Leinster's ridiculous defensive record down to Jacques Nienaber's ‘fiery meetings', says Dan Sheehan

The Irish Sun

01-05-2025

DAN SHEEHAN admitted that Leinster relish being zero heroes.
The province are yet to ship a point in the knockout stages of this season's Champions Cup, setting a competition record.
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Ireland ace Sheehan will be keen to keep up his fine try-scoring record at the Aviva Stadium
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The two-time World Cup winner has lived up to his billing as a defensive guru
They scored 114 points
Their stingy defence has been attributed to the work of Jacques Nienaber, who joined the Leinster staff after helping South Africa win a second successive World Cup 18 months ago.
And Sheehan insists that keeping their opponents at bay becomes a driver in ensuring the team delivers an 80-minute display.
The hooker said: 'It's talked about the odd time in Jacques' sort of fiery meeting. He loves nils. Of course, it's his job.
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'We don't talk about keeping teams to zero but we try to limit access to opportunities.
'It can happen in a few ways. If we get a lead, teams won't kick penalties for the posts so it becomes harder to score points, so it changes.
'Early in a game, we make sure our discipline is right so they don't take threes and start building scoreboard pressure against us.
"We just need to make sure we are all over our bits and trying to find a balance of aggression and not being too far over the edge where we get sloppy and give away penalty access, where it's hard to get that back right in a game.
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'It definitely feels like when you are well up, it's good practice to keep the foot on the throat, that mindset of making sure that we don't step off.
'It's hard to replicate that sort of pressure environment and sort of making sure we get an 80-minute performance. We talk about that a lot.
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'Maybe throughout the start of the season we were having the 60-minute block and then trailing off for the last 20.
'So, in that aspect, making sure we were on it for the full game was pleasing.
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'That's a conversation in a huddle after maybe the sixth try that we try to keep them to zero, making sure we keep doing what we were doing, and it's worked well for us.'
That will be a focus on Saturday given that, last year, they went 20-3 ahead against the Saints shortly after the restart but won by only three points.
'DOGGED APPROACH'
And Sheehan explained that, having had longer to work with the Leinster squad, Nienaber has secured buy-in from the players to ensure they become as ruthless in defence as they have been in attack.
He said: 'He's got a great mindset and dogged approach to defence and drawing a line in the sand to say, 'This is our territory, that's theirs and they don't cross it'.
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'Every meeting you walk into is passionate and it gives you a bit of a drive.
'You're looking forward to the weekend, you've seen the pictures through your prep and you can get after them with full confidence that if you stick to the system, you'll get it right.
'If you don't, well, we talk about it a lot that our system has its flaws and there's definitely going to be holes somewhere.
'Teams can get it right and we've got to make sure that we're not fazed by it if they get an early try.
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'That probably has happened in the past few games but his mindset and how passionate he is about what he does feeds into us.
"You can put in any system you want but you've got to want to do it.
'You've got to want to do it with the best, aggressive mindset you can in the contacts.
'It has fed in well to the lads here. It took a bit of time but I think we're getting the hang of it now.'
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