The Joe Schmidt tactic that Leinster would have done well to employ this week

Two years after calling time on his career, aged 34, Ian Madigan is settling into life post-playing by combining his role as a pundit with a job as head of sales at a data company.

Madigan is one of the game’s deep thinkers and has been articulating his thoughts very well, as a welcome addition to the Premier Sports TV team, and in this interview with RugbyPass.

This weekend he’ll be on analyst duty again, to see if Leinster have rediscovered the buzz that he feels has left them following their shock Champions Cup semi-final defeat at the hands of Northampton, and make it past Glasgow and through to the United Rugby Championship Final.

“I was doing commentary for Premier Sports for the quarter-final game against Scarlets, and even speaking afterwards, I was saying that I felt Leinster had lost a bit of their buzz and they need to refind that if they are going to beat Glasgow,” said Madigan, who won two Champions Cups and two league titles with his home province.

“What does that mean when you say a team has lost its buzz, and what does that look like? For me, it’s not celebrating the small wins. Also, when things are going wrong, you’re seeing players get at each other, not playing with the next-ball focus, not taking responsibility for your own mistakes or other people’s mistakes. And I suppose, as well, it is not enjoying the occasion.

“It was Jimmy O’Brien’s 100th cap at the weekend. That’s a good opportunity for his teammates ot get energised and use that as motivation to spur them on, and I think that was something that possibly slipped them by.”

Leo Cullen and Jacques Nienaber have only had a short amount of time to work with the squad, but Madigan says there are some relatively easy wins in helping to lift spirits. The 31-cap Ireland international used some of the tactics employed by Joe Schmidt, who coached him for both club and country, as an example.

“It is difficult to get the buzz going and it is something that can typically take a few weeks and it can even take a few months. Trying to turn it around in one week, I have been involved with enough teams that’ve had good head coaches and have failed to try and do that,” said Madigan, who made 147 appearances for Leinster.

“But there are a few things that you can do, for sure. The preview of the opposition, how you deliver the game plan, the buzz you can create around the week, maybe by reducing the length of gym sessions, maybe by introducing a more fun element at the start of training. It could be five-a-side soccer, it could be a keepy-up competition.

“Joe Schmidt used to do cops and robbers, it was like bringing you back to your childhood, but it would switch you off. You’d start on the 22 and you’d have to run through to the try line and try and catch someone else. When someone had been caught, those two people would then join hands and try and catch a third person, a fourth person and so on. It was hilarious, you’d have the coaches getting involved, lads trying to trip each other up and everyone would be laughing their heads off.

“When you’re in a professional environment, you can find that you are ‘on’ all of the time in the sense that you are either training, or recovering, or you’re thinking about the game.  Having that switch-off period – and it is one thing to do it on your own when you’re with your partner or you’re going to bed, or you’re watching TV – but getting the whole group to switch off together is very difficult to do.

“Look, Leo Cullen is a really experienced coach and I think he will employ some of these strategies this week, and I think we’ll see a rejuvenated Leinster team at the weekend. But that is a big challenge in itself.”

Head-to-Head

Last 5 Meetings

Wins

3

Draws

0

Wins

2

Average Points scored

29

21

First try wins

80%

Home team wins

100%

Madigan is also of the mind that Sam Prendergast needs a lift, or a rest, after a demanding season.

“Sam has had an incredible year. You look back at this time last year and he hadn’t played in the Champions Cup, he hadn’t played in the Six Nations. He led Ireland to a Triple Crown, and in Leinster’s run to the semi-final, he had some brilliant performances in there. Against the likes of Bristol away, when the team wasn’t playing particularly well, and against Glasgow, I thought he was excellent,” said the Dubliner, who also enjoyed spells with Bordeaux, Bristol and Ulster.

“But it has been a challenging year for Sam, not only does it take a physical toll on you as a 21/22-year-old coming up against hardened professionals week in week out, because every team targets the 10 channel, and he is no different. But you have also got the physiological tiredness as well.

“I remember getting towards the end of my breakthrough season with Leinster and just feeling exhausted. You try and do certain things to freshen yourself up, maybe you kick for a shorter period of time, you might have a nap during the day, you might book yourself in for more massages, you might try and cut down on your video analysis … anything to freshen yourself up. But similar to a team losing their buzz, when you get physically and mentally tired, it can be hard to get it back.

“I am a massive Sam Prendergast fan, but looking at him at the weekend, I thought he looked a little bit tired.”

Glashow head to Dublin hoping to make it third time lucky. Twice they have played Leinster there this season, and twice they have been beaten: 52-0 in the Champions Cup in April and 13-5 in the final game of the regular URC season three weeks ago.

“I think they will take a lot of confidence from that game. If they can make a few passes stick, be a bit more accurate and tighten up their own defence, they’ll have full confidence with the likes of (Sione) Tuipulotu coming back, that they can cause an upset and beat Leinster this weekend,” Madigan said, when pressed for a prediction.

“I think it is going to be really tight,” he added. “I think the way Glasgow play is a good blueprint for beating Leinster. When I look at how teams can beat Leinster, I like it when they have a short side attack because it doesn’t play into Leinster’s rush defence and Glasgow are smart enough to play to the 15 metre, 20 metre or the middle of the field and then they’ll come back against tired bodies that can’t get off the line as hard as you would see on the open side.

“They are a really well-coached side, so they’ll know if a team is parking up the short side, they’ll just keep going and outrun you.

“If you want to beat Leinster, you have got to get go-forward ball. That’s when you can catch this rush defence, when they are retreating and miss the jump, and that’s where the dog legs are created.

“I think they have a good buzz about them, they played excellently well against the Stormers, they have an excellent coach and they’ll have the belief. They did it the hard way last year, going away to Munster and away to the Bulls to win it, so they certainly won’t be afraid. But I still think Leinster will win, by less than seven points.”

Ian Madigan is part of the Premier Sports team bringing rugby fans every second of action from the URC semi-finals this Saturday with Leinster v Glasgow Warriors live at 2pm on Premier Sports followed by Bulls v Sharks at 5pm. Premier Sports offers UK rugby fans more than 400 top-flight club rugby games each season, including URC, EPCR’s Champions and Challenge Cup, Top 14, MLR and Japan League One at just £11.99 a month. The Premier Sports App is now available on Sky Glass & Sky Stream. Visit www.premiersports.com.