Contact area technique big focus for Leinster under Denis Leamy

A number of recent on-field events have brought more attention to discipline around the tackle and breakdown and Leinster are working hard to make sure they are on top of their brief.

High tackles in Ireland's Six Nations games against Italy and England, and in two of Leinster and Connacht’s recent meetings have seen red and yellow cards dished out, while Dan Leavy was forced to call time on his career last week after failing to fully recover from the knee injury he suffered when a player came in from the side of a ruck.

Former Munster and Ireland back row Denis Leamy is the contact skills coach at Leinster and he’s a busy man.

"We do a good bit of technique work, especially with Denis Leamy. He does great work with us," explains flanker Josh van der Flier.

"We try not to leave anything up to the ref, we try to be textbook perfect in terms of showing him good pictures, and try and be clean in that way.

"That thing you practice as a schoolboy or playing in clubs is like trying to hit low, get under and drive up.

"But players are quite quick into the space and going for poaches, you get some players who tackle and barge, you get some players who come in late for a poach.

"It’s never a clean perfect picture, that’s what makes it quite difficult.

"My focus is to get over the ball as fast as possible.

"The perfect thing, from my perspective, is not having to hit anyone, not having to clear out the ruck at all because the moment the ball-carrier falls to ground I’m straight over the ball and they don’t even have a chance to compete.

"You rarely get perfect textbook pictures, which are the same as when you practice hitting the pad in a training session.

"That’s why it can sometimes look a bit messy at the ruck but certainly you want to do