PREPARE. BELIEVE. DELIVER. (Part II)
What a way to cap off a Grand Slam weekend by the four proud provinces of Ireland! But I’ll let bloggers from outside the Pale rave about their own results if you don’t mind…
Hmmm…Leinster win a crucial Heineken Cup contest in convincing fashion with an out-half who didn’t exactly have the fans’ full confidence. Don’t know about you, but I’m getting déjà vu from Croker in May!
That’s not the only reason I’m using the same heading for this post as I did for that momentus semifinal. For yet again we were treated to a performance which was clearly the culmination of a long process of preparation for which the bulk of the credit must go to head coach Michael Cheika.
After the Autumn International series everyone was ‘Sexton this’, ‘Sexton that’ and rightly so. He showed us what he could do in the green jersey against the world’s best, and it was awesome.
But then came the injury. Not too serious for Ireland’s sake, but at the time we Leinster fans were crestfallen because we thought we had no backup for our Heineken Cup double header with Kthlnethli.
Was there justification for our doubt? Sure there was. Shaun Berne had hardly set the world alight in either the Magners League OR the B&I Cup this season, so it seemed we had a gaping hole at a pivotal position.
What did Cheika do? First, he used the new “Top 4” system in the Magners League and sent a team of babies over to Newport. They got hockeyed, but his key players remained fit and we’re still well in contention when that competition reaches its business end.
Then it came time to announce the squad. We were all : “Who’s gonna be outhalf? Nacewa or Berne?” Debate was rife amongst the Babbling Brook forum, with the consensus seeming to be that while Isa would be better at the position, since he wasn’t much of a place kicker AND he was needed in the back three, we'd have to settle for Shaun.
Coach Cheika agreed with the choice of Number 10, but in his press conference, he not only spelled out different reasons, he made it clear to everyone…
The first person that I would have told that we were having a look (at Matt Giteau) was Shaun. He, like us, understands that the more quality players we have available the better chance we have of winning any game. So it's not just a matter of this week, there are other weeks to go after this. So if we take another injury in the backline - we're missing Luke Fitzgerald and Jonathan Sexton - you're starting to lose a good chunk in the backline. It's about having the playing resources for the big games, not for the development games when you try different things. These are games that we have to win.
So instead of letting the debate rage on before the makeup of the XV was formalized as would normally happen, he dealt with the Giteau thing AND publicly gave his replacement out-half his full backing.
From the kickoff at the Parc y Scarlets, the boys in blue showed that their gaffer’s confidence was more than justified. From Cian Healy at 1 to Rob Kearney at 15, the team produced a display that showed that even with no Sexton, no Jennings, no Fitzgerald (and of course no Elsom), we’re very much a force to be reckoned with in this tournament again.
And Berne himself was in my book every bit as impressive as Ronan O’Gara had been the night before.
What’s that? You don’t want read my descriptions of our four tries, you’d rather see them again yourself? No problem…just check these clips > Shaggy, Darce, Berne, SOB.
All clear evidence that the preparation had been spot-on, so full credit to the coaching staff. It’s clear the Aussie has this whole European rugby calendar with its long layoffs down to a T.
Not that this result means we’re a cert for the quarterfinals, by a long chalk. Having done the sums, I see that even if we get a maximum ten-point haul from our next two home matches in this Pool, chances are we’ll still be required to get a result at the Madjeski Stadium to finish top.
At least we know we’ve the right man at the helm to get us ready for the challenge.
