We will see plenty of Leinster’s younger players this year and we will see them improve over the season, according to Leinster’s new head coach Joe Schmidt…
A crowd of over 200 supporters filled Old Wesley after the game on Friday to hear from the new coaching ticket for the first time at the OLSC hosted a ‘Meet the Coaches Night’.
Referring to the last time he coached a team at a match in Ireland, as backs coach for ASM Clermont Ferrand in last season’s Heineken Cup quarter final, Schmidt quipped that after the loss in the friendly encounter with London Wasps on Friday he was “fed up losing in Dublin”.
On a more positive note Schmidt said that the experience gained by the younger players in Friday’s match would stand to them in the future. ” We are going to see lots of those younger players over the season and we are going to the the privilege of watching them improve,” he said.
When asked about the challenge of having to compete against the big spending French sides, Schmidt said that he felt the salaries being offered at the moment in France were not sustainable. He said Leinster needed to bring through Academy players and that the bonus in that system was that “these guys are Leinster boys and want to play for Leinster, something that can’t be paid for.”
He also added that any of these players might be the stars of the future.
There were several questions around the topics of law interpretation and the recent changes surrounding the breakdown. forwards coach Jono Gibbes said that the emphasis had changed from defence-oriented to attack-oriented. “For me, not encouraging a contest for the ball is a bad thing,” he said.
Scrum coach Greg Feak explained how technology and the use of GPS systems were used in training and the old gym versus skills debate was handled by senior skills and kicking coach Richie Murphy – with skills winning out unsurprisingly.
All the coaches said that they were looking forward to playing in the Aviva Stadium in what would be a great occasion but a very tough encounter against Munster.
There is plenty of rugby to be played before then however, and they were all eagerly anticipating the first home game of the season in the RDS on September 11th.
