Leinster will have assessed the big breakdown threats and will be working on the most effective and ruthless plan they can get away with in Bilbao.
Following Racing’s semi-final win over Munster, Donnacha Ryan spoke with The Hard Yards from Paris about what turned out to be a devastating game-plan:
“We really tried to bar up and really target the first breakdown. It allowed or forwards to get a fold.
“It’s like any team, I suppose. If you are able to bar up at 12, you can fold around a lot easier. But if it’s a soak tackle, you have to go an extra five yards deeper to get the fold.”
Munster suffered badly as they lost out on so many first contacts and were slowed down massively at ruck time. They could build no momentum and suffered as a consequence.
Repeating that dose against a ferociously well drilled Leinster team will be a whole other matter. Former Leinster flanker Kevin McLaughlin was joined by Mike Prendergast (Oyonnax coach) on The Hard Yards’ Champions Cup preview special and [from 23:00 below] shared some fascinating insights on where the game will be won and lost.
“Racing have big, strong athletes that can win the collision,” Prendergast noted. “And if you can win that first collision – that second or third collision – it can help in defence. In their own half, Racing will try to slow it down as much as possible.”
Referring back to how Leinster blew Scarlets off the park in the Champions Cup semi-final, McLaughlin commented:
“It was almost an advantage for them, having [Scarlets turnover machine] Tadhg Beirne playing in that game… in a warped way.
“They had a guy – I think Jordi Murphy said it in the press after the game – in a blue scrum-cap all week. One of the academy guys had the absolute shit kicked out of him all week. Any time they saw the blue lid, they absolutely smashed him.
“I wonder who the blue lid is going to be this week because it is great to have a focus point like that. And I think the ruck is going to be so important as Leinster’s game depends on it. And what Mike is saying there is that if Racing can slow the ball down and push their line-speed on Leinster, then Leinster will struggle to get over the gainline and do what they’ve got to do.”
One suspects, given how much he inspired Racing to victory over Munster [twice] this season, Leinster will have had another academy, or fringe, player mimicking Donnacha Ryan in training and they will be trying to work out the best way of keeping him quiet.
Other players that proved to be a nuisance for Munster in that semi were Yannick Nyanga, Camille Chat and Wenceslas Lauret. What Leinster have going for them is that they have at least three forwards that invariably win most collisions they commit themselves to – Dan Leavy, Tadhg Furlong and James Ryan.
We may only find out after the game who Leinster consider the ‘blue lid’ threat but you can be as sure as hell that Leo Cullen and Stuart Lancaster have identified him already.
