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Castres lined up by Cheika

Wednesday 03rd December 2008

Michael Cheika: Prepared

Leinster's prospects of continuing to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals once again look good indeed, after bonus-point wins over Wasps and Edinburgh.

Back-to-back matches against Castres now loom, with the French side struggling against relegation from the Top 14 and not likely to have the Heineken Cup at the top of its list of priorities.

Facing unknown opposition is one of the unique challenges of European competition, with a surprise always lurking around the corner, particularly in France.

"We don't play Castres regularly, but we've watched a lot of videos and prepared ourselves the best we can," said coach Michael Cheika at the pre-match press conference in Dublin yesterday.

"You've got to plan over a couple of weeks at this time of year. Back-to-back games are very important in terms of how you manage them. I suppose the last piece of the puzzle is the way in which French teams administer their home and away games as well.

"We've had some good experiences on back to back (games) and we've had some bad experiences in my time here, so we've got to make sure - like we said before the first game of the first block of European matches - that we win the two games in a row. We have now managed that three times out of nine and we will take each of these games as individual challenges so that we can try to make it the fourth time.

"Against Bourgoin we won by 50 here and lost by three (points) the week after. We played Agen and beat them here, probably not that convincingly, and then we beat them down there when we were a bit strung out for players.

"So we've had some good interesting back-to-backs and, of course, we had Edinburgh last year where we beat them here and lost to them up there.

"I've learned - and I hope that I have learned well - so that we can be prepared over the coming two games.

Cheika knows that qualification to the final eight of Europe's toughest rugby competition is a true test for his international-ladened squad.

"You've got to approach each of the six games like it's a Test match, or a Cup final. If you can do that for six games then you're going to be prepared. But it's hard to do," he said.

"Felipe (Contepomi) is a big loss as are Isa (Nacewa) and Gordon D'Arcy. Every year we have a bit more depth and we can manage situations and it will take some managing. There's a lot of responsibility on (Jonathan) Sexton and an importance on David (Holwell) to be prepared in terms of game knowledge if he's called upon.

"We gave a few players a rest last time, so there's going to be four or five players coming in fresh and they have brought a really good energy into the team already.

Leinster have been struck at fly-half with the absence of Contempomi and Nacewa, but it gives young Jonathan Sexton a chance to stake a claim for a regular spot.

"Jonny is competing against the other two boys," said Cheika.

"Dave (Holwell) has come as back up and he understands the situation. If anything, they're working a lot together because Jonny has to fill him full of information and Dave has a lot of experience that he will be able to pass on in the short time that he is here. Jonny is a member of the team and if he was to get injured he would want his coach to be preparing a back-up plan."