{"id":106523,"date":"2025-10-07T09:38:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T09:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/106523\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T09:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T09:38:11","slug":"leinster-look-to-returning-lions-to-finally-get-them-purring-against-sharks-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/106523\/","title":{"rendered":"Leinster look to returning Lions to finally get them purring against Sharks \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

There has been a lot of head-scratching in the Leinster<\/a> camp following their first two games in this year\u2019s United Rugby Championship<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Both games took place in South Africa and one thing they are sure of is that game two<\/a> was better than game one<\/a>. Following in that pattern, game three this weekend must be better again. It comes against another South African team in Sharks, but this time Leinster are at home.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a curious kind of pressure Leinster find themselves under with an imperative to get it right at the third time of asking. However, with some of the Lions<\/a> players returning for their first appearances since the successful summer tour to Australia, it feels much too soon to categorise the two defeats as a crisis. <\/p>\n

The suggestion of a crisis in October draws a laugh from former Ireland<\/a> flanker and current Leinster coach Se\u00e1n O\u2019Brien<\/a>. But one point and 15th in the table \u2013 a place above bottom placed Scarlets \u2013 is not a great look for last season\u2019s champions.<\/p>\n

Nor will Leinster gain any comfort from glancing at last year\u2019s table. After 18 games, they had as many defeats as they do already this term.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a lot better place based on the evidence of the second game,\u201d said O\u2019Brien. \u201cOn the whole, we played 50-60 per cent better than the first game in terms of the physical elements of the game \u2013 the breakdown, carrying and all the stuff that we didn\u2019t do the first day over there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was probably the most disappointing aspect of the game. We just didn\u2019t fire shots in the first game for whatever reason. But we did against the Bulls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe handed them two soft tries. They didn\u2019t have to work at all for them; one they scored from their own five-metre line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Leinster'sLeinster’s Sam Prendergast (left) with coach Se\u00e1n O’Brien during a training session last month. Photograph: Nick Elliott\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Leinster played only one preseason friendly, leading to the suggestion they might have been under-cooked in terms of physicality and alertness.<\/p>\n

The prerequisite for any visit to South Africa, as O\u2019Brien knows very well, is to first match them physically and then work out how to win the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably something we will look at going forward now again,\u201d he says about having just one preseason competitive match. \u201cBut you would have thought the way we trained would have given you enough to have only one game under your belt.<\/p>\n

\"\"Provincial rivals get a head start on Leinster<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe they were under-cooked. Maybe we didn\u2019t do enough contact. Maybe another game was needed. We can\u2019t change it now obviously, but there are certainly learnings from a set-up point of view. And especially with a younger group. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know there were a few older lads last weekend, but it\u2019s still a young group. And when you go away to South Africa, the one thing you have to be is physical. That\u2019s the piece that was missing in the first game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The game against Sharks will be quickly followed by facing Munster in Croke Park on Saturday, October 18th. Nor will the international players in the group have much game time before they turn their attention to the Autumn Series. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was uncharacteristic,\u201d says O\u2019Brien of the displays in South Africa. \u201cI\u2019ve never looked back at a game and been so frustrated even though I wasn\u2019t there. But you\u2019re kind of looking going \u2018Jesus\u2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re asking yourself as a coach, \u2018did we make them understand enough of what is to be expected of them over there?\u2019. But there is frustration all round. Anyway, we move on very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Leinster'sLeinster’s Alex Soroka is tackled by Harold Vorster of the Bulls during last Saturday’s URC clash in Pretoria, South Africa. Photograph: Steve Haag Sports\/Christiaan Kotze\/Inpho<\/p>\n

Even that may not be as straightforward as rostering in some heavy hitters for the visit of Sharks. The third-placed team in last year\u2019s league phase have had their own stuttering start to the season.<\/p>\n

A 35-19 defeat in Glasgow and a 17-17 draw with Scarlets makes for an almost equally slow beginning to their campaign. Home advantage will certainly count for Leinster, but there will be an edge of desperation to the Sharks\u2019 bite.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve another bite of the cherry this week against a side who will be disappointed with their tour also,\u201d says O\u2019Brien. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, they\u2019ll be champing at the bit. [Sharks coach] John Plumtree knows us very well and they will see it as an opportunity to go after us. They will double down on physicality.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have to focus on ourselves this week and make sure we have done all we can and cover all the bases. It\u2019s the first home game as well, so that has to mean something. Having the lads back will help with their experience and they are hungry for games as well. I\u2019ve been there myself \u2013 you\u2019ve gone on those tours and you\u2019ve nearly had enough time off. You want to get into that flow again.\u201d<\/p>\n

One additional body to add to the returning healthy players is Jamie Osborne, who has resumed training<\/a> after recovering from a hamstring issue and will be available for selection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There has been a lot of head-scratching in the Leinster camp following their first two games in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,19,17,12861,53475,132,42271],"class_list":{"0":"post-106523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-leinster-rugby","12":"tag-leo-cullen","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-rugby-championship"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}