News that Jimmy O’Brien will be unavailable “for a number of months” due to a neck injury is a huge, ill-timed blow for the player himself given his likely involvement in the Irish matchday squad from the outset of the Six Nations. It’s also a setback for Leinster, although O’Brien’s misfortune is offset by the anticipated return of James Lowe for their upcoming Champions Cup games against Stade Francais at the Aviva Stadium next Saturday (kick-off 5.30pm) and away to Leicester a week later.
“James trained both sessions last week and he was in the mix today so he is training,” said defence coach Jacques Nienaber after the squad’s Monday training session in UCD of a player who has yet to appear for Leinster this season after being sidelined since the World Cup.
“They are layering in his involvements and making sure that the volumes and metrics they look after are not overexposing him because he comes from a low base having not played since the World Cup. As soon as we get the clear from them that they are happy I am sure he will be available for selection,” said Nienaber, who added that Tadhg Furlong was also close to a return.
The return of their Irish and Lions tighthead is also timely given the set-piece threat identified by Nienaber of a Stade Francais side that sits third in the Top 14.
“They are a big side; they have a very good scrum and a very good lineout maul so we have to be smart again from a defensive viewpoint with that.
“Like the French, you sometimes look at them and say they are big and heavy and they won’t speed it up. Yet I have seen quick goal-line restarts over the last few weeks. They will have a quick restart, a quick throw-in, so they will speed the game up and they flourish with good, lightning-quick ruck ball.
“They get those big ball carriers going and then it gets exponentially harder to get control of the game so they will speed it up. If they don’t get quick ball then their game management is good between nine and 10, and even 15.
[ Caelan Doris takes the Leinster captain’s role in his strideOpens in new window ]
“They are not afraid to apply pressure with their kicking and they have a good contestable kicking game that will be a challenge. Stopping momentum will be important, and being good at our set-piece, as always in rugby.”
Leinster come into this game off the back of a home defeat by Ulster in which Billy Burns’s inventive and skillful kicking game exposed chinks in Leinster’s new defensive system under Nienaber. There were always going to be chinks and the two-time World Cup-winning coach praised Leinster’s coaches and players for their willingness to adopt a new system without the benefit of a pre-season, not least as “there wasn’t a lot wrong” previously with their defence.
“That’s a challenge for the group but they were mad keen to start and hats off to them for being so adventurous. For me it’s a nice learning and I think it’s exciting,” said the South African.
“Everything is different,” he stressed, emphasising the scale of Leinster’s undertaking. “If you think a drift defence and big line speed defence, it’s the polar opposite. They have to rewire their brains and it will take time but they’re grasping it.
Patience will also be a virtue.
“It will be 14 weeks, it took 14 weeks with Munster, it took 14 games with the ‘Boks when we took over in 2018. In 2018 we won 50 per cent of our Test matches and the majority we lost because of our defence. But in 2019 we only lost one so it takes time and, unfortunately, the players will have to pay their school fees and will have to learn.”
The only metrics by which he measures the success or otherwise of a defence are “points and tries conceded”, adding: “It’s all that counts. Simple as that. You can have 100 per cent tackle completion and you can be 28-0 down with four maul tries. You won’t miss a tackle but you’re 28-0 down.
“That’s probably my thought process. If you go, ‘Yes, our defence was good guys, we got 100 per cent tackle completion, we didn’t miss one tackle’, but we were so narrow that it was literally a seven-on-two overlap and they just pass, pass, pass. You don’t miss a tackle but they score four tries like that.
“In the three tries we conceded against Ulster, the second one there was no missed tackle, they just ran it in. Is that good or bad? They scored, that’s bad. It’s not good. So, points conceded is the main thing.”
Nienaber is evidently enjoying life with his new province, laughing when noting: “There’s nobody that can say ‘F off’ like the Irish.” He can also reach key destinations such as the RDS, UCD, Dún Laoghaire, Blackrock and Dundrum without his GPS, and has the option of the 11 bus into town.
While only an occasional drinker, he has three “locals”. “The Dropping Well, Ashton’s and Farmer Browns. I’m not picky, they’ve all got good pints.”
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