MIGHT HAVE started their Pro12 season with a defeat to Glasgow last week, but the return of three more internationals for the first home game of the season against the Scarlets today will hammer home that rugby is back for the RDS fans.
Leinster captain Jamie Heaslip is joined by fellow returnee Devin Toner in the pack while Rob Kearney makes his seasonal bow at fullback, and O’Connor had no qualms with bringing the trio straight into the starting team.
“I think over time they have earned that kind of privilege,” O’Connor said.
“We were a little underdone in certain areas last week and their availability and experience is huge for us.”
Leinster laboured for long periods of their 22-20 defeat in Scotland last week and despite not having won at the RDS since October 2007, O’Connor is aware of the attacking talent the Scarlets have in their ranks.
“They are a dangerous footy team and they have some very talented players with a lot of test experience,” O’Connor said.
“They can score tries and they play a great brand of attacking rugby and we will have to be very good. A lot of areas where we were disappointing last week will exposed by a good Scarlets side if we are not accurate.”
Scarlets played out a 32-32 cracker with Ulster at Parc y Scarlets last Saturday and one of the biggest pluses for the Welsh team was the bulldozing ball carrying of Rory Pitman, who will play at eight against Leinster. O’Connor emphasised how important it would be to stop the marauding forward in order to limit the Scarlets’ gain line successes.
“All the talk before the season started was about Chris Hala’ufia but he hasn’t featured and Pitman has been amazing for them in pre-season and last Saturday,” O’Connor said.
“He carries the ball and gets over the gain line to give them front foot momentum and we will have to make sure we deal with him.”
Leinster’s defence was uncharacteristically lax against Glasgow, missing 18 tackles and conceding three tries in the first-half. O’Connor pointed to the amount of turnovers committed by his side as one reason for the sloppy tackling, because it forced Leinster to defend regularly in broken play situations.
“We missed a lot of tackles and a lot of time we were turning over the ball, which we can’t do,” O’Connor said.
“Those kinds of unstructured situations put a lot of pressure on your defensive systems. We will be looking to tighten up what we do with the ball and limit the opportunities for the Scarlets.”
O’Connor was asked about his second row options for the season ahead and mentioned that he might look at playing Kevin McLaughlin at the position. The Australian is also very happy with the stream of talent coming through at lock, and mentioned a few youngsters as having what it takes to make the professional grade.
“Ben Marshall and Tom Denton didn’t get as much footy as we, or they, would have liked last season but I thought they were very good at the weekend. We also have Gavin Thornbury and Ross Molony and it won’t be long before they are pushing for places too.”
