As ever, Michael Cheika cuts a rather suave and cool figure amid the furore in the build-up to a certain little cup semi-final this Sunday, as if we're all getting ourselves into an unnecessary and frightful little tizzy, Gerry Thornley reports
Emotionally, he is more removed from the epic scale of this derby to end all derbies, and Cheika reckons it may even be beneficial being a self-confessed Johnny Foreigner.
"I suppose we've got a bit of an advantage, myself and David. Because we're foreigners, we don't get caught up in it as much. I notice a lot of the questions are about hypotheticals, about feelings and emotions, when really we can leave ourselves out of that and just focus on how we perform. We don't have the historical (baggage), you can't just create it in ten months, so it helps us to just concentrate on the players and on producing a peak performance."
In contrast to the guessing games regarding Munster selections and updated medical reports, as expected, there was little intrigue surrounding Leinster's announcement of merely a 23-man squad for the game.
Prior to the press conference Cheika asked the press officer, Peter Breen, for the hand-out to see what team he had picked this week. "Peter usually picks the team for me," he quipped subsequently.
Cheika even confessed that the only selection issue to exercise his mind in the forthcoming days is whether to choose Ronnie McCormack or Emmet Byrne as the replacement prop. Such candour perhaps inadvertently reminded us that he's only in his fifth season as a coach.
Nor was Cheika inclined to make much of the difficulty facing him in this choice. "From the start of the year we set a platform and any decisions are always made with the best interests of the team at heart. There's no other motivation than that, and people find the decisions hard to take but they understand them too. Even the players who have not been in the matchday 22 all season have been motivated and training well."
The more experienced Byrne is also more proven as cover for both sides of the scrum, and has been on the bench for the last couple of games. However, McCormack started against the Borders two weeks ago, played the second half at tighthead against Llanelli and was the preferred choice on the bench in Toulouse. Indeed, it would be no surprise if Leinster wore the exact same numbers from one to 22 as they did in their thrilling quarter-final in Toulouse. This would mean Shane Horgan and Malcolm O'Kelly will each benchmark this match, of all matches, as their 100th for Leinster.
Admittedly, in contrast to Munster's walking wounded, Leinster appear in comparatively rude health. "Everyone seems in good health, on top of the deck running," said Cheika. "It's a good situation to be in. We've got the whole squad up and on the deck training so it's a good feeling to have everyone ready at the right end of the year."
Reflecting on the initial difficulties against Llanelli last Friday evening, when trailing 19-7 at half-time, Cheika admitted that the lineout was a concern (all the more so with the anticipated noise factor this coming Sunday) and that as a coach he had been a little outsmarted by Llanelli's approach at the start.
"Llanelli caught us on the hop. I suppose as a coach I didn't strategise for the way they came out and played the game initially by playing a split-pod system with their forwards. We hadn't factored for that so we had to adjust onfield and then we were able to focus on winning the contact, and the go-forward, and make things happen out wide."
He watched Munster eclipse Edinburgh in similar circumstances the next day. "I thought they played pretty good actually. Edinburgh did the same thing as Llanelli, playing from side to side, and even splitting their nine and ten, playing half-back on either side of the pitch. But once they worked out they pretty much put them (Edinburgh) to the sword straight up the middle. They used their power and they managed to dominate Edinburgh, and that's quite a good effort because Edinburgh are a good team."
Smiling, Brian O'Driscoll admitted that "some friendships had been struck off this week," to be resumed on Monday morning. While the familiarity of Sunday's clash could lead to stalemate, O'Driscoll ventured: "There's always something new that can be created. You do know what you're getting in one of these games. You're going to get a very keenly contested, body-on-the-line sort of game and sometimes you do need a little spark from a couple of players here and there to make the difference."
Admitting to being envious of Munster's more regular presence in the latter stages he added: "when you find yourselves there each team is going to be equally motivated. I don't think they're going to be more motivated because they've been so close so many times. I don't think it's going to make any difference on the day, it's just going to be the team that performs and wants it that little bit more on Sunday afternoon."
LEINSTER SQUAD: Backs (10): Guy Easterby, Brian O'Riordan, Felipe Contepomi, Girvan Dempsey, Brian O'Driscoll, Kieran Lewis, Shane Horgan, Denis Hickie, Gordon D'Arcy, Rob Kearney. Forwards (13): Will Green, Reggie Corrigan, Ronan McCormack, Emmett Byrne, David Blaney, Brian Blaney, Malcolm O'Kelly, Bryce Williams, Cameron Jowitt, Niall Ronan, Keith Gleeson, Jamie Heaslip, Eric Miller Referee: Joel Jutge (France)
