Matt O'Connor could have been forgiven a wry smile last Saturday night. Whereas Ulster and Munster had conceded 93 points between them in exiting the European Champions Cup, Leinster had run up 50 points in moving to the top of their group and earning a winner-takes-all shot at qualification for the last eight today, and with it a home quarter-final.
Not that he would have taken any pleasure from the acute disappointment of Anthony Foley and Neil Doak. Nonetheless, and somewhat ironically, for a head coach who presided over a league title-winning campaign in his first season after finishing top of the table, and is now one game away from a home quarter-final in the European Champions Cup, O'Connor has attracted altogether more flak from pundits and supporters alike.
He’s not oblivious to it. He’s heard some of it. “It’s a little bit short-sighted, would be the only way to describe it, in the sense that some of the parameters and some of the expectations are a little bit unrealistic, and understanding the dynamics that apply in professional sport, then I think people over time will appreciate that so many facets go into Leinster rugby.
Backroom staff
“So many facets go into the environment and the culture, and the retention and the development [of players] and all those things are really, really important, and there is a transition there in relation to what we have gone through in the backroom staff, in what we’ve gone through in senior player retirements, and in an ageing playing group. So from that end, there’s a lot of things that are involved in what we do every day.”
Some of the criticism, he accepts, was justified, and indeed he shared them. “The performances at the start of the season, we weren’t happy with, so you can understand a level of discontent there. But at the same time it’s about keeping your head above water and making sure that you are making those improvements, day on day, week on week, and game on game.
“With the bodies we had unavailable, there were challenges with that, and with the blokes out of the environment, which is a constant theme because of the player management system, that’s a strain on the resources.”
Through departures, retirements and injuries, only three of the starting XV that sealed Leinster’s third Heineken Cup in five seasons with their 42-14 win over Ulster in the 2012 final were available for the opening skirmishes in the group stages against Wasps and Castres.
With all that in mind, O’Connor takes particular umbrage over individual players being singled out, which is his cue for the broader issue about Leinster’s playing style.
“The personal attack on players in the environment is unnecessary. In any given context, they are unjustified. What they say about the coaching staff, they’re entitled to their opinion, but you need a level of realism in relation to what the team is trying to do and what the dynamics at play are, and I think talking about playing style and how you approach the game, season on season, is very different because the group is different, the opposition are different and the philosophical debate of the brand that you play is largely irrelevant.
Under pressure
“Everybody, and certainly me and our coaching staff and our players, wants to play attacking rugby. We want to play ball in hand, we want to score tries, we want to put the opposition under pressure. That’s the reality of it, and we spend the vast majority of our time trying to do that.
“Now sometimes that doesn’t happen, for a number of reasons. But it doesn’t change our intent, it doesn’t change the fact that we have to get a result, and the result is the important thing. The coaches and the players and the fans, deep down, want to win. There is no second prize. Playing fantastic rugby and not winning is unsatisfactory.”
Such sentiments will invariably annoy some Leinster fans but then again, to prove O’Connor’s point, there weren’t too many complaints, for example, about the backs-to-the-wall way Leinster ground out that epic 6-5 win away to Harlequins in the ‘Bloodgate’ quarter-final of 2009, which was as significant in transforming Leinster as the 36-6 win over Munster three weeks later.
He likes to see his team play with “instinct and intent the whole time. That’s my background. I was involved in the Brumbies in the initial stages and they were probably the world leaders in the professional era of attacking rugby. That’s my philosophy, but sometimes you’ve got to come up with another way to skin a cat. That’s the reality of it.”
O’Connor accepts that the best example of both a winning and entertaining performance was in the 34-12 Pro12 final win over Glasgow on that sun-kissed day at the RDS last May, despite the early loss of Brian O’Driscoll in his farewell game.
“The pleasing thing about that, and this was no different at Leicester, is that post-Six Nations, the players are yours, and you can mould them, and you can build on the playing style week on week knowing that there is going to be no interference in that block between post-Six Nations and the final. And that’s when you can really ramp up everything that you want to do, and thankfully the final was a combination of that.”
Being 12 months in the job gives him greater familiarity with his players, although a raft of long-term injuries haven't helped. No area has been immune. Leinster have been without their two primary ball carriers in Cian Healy (for all but three league games in September) and Seán O'Brien, with injuries in the front-row compromising their set-piece.
Their cutting edge has also been dulled with injuries out wide, while the midfield has been so unsettled that they have used 10 different combinations there.
In any event, one ventures that the other provinces would gladly swap places with a set-up that has retained Jamie Heaslip, Healy, O'Brien, Rob Kearney, while bringing home Johnny Sexton and having a vibrant developmental system.
Of the 13 players given Ireland debuts by Joe Schmidt, six have been Leinster players under O'Connor's watch, namely Jack McGrath, Dave Kearney, Marty Moore, Jordi Murphy, Noel Reid and Dominic Ryan, thereby ensuring Leinster remained bulk suppliers to a winning Six Nations campaign last year.
Leadership figures
It has to be said others have progressed too, such as Seán Cronin, Luke McGrath, Darragh Fanning, Michael Bent,
Jack Conan
and Tadhg Furlong. All this at a time when Leinster have lost a chunk of leadership figures, including O’Driscoll, Sexton, Isa Nacewa and
Leo Cullen
.
There have undoubtedly been times when Leinster have been relatively dull to watch, yet they are only one win worse off than at this point last season and are currently the Pro12’s leading try scorers, with 34 in 13 games, and have the most try-scoring bonus points (five).
O’Connor admits that the ever-increasing spending power of the French and English clubs provides a bigger threat to the Irish provinces, not least in player recruitment.
