Two tries on Sunday against Treviso brought Darragh Fanning’s tally for the season up to five. No one has scored more tries for Leinster so far this season, but Fanning says he would trade his two on Sunday if it meant Leinster left Stadio Monigo with a win.
“It’s always nice to get on the score sheet,” Fanning said speaking to the media in Leinster HQ this week,”it was probably a total of two yards for both of them. You’d obviously take the win over tries any day of the week. It’s not about me scoring, it’s about the team winning.”
Sunday’s draw in Treviso was “very disappointing”, but focus now shifts to this Saturday’s Guinness PRO12 match against Ospreys in the RDS Arena. This will be Leinster’s first home game since the Halloween night win against Edinburgh and it will be the final league match before the back-to-back Champions Cup games against Harlequins.
“I think Ospreys is the perfect way for us to kick-off a massive two weeks in the European Cup. They’ve gone unbelievably well this year – as well as they have done in the last number of years. But particularly this year they’ve only lost one game in the Champions Cup to Northampton and then obviously at the weekend they lost to a good Ulster side who are going very well at the top of table as well. It’s going to be a huge test for us. It’s a good chance for guys who are knocking on the door to put their hand up for those two weeks (in the Champions Cup).”
Fanning says that after the draw with Treviso the players are raring to go to put things right, but that even with the short turnaround from Sunday to Saturday the opportunity can’t come soon enough for some.
“We can’t really sit around and feel sorry for ourselves, and that’s probably a good thing. Noel Reid said it there earlier that he wishes he could play the game tonight because lads want to get out there and make up for last weekend. A lot of lads were very disappointed but we can’t sit around feeling sorry for ourselves – we’ve got to pick it up. Ospreys are top of the league for a reason. They’re a good side, a lot of good players. Obviously (former Leinster strength and conditioning coach) Jonny Claxton was involved here last year so he’ll do a good job with them on fitness. We know they’re going to be here for an 80 minute battle. We’ve just got to go out and try and have a good training week – it’s going to be short and sharp – and bring it in to the weekend.”
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