Luke Fitzgerald

But if they find the turf behind you, you know, Bielbary, Uberti, Riasi, all these guys, even Penault in the centre, these guys have serious top-end pace and they can hurt you very, very quickly.

So, absolutely key that someone like Tommy O'Brien with his pace is back and obviously his physical kind of, I suppose, prowess on the defensive side of the ball.

I mean, he's been a real energiser bunny for this Leinster team and for the Irish team as a matter of fact as well.

So,

Absolutely key to have someone like him available and it'll be a big lift to the guys, I'm sure.

Yeah well to me there's kind of a blueprint to kind of fix that you know I thought Ireland really you know shored up their defence after that game I thought that you know you saw what they did in the air to England I think there was a refocus on the quality of the kick but also the quality of the chase which I think was quite poor over in Paris so I thought that was kind of the catalyst for what turned out to be actually a very strong Six Nations for the Irish team after a disappointing start over in Paris so

Look, I think the French guys will know what to expect on that front, but Leinster have been excellent in those two areas over the last couple of weeks.

I really think they've been watertight defensively for the most part, and they've got that kind of oppressive, hard-off-the-line defence that Nina Barr has been employing since he's arrived.

If they can get on top of this Bordeaux team in that facet of the game, which is something they didn't do in Paris either, they've got a real chance of forcing a few errors from this Bordeaux team.

I think they liked it.

they will force it.

You know, if they love to play and they're going to continue to play, that's just the way this team goes about their business.

So I think if they can get on top of them defensively, they could force a few mistakes and put pressure on this Bordeaux team.

And if they're good in the air and they do a better job of chasing and, and, and, uh,

And they're going to have to be brilliant at that.

I mean, any loose ball against this Bordeaux team, they're going to punish you badly.

But if they do it well, and Gibson Park has been kicking brilliantly.

I know Byrne had a rough semi-final, but I expect him, the Byrnes are mentally strong guys, I think.

And I expect him to turn it around and have a really good kicking display, which I hope will be the foundation for a very strong

a Leinster performance.