Goodman: We want to finish job after La Rochelle redemption
Andrew Goodman hesitates only momentarily when asked to assess his side’s cathartic Champions Cup coup against La Rochelle.
“It was the complete performance, wasn’t it?” he said.
All that remains is to complete the job, first with an imminent Croke Park semi-final against England’s pre-eminent Northampton Saints; then, one presumes, more familiar foes from France with multiple stars on their breast, Toulouse.
The obvious psychological fear, at a time of the season when the mental challenges are as palpable as the physical obstacles, might be that Leinster could struggle to reclaim the obvious emotional wave upon which they surfed for much of last week and nearly every one of Saturday’s 80 minutes.
“No,” he smiles, with an insistent charge.
“We were happy and it was great to win that game, but we know where we want to be and we’ve got the opportunity against Northampton to get to the big dance, to give ourselves an opportunity.
Attack
“They’re a top of the Premiership team, and man, I’ve enjoyed watching them. I’ve been watching them right from the start of the year. Because I think they’ve got some great attack, their backline in particular, I’ve taken a lot of notice of them.
“So I’ve got to flip it over to the other side and see how they defend and the opportunities for us now, get deep around that, and get prepared for a big one a couple of weeks down the track.
“There was a bit of edge about last week, there always is in finals week, but finals week against La Rochelle, with what’s happened over the last couple of years, it was probably a little bit more of an edge.
“But I think the boys controlled that emotion really well throughout the week and really focused on the day-to-day process in training and meetings and stayed really engaged.
“Man, they really put some work in, the players, and they had a performance off the back of it, which was the most pleasing thing.”
Like last season, their quarter-final and semi-final clashes will bookend a South African two-game trek; hardly ideal, but the nature of the schedule does allow some of the senior coaching and playing staff leeway to commit to a reasonably lengthy build-up to that Saints’ clash on May 5.
Given that they have the Lions first up this weekend, the presumption is that Leinster will go hard in week one for a victory, utilising Saturday’s replacements bench before tapering off for the second fixture against the Stormers.
Unlike last season, when their league standing was all but confirmed, they are still in a rigorous tussle to secure home advantage in the URC play-offs, with Glasgow (five points behind) and Bulls (nine) lying in wait to take advantage of any slip-ups.
Leo Cullen will remain in South Africa for the entire trip – last season, he returned after week one to supervise strategic semi-final planning in Europe.
“We had a bit of planning around that,” confirms Goodman.
“I’m heading over for the first game and then coming back. Then Jacques Nienaber will be coming back partway through the second week and Leo is going to be over the whole time.
“We’ve obviously got a lot of guys back here, we’ve got a big squad. We’ll travel with 30, but there’ll be a number of guys back here as well.”
These will include a number going through injury recovery, notably Garry Ringrose (shoulder) and Hugo Keenan, whose hip problem flared up so dramatically at the weekend that he was forced into a late withdrawal from the start line.
At least by the finish, everyone was smiling.
“It was happiness,” chirps Goodman. “It was good to go into the shed and see some smiling faces. Get the music on, have a beer together and just enjoy the game of what had been a great week.”
As the band hits the road for a twoweek tour down south, they already have one eye on planning another spectacular performance.