“You’ve got to box smart in that regard, and that’s where a Ben Te’o and a Kane Douglas and a Zane Kirchner come in– if they fit culturally and they provide what you need in a playing sense.”
Leinster have been decidedly unlucky in that Te’o has been restricted to just 87 minutes this season, but there were glimpses against Cardiff that they may have signed something of a gamebreaker. “Something that we haven’t had,” says O’Connor.
“A bloke who’s 108 kilos in that 13 slot, very imposing with the ball, nasty defender. It gives us something and what we haven’t seen so far on the field because of injury. We have seen in the environment, he’s a winner, and he drives the environment very hard and fits in very well, which is very important in what we need out of those foreign guys.”
It is both a strength and a weakness of Irish rugby that the Heineken/European Champions Cup lords matters over the domestic league, to the detriment of the latter; in sharp contrast to the English and French club game.
Yet, in the heel of the hunt, Leinster had a good first season under O’Connor, all the more so when one factors in the departures of Sexton and Nacewa. There was no shame in losing away to a Toulon side that went on to emulate Leicester and Leinster in retaining its European crown, whatever about the tame manner of their 29-14 quarter-final defeat.
Leinster had won five of six games in a tough pool – which was an improvement on the previous season – before regrouping to win the Pro12 with their best performance of the season in beating Glasgow in the final.
It’s also worth noting that winning the league contributed to Leinster having a more favourable draw than their Irish counterparts.
Yet the apparent lack of ambition shown in that defeat to Toulon has been a significant stick with which to beat O’Connor – namely that he is too conservative a strategist for big games. “From the perspective of an innocent bystander, you could certainly take that approach but we went into the game with huge intent.
Stick it up our shirts
“Basic errors in the first half hurt us in relation to taking those opportunities. Jono [Gibbes] and I had a conversation about it this week, and we probably weren’t conservative early in the game in that we should have driven more lineouts and we should have managed the emotional bits that they were going to deliver early in the game. And then the 10 points after half-time were the difference. But it certainly wasn’t a lack of ambition in the gameplan. We certainly didn’t go there to stick it up our shirts. That was never going to get a result.”
Can Leinster beat the likes of Toulon or Clermont? “I think we would be pretty confident in Dublin. In Dublin I think we would back ourselves as an even-money chance to beat anyone.”
Last week marked a notable improvement in Leinster’s skill-set and execution – witness the rarity of a first-phase try. Heretofore though, a major criticism has been the deteriorating handling, notably of the backs, for which O’Connor would have to be most culpable, even though, whether through departures, injuries or retirements, Leinster haven’t been able to call on their Heineken Cup-winning backline.
“I think that’s fair, but I think the dynamics around it are probably the lack of combinations and the lack of consistency in having those blokes in the environment because they’re away with Ireland a lot and because they’ve been injured. Now we wouldn’t be happy with where our skill levels are at, but it’s about continually working on those and make sure they’re better.”
The interview is conducted in his local, Gleesons on Booterstown Avenue, run by the cousins of former Leinster and Irish flanker Keith Gleeson, on Wednesday afternoon. The brickbats haven't tarnished his time here.
“It’s a great spot. We really enjoy it. My wife Jo and the kids [Sara (17), Harry (13), and Ryan (11)] have settled brilliantly, and we thoroughly enjoy Dublin and everything it has to offer, and the Irish people. It’s a fantastic place to be. All the facilities that Dublin has to offer is perfect for where we are as a family and we’re really enjoying the whole experience.”
Sara is in St Andrew’s, across the road from Gleesons, and Harry is in first year at Blackrock, just behind Gleesons, where O’Connor is about to go to watch him play for the under-13s. He’s an inside centre, like his dad. Compared to the animated figure who lets rip when Leinster are playing, O’Connor screams “internally” watching the Blackrock under-13s, adding: “I don’t have a glass cage.”
His family gladly swapped Australia for Leicester and there for Dublin, and his career comes with a fair degree of insecurity as well.
“It’s better than working,” he quips. “You get tremendous enjoyment out of the lads performing at their potential, and seeing young guys play in a European Cup game for the first time or score their first try or represent their country. Those things you can’t replace.
“Thankfully I’ve had a very supportive family who have been up for the excitement and the ups and downs of moving around the world. But we’re certainly a tighter family unit because of it and the experiences that we’ve had. You couldn’t replace those in relation to how well rounded the kids are and the experience they’ve had to deal with in their short time is only going to make them better people moving forward.”
All-consuming
The job is, he admits, “fairly all-consuming, and so any down-time you do have you want to spend with Jo and the kids, and get away from it, because that’s important as well. The down-time is also important to sharpen the focus for the next challenge.”
O’Connor is in the second year of a three-year contract and ideally would like to stay longer.
“I would like to be here for several more seasons to come. I think the environment is a brilliant one. The opportunity to be at the very top level of the game still exists, and with the squad that we’ll have next year I think we’ll certainly be in the mix to win things again, and that’s what you want to do as a coach.”
That sounds almost like passing up on this season’s possibilities. So, specifically, what can Leinster achieve in the current campaign, given so much hinges on today. “It does, and it’s right there and tangible, and in front of us at the moment. If we can get the result and pull out a performance worthy to win at Wasps, then we give ourselves a home quarter-final.”
“Research would indicate that you’ve got to be at home in a quarter-final to win Europe. We lost last year away in a quarter-final to the ultimate winners. I lost the previous year to the same mob away, the ultimate winners, and I think if we can gain ourselves a home quarter-final, we’ve got every chance.”
