RUGBY:MINDFUL THAT 20 other teams would envy Leinster's position, the excitement, good humour and fear in Joe Schmidt's voice is almost tangible. The Leinster coach ran into Toulouse plenty of times during his three years with Clermont and probably hoped he'd seen the back of them for a while.
Asked if he had respect for them, he quipped that it was more like contempt. He was definitely only kidding, as his respect for Toulouse and Guy Noves was clear.
Stade Toulousain know this territory better than anyone. The 17-time French champions and four-time Heineken Cup winners are seeking to win a seventh semi-final out of 10.
Along with all the Euro wins, seven of those domestic titles have been won under Noves, whose longevity and success in his 18th season as head coach will probably never be emulated.
“It’s exceptional. He keeps a pretty good life balance with a bit of fishing, he likes his hunting, so he’s a pretty outdoors type of guy, loves his cycling. A couple of times we’ve had a chat about those type of things, just to avoid rugby as a topic of conversation.
“He has been immersed in that successful Toulouse set-up for such a long time and I would love to see him get a little bit sick of this taste of success and maybe offer something to somebody else.”
Schmidt has a better idea than most of what to expect, but that doesn’t make it any easier, and he maintained there were more similarities than differences with the Toulouse team which Leinster lost to at the same stage last season.
“Certainly they would be the same in that they would try to break down your platform. They very much deconstruct the opposition lineout and attempt to destroy the opposition scrum.
“On the back of that they will try to physically impose themselves. They have a number of big, strong guys who ball-carry very well, the likes of Census Johnston, (Louis) Picamoles, (Patricio) Albacete, William Servat.”
Continuing his deconstruction of the French aristocrats, Schmidt added: “With those big ball-carriers, anything that does become a little bit loose, any opportunity they have to very quickly turn defence into attack, particularly from turnover ball, they’re very quick to make the most of that, and their offloading game is just a little bit special. They tend to have very good support very close to the ball and look to keep the continuity without taking the ball to ground.”
Noves has bundles of internationals to choose from. Schmidt anticipates Picamoles’ ballast will be chosen ahead of Shaun Sowerby’s mobility, and a Clement Poitrenaud-Florian Fritz midfield. But, mindful of Noves’ ability to pull a rabbit out of the hat, he wouldn’t rule out Yannick Jauzion in midfield or even the maverick Fijian Rupeni Caucaunibuca.
Nor does Schmidt see the absence of Frederic Michalak, Byron Kelleher and Nicolas Vergallo, and hence the inclusion of 20-year-old halfback Jean-Marc Doussain, as necessarily a potential weak point, having watched the Toulouse academy product with the French Under-20s.
“He can play nine or 10 and his passes are crisp, and certainly around the fringes he’s very, very dangerous, his show and go, his acceleration. And he’s robust, so the combative number nine they’ve had through the years with the likes of Kelleher exists through having Doussain there.”
Leo Cullen’s memories of last season’s semi-final defeat in Toulouse are even fresher and more painful. “They’re the sort of team that just don’t give you anything, don’t give you any opportunities,” the captain said. “They scrummed really well last year and they did their homework and won lineout ball fairly easily.
“It was quite a wet day as well and they kicked a lot and they’ve got good guys in the air as well, and we just felt like we had to work really hard for everything.
“They contest hard, they’ve got guys like Dusautoir who are very strong on the ball as well, and we just have to be so precise with our own drills against them. They’re just a team that make you work very, very hard for everything; they don’t give you anything.”
Only time will tell whether such wounds will prove beneficial.
“I suppose the scars are still relatively fresh in people’s minds, but it’s totally different. There are different players this year and we’ve different players this year as well, and personally I feel like I’ve something to prove and there’s other lads in the same situation. But it’s hard to imagine how that’s going to pan out.
“And then some of those guys travelled here with France so they’ve memories of coming here to the Aviva and winning already. So we can’t just rely on the fact we’re turning up at home here.”
Schmidt has similar selections issues to those he faced for the quarter-final, the most vexed of these perhaps being in the backrow now the fit-again Shane Jennings has a couple of games under his belt, as well as the usual tight calls at scrumhalf and left wing.
But Jennings is possibly still not quite at optimum level, while Kevin McLaughlin was excellent against Leicester, and once again Schmidt and Jonno Gibbes will be mindful of the additional lineout threat posed by Jean Bouilhou, an exceptional athlete in the air. Bringing on Jennings when the game loosens up also makes sense.
It will be a surprise if Schmidt doesn’t again go with Eoin Reddan’s snappy service at scrum-half, not least as Jonathan Sexton usually plays well outside him, while there were signs in his try-scoring effort against Ulster that Luke Fitzgerald has regained some confidence.
All in all then, once more unto the breach then for the starting team that took that quarter-final to Leicester.
LEINSTER (probable): I Nacewa; S Horgan, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy, L Fitzgerald; J Sexton, E Reddan; C Healy, R Strauss, M Ross; L Cullen (capt), N Hines; K McLaughlin, S O’Brien, J Heaslip.
