Ireland great singles out ‘heavy lifting’ that will decide Leinster semi-final and highlights ‘man-mountain’ Munster player thriving in a ‘lost art’
Three players who know about heavy lifting - Leinster's Joe McCarthy and James Ryan as well as, inset, Munster's Edwin Edogbo (INPHO/Ben Brady and Billy Stickland)
Former Ireland midfielder Gordon D’Arcy has identified the area that will decide whether Leinster reach their fourth Investec Champions Cup final in five seasons or lose out at the semi-final stage for the second season in a row.
Leo Cullen’s side are favourites to win their way through to May’s final in Bilbao when they host Toulon this Saturday in Dublin.
However, having frustratedly watched his old team get ambushed last weekend in the United Rugby Championship at Benetton, D’Arcy believes this week’s tight-five reinforcements – namely lock duo Joe McCarthy and James Ryan – must deliver.
It’s a tricky situation for Leinster. They responded to last year’s Champions Cup semi-final elimination at home to Northampton by winning the URC title, but their form heading into the latter weeks of this season hasn’t been as impressive.
‘Home advantage, it matters, it really does…’
Sizing up the Aviva Stadium fixture, D’Arcy was adamant on The Counter Ruck, the rugby podcast on The Irish Times, that a fast start would be needed if Leinster are to make home advantage count. “Home advantage, it matters, it really does,” he said. “Toulon have got travelling. Are they going to have to come up on a Thursday or Friday? What do they do overnight into it?
“Leinster have to make that advantage count, and that is pressure on the field, got to get points on the board and that will come from the defensive intensity. They can’t get drawn into an arm wrestle with Toulon; they have got to come out of the blocks fast.
“They also need key players back. They need Joe McCarthy back; they need James Ryan. These are why you want the big guys, the big names for these matches.
“If it’s not Tadhg Furlong, (Thomas) Clarkson has to put in a serious shift. Leinster have the potential to look a little bit light in the tight five and that is a worry against a very big Toulon pack. They need a little bit of fortune to go their way this week.
“When Joe McCarthy and James Ryan hit rucks, they move. Now they both have track records of maybe getting their timing a little bit wrong, but the intent is right and that’s the type of physicality they need this week.
“Whether you like it or not, the tight five predominantly end up doing the heavy lifting in that regard and if they are doing their job, that is when your back row starts to feature a little bit more prominently in the wider channels because your tight five is doing their job.
“That’s what the job remit is, that is what the job spec is, you do the hard work so somebody else thrives. For me, that will be the winning and the losing of the game for Leinster.”
Reflecting on last weekend’s surprise 29-26 league loss in Italy, which left Leinster in fourth place with two rounds of fixtures remaining, D’Arcy said: “They should have won the game, they should have closed the game out. The game management in the last 10 minutes was embarrassingly naive, but they should have been able to close that game out, even for a draw, take two points and go okay.
“The last penalty, I would have had words with a few people after that game with the way they gave up that penalty, but it’s gone, it’s done, there’s no point dragging that into this week.
“For Leinster, it’s now a piece for them where they have not been able to navigate that game. Over the last four, five years, they would have been able to manage that game and get a result, but they weren’t able to do it this time. That is a big criticism, and how they perform this week will contextualise that loss against Benetton.”
Leinster have played Toulon once before in a Champions Cup semi-final and the memory of 2015 is a sore point for D’Arcy as a pass from Ian Madigan that was intended for him was intercepted by Bryan Habana for the decisive extra-time score in Marseille.
“All he had to do was just pass to the next man, me. We were going around the corner, Ian attacked the line and I didn’t, so he was doing one thing and I was doing another and he just passed into the space into Mr Habana’s hands,” he recalled.
Sticking with last weekend’s URC action involving the Irish clubs, D’Arcy paid tribute to the impact made by Munster’s Edwin Edogbo from the bench in their 41-14 win over Ulster. An injury to Jean Kleyn allowed the one-cap Ireland lock an early entry to the fray and he didn’t disappoint in making a lasting impression.
“Edwin Edogbo was a man-mountain at ruck time and the clearest thing to me, the difference why Munster pulled away was when he hit rucks, the ball was just available instantly. Over the gain line, he was just incredible,” enthused D’Arcy.
“When he hit mauls, I’d liken it almost to the French clear-out. He was just incredible. To me, that was the biggest catalyst for Munster, their change. When he got involved, when he hit rucks, when he carried, he was wow, that’s a player you can build an awful lot of good things off.
“Rucking is a lost art. He is probably 125, 130 kilos and is incredibly dynamic with a good eye and a good sense of where to hit and how to hit a ruck.
“When you look at real South African locks like Bakkies Botha and Eben Etzebeth and things like that, when they just target a ruck they make it move. That gets the ball back, but it also ties in players because they have turned a ruck in their favour.
“So yeah, he is a very exciting player even from that attribute alone being able to do that, you have got backs who are maybe getting stopped on the gain line, when you have someone like that who can come in and target your own player to drive them over the gain line, that’s huge, but it also ties in probably two defenders from the opposition so you are getting a Brucie bonus.”
