Brian O’Driscoll ‘respects’ under fire Leo Cullen and Jacques Nienaber as verdict given on latest Champions Cup failure
Ireland legend Brian O'Driscoll and Leinster coaches Leo Cullen and Jacques Nienaber.
Ireland legend Brian O’Driscoll insists that it would have been “insanity” for Leinster not to change tack after Jacques Nienaber’s arrival.
In their third Investec Champions Cup final since the double Rugby World Cup winner’s arrival, they once again failed to pick up the silverware.
It was their second final defeat in three years and their fifth in total since last lifting the trophy back in 2018.
Prior to the World Cup, Stuart Lancaster was the senior coach with the emphasis very much on their attack, but that changed when Nienaber came on board.
Leinster’s defensive focus under Nienaber
Renowned for implementing an incredibly aggressive blitz defence, the former Springboks head coach looked to focus on their work without the ball.
However, with results in these big continental games not changing, there has been criticism of the South African, as well as head coach Leo Cullen.
Their loss to Bordeaux-Begles at the weekend, which saw them ship five tries in the first half in a 41-19 defeat, was their biggest-ever in the Champions Cup showpiece event.
Many claim that Leinster have regressed since the Lancaster days, but O’Driscoll believes that they had to take the risk.
“Thinking about the defensive system, I have to say I respect Leo and Jacques for trying something different,” he told Off The Ball.
“They were trying to win the Champions Cup by playing some of the sexiest rugby we’ve even seen. It was a good defensive system – hard up, aggressive, off the line – but ultimately they were falling short.
“Trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results is insanity, right?”
Leinster will go again next season, looking to win that fifth star which has eluded them for so long, but O’Driscoll “doesn’t know” if they were have the ability to compete.
The balance of power currently lies with the French sides, who have won the past six Champions Cup titles, while the former Ireland captain also rates PREM outfits Bath and Northampton Saints.
English duo make O’Driscoll ‘nervous’
“I think all of the momentum is with the French teams and it feels like there’s a good bit more momentum now,” he said.
“Maybe I’m slightly skewed in my opinion because I see a lot of them, but I see the emergence of Bath and I see what Northampton Saints are doing this year and I would be nervous around both of those teams coming up against Leinster.
“If it was Bath in the final, it probably would have been preferable, but I still would have been nervous around their capacity because they had some clever players in key positions to pull apart that defence.
“It was the first year I didn’t think they were going to win it this year and I think it will be very hard on the back of what we saw on Saturday to think, ‘oh no, they’re back’.”
O’Driscoll still reckons that Leinster can beat any team on their day but insists that their star players are not producing when it really matters.
“Can they win it? Looking at that Bordeaux, they and Toulouse and those English sides, can they compete with them on a one-off game? They probably can,” he added.
“They need a whole lot to go really well for them but, like I said, in the biggest games you have to have your biggest players turning up for the big moments.
“If they manage that, of course they could win one of those games, but that hasn’t transpired for a good few years.”
