WHILE HE AND the rest of the set-up are finding it difficult to pinpoint where the performance came from, assistant coach Robin McBryde has held his hand up for the role he played in Leinster’s heavy defeat to the Stormers in Cape Town last Friday.
Despite being without the services of his sizeable British & Irish Lions contingent, head coach Leo Cullen was able to include 11 players in his starting line-up who have been capped at senior international level as Leinster began the defence of their United Rugby Championship crown on South African soil.
Yet even though the Stormers were missing some notable figures themselves, John Dobson’s men recorded four tries on their way to securing a 35-0 bonus point triumph.
Remarkably, this was the first time since 2008 that Leinster failed to register a single score in a league fixture and McBryde acknowledged he offered up an apology for not preparing the eastern province’s pack as well as he could have for the challenge of the Stormers.
“Everybody is scratching their heads as to where Friday night came from, really. We didn’t see that coming. I’ve apologised because obviously I didn’t prepare the forwards well enough and we didn’t provide the platform to launch any sort of attack, really. That’s on me,” McBryde remarked.
DHL Stormers’ Adre Smith and Seabelo Senatla celebrate winning against Leinster. Steve Haag Sports / EJ Langner/INPHO
Steve Haag Sports / EJ Langner/INPHO / EJ Langner/INPHO
“I’m not one for standing still and I like to move things forward and stretch people. Have I done it at the right time with the right group of people? Maybe not. That was a lot to do with it, do you know what I mean?
“The fact that we had very limited ball to play with. It was almost like as if we were fighting with one hand tied behind our backs, really. I can only apologise for that.”
Former Welsh hooker McBryde was speaking on a media call yesterday from Pretoria, where Leinster are currently based in advance of their URC round two clash with the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld Stadium this Saturday.
Although the squad have had to make the journey from Cape Town since their comprehensive opening day loss to the Stormers, McBryde revealed that a number of frank discussions have taken place within the group in an attempt to get their heads around how they fell so short of the mark in their first competitive game of the new term.
“We addressed that yesterday [Sunday], really. We were off on Saturday and the travel was smooth enough to allow us to have a couple of honest and upfront meetings. There has been a good amount of honesty shared amongst the group and the players, they haven’t shied away from it.
“There’s nobody more disappointed than the players and the coaches. The important thing is that we come through the other side pretty quickly and we don’t dwell on it. We’ve had those difficult discussions and we’re moving on now.”
Whereas last Friday’s game is one Leinster will want to forget as quickly as possible, the Irish province will have some happy memories of their last encounter with this weekend’s opponents.
In the URC Grand Final at Croke Park on 14 June of this year, Leinster delivered an accomplished performance on their way to claiming a 32-7 triumph against the Bulls.
Given that game represented their third showpiece defeat in the URC in the space of just four seasons, there is a feeling that the Bulls – who recorded a 53-40 success over Ospreys last weekend – may want to exact revenge on their Irish counterparts this Saturday in Pretoria.
However, while last June’s decider is the most recent meeting of the two sides, there was also a regular season encounter between the Bulls and Leinster at Loftus Versfeld Stadium earlier this year on 22 March. Although they were also without a number of frontline internationals on that occasion, Leinster were on the brink of overcoming the Pretoria side until a David Kriel penalty deep into stoppage-time earned the hosts a dramatic 21-20 victory.
This was regarded at the time as a commendable performance from Leinster and with 14 of those who lined out in that last-gasp defeat also appearing in the Stormers game just four days ago, McBryde believes it is important the players remember what they are capable of producing against the Bulls in an away setting.
“We’ve got to remind the players of that. We haven’t become that bad a team overnight anyway. We’ve just got to make sure that we show that on Saturday. It’s all well and good saying it, but we’ve got to actually show it,” McBryde added.
“To go through the experience that we went through last Friday, for that to count for anything, then we’ve got to come back strong on Saturday and make the most of it.”
