{"id":52445,"date":"2025-09-30T09:42:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T09:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/52445\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T09:42:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T09:42:11","slug":"urc-champions-leinster-must-come-out-fighting-against-bulls-says-mcbryde-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/52445\/","title":{"rendered":"URC champions Leinster must come out fighting against Bulls, says McBryde \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has never happened in the modern era that Leinster<\/a> have had to look for a reset after the first competitive match of the season.<\/p>\n

Being \u201cnilled\u201d in South Africa by the Stormers (35-0)<\/a> means this week the coaching staff are desperately looking for a rebound performance against the Bulls on Saturday (5.30pm Irish time, live on Premier Sports 1).<\/p>\n

Round two of the United Rugby Championship<\/a> (URC) has rarely looked so fraught for the reigning champions.<\/p>\n

A wake-up call and figuring out how to turn a stunning defeat into something positive will be central to assistant coach Robin McBryde\u2019s brief this week.<\/p>\n

Selflessly McBryde is holding his hand up and saying that a lot of what went awry, especially Leinster\u2019s inability to launch any attacks off the lineout last Friday, was his fault. <\/p>\n

It is likely the players will have a different view and accept responsibility, too, but the former Welsh hooker was this week taking a bullet for the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is scratching their heads with regard to where Friday night came from, really. We didn\u2019t see that coming,\u201d McBryde said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve apologised because I didn\u2019t prepare the forwards well enough. We didn\u2019t provide the platform to launch any type of attack really, so that\u2019s on me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not one for standing still and I like to move things forward and stretch people, but, yeah, obviously, have I done it at the right time, with the right group of people? Maybe not.<\/p>\n

\"TempersTempers flare between Ben-Jason Dixon of the Stormers and Max Deegan of Leinster on Friday. Photograph: INPHO <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, yeah, I can only apologise for that. But listen, nothing focuses the mind better than the Bulls on Saturday, next up. So, you know, there are going to be similar challenges for us on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Entirely different teams and all that, Leinster beat the Bulls in June in the URC final to save their season after losing to Northampton Saints in the Champions Cup<\/a> semi-final. <\/p>\n

This week\u2019s meeting in Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria won\u2019t have the freight of an end-of-season final, but for this group of players the prospect of two opening defeats in South Africa is a huge driver for those who wish to be involved in what lies ahead.<\/p>\n

Jamie Osborne<\/a> and Cormac Foley will be unavailable for the game. Osborne picked up a minor hamstring injury against Stormers and Foley suffered a calf injury. Both will be unavailable for a few weeks. Further assessment is required for Jordan Larmour<\/a>, who picked up a foot injury in round one.<\/p>\n

But a round-four match against Munster<\/a> in a swollen Croke Park is one of those games everyone wants to be part of.<\/p>\n

Coming so early in the season before the November international matches there is a strong aspect this weekend of it not just being about the points on offer, and trying to avoid going zero for two, but, with the Lions contingent absent, players needing to make themselves immediate and visible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to make those changes pretty quick because it\u2019ll be a poor reflection on us if we don\u2019t turn up on Saturday,\u201d McBryde said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe circled up in the changing room and in certain results you don\u2019t need to say a lot. I think everybody knew, the feeling in the changing room, and you don\u2019t get that very often. <\/p>\n

\"WandisileWandisile Simelane of the Stormers with Tommy O\u2019Brien and Robbie Henshaw of Leinster. Photograph: INPHO <\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose it\u2019s down to individuals how quickly you manage to turn that round. You\u2019ve got to have a certain amount of grieving process, I\u2019d imagine, on your own, in your own time, in your own head, in your own head space to get over it. And then you come back fighting. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the long run, and I\u2019m saying in the long run, I wouldn\u2019t have chosen to do it, but it could be the best thing that ever happened to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is an interesting take and to climb out of such a bad beating is a challenge this group have never had to face. <\/p>\n

Reacting to adversity and redoubling efforts to appear as close to the real version of the Leinster that everyone wants to beat could make or break reputations.<\/p>\n

As McBryde says, the squad are much better performers than they showed last Friday in DHL Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeo [Cullen] came back from the coach\u2019s conference at the start of the year, and [the] feeling was that everybody\u2019s going to come out gunning for us because we\u2019re the reigning champions. So, it\u2019s to be expected,\u201d McBryde said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we found following our loss against Northampton Saints, there\u2019s not that many people who sympathise with Leinster when the team loses. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo it is very much up to us now and we\u2019ve got to stand up to it and come out fighting and earn the right to put on the shirt and be a part of Leinster rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, McBryde must convince players they are much better than a 35-0 hiding and explain to them what is expected when they are in the shirt of Josh van der Flier<\/a>, Andrew Porter<\/a> or Joe McCarthy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne hundred per cent, and we\u2019ve got to remind the players of that,\u201d McBryde said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, we haven\u2019t become a bad, that bad, a team overnight. We\u2019ve just got to make sure that we show that on Saturday. It\u2019s all well and good saying it, but we\u2019ve got to actually show it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Man for man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has never happened in the modern era that Leinster have had to look for a reset after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[37773,61,60,37774,22277,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-52445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-bulls","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-leinster-team-news","12":"tag-pretoria","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}