EXETER CHIEFS Skipper Hayes on Leinster and O'Driscoll
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- Created on Thursday, 11 October 2012 09:35
- Last Updated on Thursday, 11 October 2012 12:29
- Published on Wednesday, 10 October 2012 09:35
Exeter Chiefs Irish skipper Tom Hayes admits there can be few bigger introductions to the Heineken Cup than meeting hat-trick chasing champions Leinster on their home patch.
Ahead of Saturday’s opening European encounter between champions and Chiefs at the RDS in Dublin, Limerick-born lock Hayes, 32, revealed: “Personally I don’t particularly have a whole lot of history of (playing against) Leinster.
“I have only played one under 21s game against them, unfortunately a long time ago now.
“From the club’s point of view, if you are looking to a big introduction into the Heineken Cup then it doesn’t come any bigger than playing the champions at their own place does it?
“The Heineken Cup is the cream of the crop in Europe and it’s a place we want to be at, so we will have to step it up and meet some new challenges if we want to stay at that level.
“Leinster have discipline and accuracy in what they do. They are a high quality team who have great cohesion between their forwards and back in terms of bringing a whole attacking philosophy.
“So it’s not necessarily just a case of the backs passing the ball across in front of you or running at you. Their forwards are well able to run in wide channels and trouble defensive lines as well.
“They can come at you from all angles of the pitch and that just makes it a little harder to defend.”
Leinster boast talismanic British Lions and Ireland centre Brian O’Driscoll as well as being set to recall four Irish internationals to the XV that triumphed over Munster while Chiefs were gathering momentum with a win over Premiership champions Harlequins.
Hayes admits Chiefs cannot afford to focus on O’Driscoll alone, saying: “His credentials obviously speak for themselves, there isn’t too much to be said about it.
“It’s not something that we can focus on going into the game because Leinster certainly aren’t a one-man team.
“It’s not just that they have a good starting XV but they have a seriously good squad and that’s why they have won three Heineken Cups in the last four years.
“We will just go into the match concentrating on ourselves, and our own performance and see what result comes with it.”
Hayes is set to face former Munster team-mate Eoin Reddan – the Leinster scrum half – on Saturday.
Tom Hayes: heading back to Ireland with Chiefs (pinnacle)
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