Leinster Rugby’s Guinness PRO14 campaign resumes on Saturday with another interprovincial contest at Aviva Stadium, this time against Ulster Rugby (KO 7.35pm).
Ahead of that game, assistant coach Robin McBryde has pointed out some areas of improvement that the squad have taken from last weekend’s win over Munster.
“Because of the nature of the result, obviously we won so there was nothing to get too down about but it was a little bit mixed, to be honest with you,” McBryde told the media via Microsoft Teams.
“We weren’t happy with the way that we finished off the game. We put ourselves under a little bit of pressure where we could have given ourselves a little bit more breathing space especially that five-metre scrum on Munster’s line.
“From a set-piece point of view, scrum was a positive, the lineout not as much so, didn’t exactly hit the ground running as far as that was concerned but nothing we can’t put right really.”
With a Guinness PRO14 semi-final spot secured, McBryde admits that it leaves the coaches with a selection dilemma ahead of the Ulster clash.
He outlined that the squad are training well which provides the coaches with a welcome headache going into Saturday.
“It’s been made clear to all the players really because there are no other games currently taking place, the one place that they have to make an impression is in training.
“That’s increased the intensity during our sessions, the competitive nature of rugby players getting back to the swing of things. We know how big this next period is coming up and it’s going to take a squad effort to get us through it,” he adds.
“As you can imagine, there are a lot of things to weigh up. There’s one train of thought to make some changes and keep them fresh, there’s another train of thought with regard to give them another run, who is going to benefit from playing again
“We’ve got to also bear in mind what mindset Ulster are going to be in as well. They’ll be a little bit disappointed with the result against Connacht so they’ll want to gain some momentum in their own sails going into the semi-finals.
“We’ve got to be mindful of that as well, that we’ve got to build on this momentum and take it into the semi-finals and knockout rugby.”
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