WE SHUT UP AND MOVE ON!
Saracens victory is parked as Leinster turn focus to Scarlets
DESPITE knocking out back-to-back European champions Saracens, Leinster’s celebrations on Sunday were more restrained than might be expected.
Sure, it was a big scalp to take, but as hooker James Tracy admits, when half the squad have just won a Grand Slam with Ireland, you can’t get too carried away with winning a home quarter-final..
‘We have our review of the game and then we have a mantra of SUMO, Shut Up and Move On, we are on to the next bit,’ he explained.
Tracy has had mixed emotions over the past few months. After being involved in last year’s summer tour to Japan and the November internationals with Ireland, a dislocated elbow in January saw the 26-year-old fall down the pecking order at the wrong time in terms of Six Nations selection.
Having seen a number of his friends from Leinster go on to scale new heights with Ireland, he believes that there is extra motivation to follow up that success with the province — particularly among those in the squad that were not around when the Blues landed three European Cups between 2009 and 2012.
‘Like anyone, you are delighted for your friends for winning but you are jealous and you want to be there from a selfish point of view. In fairness to the lads they have come back in and we are all striving for the same thing,’ he continues.
‘Looking in from the outside you might be worried that the lads would put the feet up after winning the Grand Slam but when you finish up you want to look back at your legacy and maybe even put a star on the jersey. That’s something that can’t be taken away for you. That’s something we strive towards every day and those lads are just as hungry now as they were at the start of the year and I am too.
‘It’s another thing Stuart [Lancaster] emphasised when he did some work with the NFL teams last summer.
‘They have a ring when they win their championship, and our equivalent of that is our star [on the jersey]. He said, “It’s the only tangible thing nobody can take away from you ever, when you win it is that star”, that’s something we’re all striving toward — something that I can have that I can say “I was proud of that”,’ remarked Tracy.
The Blues look better placed than ever to end that title drought, with a remarkable batch of young players driving the group forward over the course of the season.
During the win over Saracens, it was players like James Ryan and Dan Leavy setting the standard, a marked development given that senior players Johnny Sexton and Isa Nacewa stressed the need for the younger members of the squad to learn from the experience of last season’s semi-final defeats in both the Pro12 and Champions Cup .
Of course, that hasn’t been an overnight development.
As recently as January, Leinster scrum coach John Fogarty admitted that the province needed flanker Leavy to produce more consistent performances rather than just big moments in games, and since then he has gone on to be one of the outstanding performers for both Ireland and Leinster in 2018, including a man-ofthe-match display against Saracens at Lansdowne Road last weekend.
‘Being aware of himself is a big one for him, being aware of the game he plays,’ Fogarty explained yesterday.
‘He takes little time-outs. Those little conversations would have happened in Leinster and his time with Ireland has been really good. He’s grown throughout the Six Nations and been given the time.
‘This is another reason we wouldn’t be sending players away [on loan], they’re developing in this place, developing in the system that’s here in Ireland. With Seanie [O’Brien] out there’s opportunities for him and he’s grown massively.
‘He desperately wants to be involved in finals rugby and the big days. I think he’s developed really well over the Six Nations and got confidence for it.
‘James Ryan is a fantastic player,’
he continued enthusiastically.
‘A remarkable athlete, coming from that Six Nations, everyone else got credit at times. I think the players, to deal with all the information they had to deal with in a short space of time to get ready for a game of that nature and perform for 80 minutes and for him to be able to do that so young is... he surprises you still.’
Having come off second best against Scarlets in the Pro12 semifinals last season, Fogarty is anticipating another difficult encounter when the two teams meet on April 21.
‘They become very difficult. Their turnover, how they attack you from turnovers... you’re attacking and going quite well, and they turn you over and all of a sudden you’ve a broken defensive line and they’re coming at you hard.
‘Their transition from that turnover to attack has hurt us massively in the past.
‘They’ve got a good pack and a very dangerous backline and they’re full of confidence, they’re not going to fear coming to the Aviva Stadium.’