Leinster’s cross-hemisphere relationship with the all-conquering Crusaders has already been beneficial in a number of ways and it also led to the former All Blacks captain Kieran Read paying them an informative visit over the weekend.
During the worst days of Covid, Leinster and the Crusaders put forth a 23-man match-day squad for the other to analyse.
Michael Ala’alatoa has since joined Leinster, as has backs coach Andrew Goodman, while Stuart Lancaster has built up a relationship with Read.
“He was in the UK last week so he came over for the game on Saturday and was around for the weekend,” confirmed Leo Cullen yesterday. “He met a few of the lads for lunch yesterday and I would have met him last night for a bite to eat and he was in first thing this morning. He’s been around all day.
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“He’s been great, very good, just in terms of mindset, he’s one of the iconic figures of the game, really.”
Read addressed the squad collectively and spoke with players individually.
“He was very good in terms of his sharing of his different experiences, particularly because we’ve got a young group this week. It was great to have him in.
“He has plenty of different connections there, he would know Andrew Goodman and Mike Ala’alatoa, even Jason Jenkins, they played for Toyota Verblitz together.”
[ Tadhg Furlong to be assessed ahead of Ireland’s game against South AfricaOpens in new window ]
For the Leinster backrowers, having the former All Blacks’ centurion around was a gilt-edged opportunity to bend the great man’s ear, an opportunity gladly taken by Max Deegan.
“Yeah, course I did. I was the one asking him questions, asking him about being a world-class number ‘8′ and how did he get to that point. I call him the best number ‘8′ in the world for almost 10 years.
So, what did he do, what kind of small things did he do outside of training, the extras that he would have done?
“I thought he was unbelievably skilful. He could do things that other number ‘8s’ couldn’t, and I was just asking him about how he fine-tuned his game and go from that level a lot of other people were at, to being world class.”
As a number “8″ himself who looked to impose his game with skill and athleticism more than physique and power, and as a budding player coming through St Michael’s, Deegan admired Read more than others in the same position.
“I think especially back then a lot of number ‘8s’ were unbelievably physical, like [Pierre] Spies, whereas a number ‘8′ I liked was Kieran Read, or even [Taulupe] Faletau, where they’re very skilful, their catch-pass is really good, good offload, good feet, and then obviously great ball-carriers.
“That’s kind of something I would look at in my game. The ability to catch-pass at the line, make good decisions, be a smarter rugby player than the opposition. I might not be as physical as some number ‘8s’, say over in South Africa, but being a smarter one, being able to work smarter, pick my moments, things like that.
One particular revelation stood out, namely when Deegan asked Read about controlling the ball at the base of scrums.
“He would have done little bits blindfolded. In the scrum you can’t always necessarily see everything, so he’d be able to feel where the ball is, to get in the right positions for the scrumhalf.”
Deegan quipped that not only might he emulate this in training, but he might do so in a match too.
In his younger days Read would often play in the outside channels, but contributing to his longevity he gradually moved more and more into the middle third of the pitch.
“Exactly. And that’s what I’m trying to do personally. I kind of found myself on the edges a bit too much and I’m trying to get ‘in’ more. More workload, more carries, more involvements, more impacts. That’s something I’m looking to do at the moment.”
The leadership of players like Deegan and Ala’alatoa will be particularly important in Friday’s final URC game before the November break away to the Scarlets. In addition to the 17 Leinster players in the Irish squad, Jamie Osborne has been ruled out as he is observing the Return to Play protocols, so joining eight other players on their casualty list.
Against that, Rhys Ruddock will train this week following his return from the Graduated Return to Play Protocols, and the same is true of Ryan Baird, who is with the Irish squad. Some academy players are evidently in line for their debuts.
“We’ve been in this place before,” said Cullen, who admitted: “These are the weeks I nearly enjoy the most. Quite often you have young guys coming in to make their debuts and you want to set them up to go well. It’s great.
“You’ve got the sense of excitement, everyone who has been through the process can remember their first game, their first cap for all the teams they played with. You want to make those days special for the guys that come in and we’ll have a few guys in for their debuts.
A Leinster statement said that Tadhg Furlong, Josh van der Flier, Jamison Gibson-Park and Hugo Keenan were all being assessed this week by the IRFU’s medical team, with the latter trio to “step up their rehabilitation this week.”
Furlong “should be fine” according to Cullen, who added of the other three: “It’s case by case but they are all very close. Whether they make it or not I don’t know.”
