Opportunity will come knocking for some of Leinster’s young guns on Saturday when the eastern province welcomes Cardiff to the RDS in the United Rugby Championship.
In addition to the 20-strong contingent in the Ireland squad for the Six Nations, Leinster also have seven players – not including the international-bound Jonathan Sexton and Tadhg Furlong – on the treatment table at the moment. The likes of Rhys Ruddock and Luke McGrath should be around to provide experience, but the team’s assistant coach Robin McBryde is excited to see who can mark themselves out as potential stars of the future this weekend.
“We get the privilege of watching them train against an international team, really, so they’re spending their time during the weeks doing their homework on the opposition. Running players against the starting team, you get proper feedback because they’re training against quality opposition,” McBryde said at Monday’s Leinster media briefing.
“It’s great to see them get the opportunity to do that on a Saturday against live opposition. I was already reminded of the fact that Joe McCarthy played in the same fixture last year and you see how much he developed in a short space of time. They’re very keen. Very hungry for their opportunity.”
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Given last Saturday’s Champions Cup pool stage triumph over Racing 92 extended their winning run in 2022/23 to 16 games, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Leinster players and coaches are content with the way the current season is unfolding.
Yet after ending the last term empty-handed – leaving aside the capture of the inaugural URC Irish Shield – they are aware that the trajectory of their domestic and European campaigns can change in the blink of an eye.
Despite enjoying a comprehensive 49-14 success against Gloucester in the Champions Cup on January 14, Leo Cullen’s charges did concede two penalty tries over the course of that contest in Kingsholm. Their showdown in the Aviva with Racing was also a much tougher encounter than the final scoreline of 36-10 might suggest, and McBryde feels there are still areas Leinster will need to fine tune as their push for silverware gathers pace.
“We’ve got variety in the way we go about things from week to week, but we can’t go too far away from the basics, you know. There are a couple of issues around the scrum the last couple of weeks. Obviously we’ve conceded a couple of driving mauls. I think we’ve defended five on the weekend, conceded one try,” McBryde added.
“When teams get into that area of the field – the best teams – they are very hard to keep out within five or 10 metres of a try line. We’ve got to do our best to stop them getting that field position initially.
“We’ve got to stop giving penalties away, giving that entry into our ‘22′. Obviously we are happy with the situation we find ourselves in, but we’re not kidding ourselves either. There are plenty of things we need to improve on as well.”
