Matt Williams: Unless Leinster's defence wake up they will be left dreaming of what might have been
As a 17-year-old, fresh out of school, I told my dad I needed a car to be able to drive so I could find a job.
Without looking up from his newspaper, he told me I had it all back the front. What I needed was a job to earn the money to buy a car, because borrowing his much loved automobile was not going to be an option for his teenage son.
Not for the first or last time in his life, he was trying to teach me that I was focusing on the outcome and not on the process. I wanted a car, but I didn't want the process of earning the money to buy one.
In life and rugby, the process delivers the outcome. If you get the process right then the outcome will look after itself.
READ MORE
Dreaming of lifting trophies is the easy part. The reality of achieving this is not glamorous. Winning championships is the outcome produced by players whose daily practices are at constant levels of excellence. In professional sport, it is known as 'The Grind'.
Sustaining high standards in every area of preparation, across each minute of the week, produces the outcomes that makes winning on match day possible.
As the US basketball coach Kevin Eastman says: 'Champions don't become champions on the court. They become recognised on the court. They become champions because of their daily routine and commitment to excellence. Players do not decide their future. They decide their habits and habits decide their future.'
Good habits are produced when athletes get into the grind of repeating their best processes. Much of this has nothing to do with athletic talent. An attitude of commitment towards diet, hydration, recovery strategies, mental preparation, reviewing video, punctuality, politeness, maintaining high standards, accepting feedback – all powered by the mindset of being coachable and wanting to improve each day – have zero to do with sporting ability.
Many players make it into professional sport even though they may possess a lowly 'B' in talent, but have a wonderful 'A' in possessing the right mindset. This type of athlete will grind away every day, laying another brick in the wall, constantly building towards success.
The sporting world is full of talented athletes who failed because they lacked the required commitment to the arduous rigours of the daily process. As David Brockhoff, the late former Wallaby player and coach, so poetically put it: 'If you want to play in the symphony, you have to practice your scales.'
This type of dedication requires a deep motivation.
Leinster's Jordie Barrett tackles Kyle Steyn of Glasgow Warriors in last month's URC game. Photograph: Ben Brady/INPHO
TE Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, wrote in his book The Seven Pillars of Wisdom: 'All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake the next day to find that it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dream with open eyes to make it possible.'
It is Lawrence's daydreamers who make it. They nurture their motivation towards obsession, to do whatever it takes to win. These people make it to the top. It is no accident that in rugby, almost without exception, these athletes are great defenders.
In rugby, defence requires huge amounts of fitness, combined with a burning passion to physically intimidate your opponent – a dash of technique but little talent. There is little doubt that defences win titles.
With the
United Rugby Championship
(URC) once again proving to the rugby world its unique character with a semi-final in the southern and the northern hemispheres, it will be the areas of the game that require gut-busting effort and little talent that will determine who makes it to the final.
In recent seasons across URC knockout stages, attacking talent and home ground advantage have not been the deciding factors. There would be few who would disagree that
Leinster
have been the most talented attacking team for many years. Despite topping the table six years in row, the men in blue have not been capable of winning the competition in the past five years.
In the last two seasons alone,
Munster
and
Glasgow
have won their finals away from home in South Africa.
So Leinster must completely disregard their recent thrashing of Glasgow in the quarter-final of the
Champions Cup
and remember the pain that Northampton inflicted in Dublin last month after having taken a beating the previous season.
While taking nothing away from Northampton's exceptional attacking display, in that devastating semi-final defeat the Leinster defence lacked commitment, enthusiasm and energy creating a huge problem for
Jacques Nienaber
.
Northampton Saints' Tommy Freeman scores his third try of the Champions Cup semi-final against Leinster in Dublin last month. Photograph: Billy Stickland/INPHO
Against Northampton, Leinster made only 97 tackles, but missed 41. If they produce another set of defensive stats like that then elimination will be inevitable. Renowned for their creative attacking flare, it is paramount Leinster discover a deeper commitment to the physical processes of defence if they are to win this year's URC title.
This is particularly important in the five minutes before half time and after half time, the crucial period of the game we know as the 'championship minutes' when any points scored swing the momentum of the contest.
There is no doubt that the repeated knockout defeats in recent seasons have mentally damaged Leinster. They are human, and these heartbreaks have left a scar tissue.
Leinster must desperately believe that in every match what has gone before is irrelevant. All that matters is the next 80 minutes.
This is a double-edged sword for Leinster, who have dominated the URC regular seasons so convincingly. To win, they must focus on the physicality of their tackling and the cohesion within their defensive system. Areas that require bucketloads of effort but little talent. If they get their defensive processes right, their attack will look after itself.
However, the Champions Cup semi-final proved that if they do not find a way to considerably lift their defensive performance then sadly they will face another crushing exit.
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