‘Little bit off’ Leinster set to unleash some Lions on a touring Sharks outfit Sean O’Brien likens to a Top 14 ‘DNA’ away team
Assistant coach Sean O'Brien, inset, has said Leinster are hoping to play some of their British and Irish Lions, including James Lowe, against the Sharks
Leinster are poised to unleash a number of their British and Irish Lions this Saturday in the hope that they can finally get the province’s new league campaign up and running at the third attempt.
The reigning United Rugby Championship champions have flown back into Dublin following a bruising fortnight in South Africa, where two defeats that realised just a single point have left them languishing in 15th place in the 16-team tournament.
Their trip south of the equator to the Stormers and the Bulls was undertaken minus several of their star players, who were left behind to start their pre-season training in Dublin, and the hope is that they are up to speed and ready to tackle the Sharks at Aviva Stadium.
It was August 2 when Andy Farrell’s Lions, a squad heavily backboned by Leinster players, finished off their tour in Australia, but provincial assistant coach Sean O’Brien is expecting to see a number of them, including James Lowe, in action next weekend after a 10-week break in between matches.
“We’ll have a chat in the morning…”
“There is a few of them available for selection; we’ll have a chat in the morning [Tuesday] as coaches and see who is in and who is out,” explained the contact skills coach, who didn’t travel to South Africa so that he could help the returning internationals get up to speed at training as quickly as possible.
“It would be nice to have a couple of them back involved and add that bit of experience to the group and try and take a step further this week than last week.
“What’s coming with the Sharks, we know what they pose, and they will probably be disappointed with what they have done so far in having a loss and a draw, so they want to finish their tour on this side of the world on a high.”
John Plumtree’s side are 11th on the table on two points, one point more than the second from bottom Leinster, following a 19-35 loss at Glasgow and a deflating 17-all draw at the Dragons.
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With the Springboks having finished their title-winning Rugby Championship campaign in London last Saturday against Argentina, there is a chance that some players could detour to Dublin for club action rather than return home immediately.
Whether or not that happens, O’Brien is wary that the Sharks can still hurt teams regardless of their make-up, and the onus is very much on Leinster to have their own preparations done well.
“They are a bit like that, that’s the DNA,” he replied when it was suggested to him that the Sharks have a French-type mentality in that they are deadly at home but very often very flaky away. “But they can hurt you pretty badly when they are actually on.
“We have to prepare as best we possibly can, first and foremost, and whatever they throw at us, hopefully we will have answers for.
“But this week in particular it’s more about focusing on ourselves and what we can bring to the table and making sure we have covered all our detail, that we get our pitch right when we get to the game on Saturday in terms of the physicality of it.
“As I said, they will be hurting from the tour already having drawn and lost a game so they will want to finish very strongly. But they are a big pack of forwards, they have extremely quick backs, so typical of South African teams at the minute.
“If you are any loose or not on it, you get punished very quickly. We will be really focusing on ourselves this week, making sure we have covered all we can do.”
Not since the long-ago days of the old Celtic League in 2003 have Leinster opened a league campaign with two defeats, leaving O’Brien to admit that the competitiveness of the tournament is now very different than before.
“Standards have definitely improved over a number of years, especially away in South Africa. It’s a very tough place to go and we were under no illusions going over there what the challenge would be,” he said.
“We were probably expecting more return out of what we did come away with it, but we are a little bit off and when things don’t go your way, you get punished pretty hard in this league. It’s a testament to the improvement that every other team has made as well that we have to stay ahead of the curve as such here.
“The first week [0-35 at Stormers] was difficult to watch,” he added. “What we learned from that is the physical intent part; there was a lot of scraps on the ground from kicks, battles that we lost.
“It’s nice to see the lads got back into the fight last week [31-39 at Bulls]. That is the main one, the intent around winning scraps and physically being at the level that is required in this competition, especially away from home in South Africa.”