McFadden: Contepomi can fire up Blues’ backs
FERGUS McFadden says that Leinster have been energised by the arrival of Felipe Contepomi this summer, as the province look to defend the Pro14 and Champions Cup titles they won last season.
Contepomi, who played 116 times for the province between 2003 and 2009, replaced Girvan Dempsey as backs coach after the former Ireland international left Leo Cullen’s coaching team for a new role with English side Bath.
And McFadden, who lined out with Contepomi during the Argentinian’s playing days with the Blues, says that his arrival has brought something new to the group.
‘It’s been great. When I came out of school and got my first few caps in 2007, and training with Felipe, he was one of the people I looked up to from a rugby perspective in school. Then to train and play with him was unbelievable. He was such an exciting player,’ said McFadden.
‘We’re all energised by him coming in. It’s strange for a few of us who have played with him, for sure, but for the younger guys he’s already brought his own spices to the recipe. I think we’re going to see them over the coming months. Hopefully we’ll be a lot more potent as a back-line.
‘He was an exciting player but I think the messages that he has been sending through to the team are definitely very simple ones, and the stuff he’s doing in training seems to be working.’
McFadden is hoping for a strong start to the campaign after injury saw him sidelined for Leinster’s march to glory at the end of last season.
The versatile back damaged his hamstring in the process of scoring the Blues’ third try in their Champions Cup semi-final defeat of the Scarlets last season, as Steff Evans landed awkwardly on the Ireland international as he dived over the line.
‘I don’t think it could have been avoided because it actually wasn’t anything to do with Steff Evans,’ McFadden explains.
‘A few people thought that it was him that jumped on top of me after the try, but the injury actually happened when I took my first stride on the way to the corner. The hamstring had popped at that stage. I think the nature of the injury was quite bad, so there was no part of me going, “I could have played those last few matches”. ‘It was definitely difficult on the day — in the Aviva watching the Pro14 final and the (Champions Cup) final in Bilbao, knowing that I could have been out there. I suppose I turned into a bit of a supporter because it was such a good occasion.’ Having been sprung from the bench just nine minutes into Leinster’s opening weekend defeat of Cardiff, McFadden is pushing for a starting place when the Blues visit Scarlets on Saturday as they look to keep up their winning start to the Pro14. And after conceding 32 points in Wales last weekend, he accepts that a repeat performance won’t be enough for the reigning champions this weekend.
‘Going over and getting five points in Cardiff — if we’d been told that before the game, we would have taken it. But conceding 32 points for us is not good enough. We pride ourselves on our defence. That’s one of the pillars to our game, so that was disappointing. There was tough viewing for us today on that front.’
McFadden was pleased with his side’s resilience in overturning a 15-point deficit, but concedes that Cardiff can feel hard done by.
‘We came back into it and showed good dog to win it, but really you could say that Cardiff were potentially a bit robbed as well. For a lot of the game, they were dominant. So we’ll need to be a lot better.
‘The Scarlets, at home, after losing against Ulster, their backs will be against the wall, so it’s not going to be any easier from a defensive perspective. We’re going to have to be an awful lot better.’