Dec 15,2024
If the layperson thought that discipline would be the main crease for Leinster to iron out after last week's win away to Bristol Bears, there hasn’t been a knee-jerk reaction within the walls of Leinster’s HQ.
The province got on the wrong side of referee Pierre Brousset at Ashton Gate last week, conceding 17 penalties – more than double that of the Bears – while they also picked up three of the four yellow cards handed out by the Frenchman.
With discipline being a hot button issue for Ireland during the Autumn Nations Series, and that Irish team being so heavily populated by Leinster players, there is a body of evidence across the last five weeks to point to that the number of penalties and cards being a concern.
"I wouldn't say it [discipline] is a huge thing for us because obviously there's some issues with the scrum and the referee has his own interpretation of stuff, so I'm not overthinking it either when it comes to discipline," Leinster's James Ryan said, ahead of this evening’s Pool 2 meeting with Clermont Auvergne at Aviva Stadium.
"I think maybe just starting with a bit more cohesion that probably is the big one."
Even allowing for interpretation at the scrum, where they lost four of their 12 put-ins to penalties or free-kicks, the province were treading on thin ice before giving up two yellow cards for Rónan Kelleher and Max Deegan on 27 and 29 minutes, which Bristol quickly took advantage of, as Max Lahiff scored their opening try.
The reason Ryan and Leinster aren’t panicking over their penalty and card count is largely down to how they responded to going down to 13 men.
While they did concede straight after the second yellow to Deegan, Leo Cullen’s side instantly moved up several gears with Jordan Larmour scoring a try, while they dominated proceedings until being restored to 15 players at half time.
"That's probably when we kind of came alive a little bit when we went down to 13 men," the second row added.
"We kind of trained with 13 men a lot last week to sort of put our defence under as much pressure as we could in anticipation of the weekend.
"We'd often do that just to put ourselves under a bit more pressure are see if we can defend with 13, then hopefully we can do a pretty good job at 14 or 15, so it's something that we do a little bit."
In spite of the penalty count, the province can boast a 100% record from their eight wins in all competitions this season, with their defence operating at an elite level now that they have had more time to work with senior coach Jacques Nienaber (below), who has been in place at the province for 12 months.
In the URC, they’re giving up an average of just 13 points per match, while they limited Bristol to just 12 points last weekend, when Pat Lam’s side had been averaging 36 points a game in the Premiership.
Ryan has been key to those defensive efforts, making 12 tackles last weekend with only Jack Conan and Josh van der Flier logging more, while he was also high on the tackle count across Ireland’s Autumn Nations Series campaign.
"I feel good. I feel pretty fit and no injuries, thank God, so I’m enjoying my rugby.
"Obviously as a front-five forward, defence is a huge part of our game, so I love learning under Jacques and trying to drive on some of the things that he talks about.
"And obviously with Simon Easterby it’s the same with him at Ireland have a great relationship with him. Defence is a part of my game that I'm always trying to improve and always trying to get better at, I'm pretty happy with that at the moment.
"Defensively, it was going to be a big one for us, and to keep them to two tries, we're fairly happy," he added.
This afternoon’s clash with Clermont Auverge presents an interesting reunion for the sides. The French side start Michael Ala’alatoa at tighthead prop, who moved from Leinster in the summer, with veteran Rabah Slimani – who is named on the Leinster bench, moving the other direction.
"He's very powerful to be behind in the scrums. He's not small, but he's very stocky in a general kind of way. It's sort of the ideal build for a tighthead in terms of getting under props," Ryan says of Slimani.
"He loves a scrum, definitely, I would say more than any other part of the game, and obviously he spent years with Clermont, so hopefully he's a bit of inside knowledge there, but I would say obviously they have a bit of inside knowledge too, with big Mike Ala’alatoa being one of their players so it pretty goes both ways.
"I think they [Clermont] will be much different to Bristol. I think they'll be more pragmatic in terms of when they play.
"They'll go to the air and won't be afraid to kick long or kick off [the pitch] and try to put us under pressure.
"So, a bit of a different challenge, but we're very excited for it to be back at home."
