Matt O'Connor has vehemently hit back at critics of Leinster's form this season. O'Connor was in a bullish mood in Leinster's pre match press conference ahead of the weekend's trip to the Stoop to face Harlequins. Clearly annoyed with things that he had been reading and hearing about in the press, O'Connor asked the attending journalists a barrage of questions:
Just a question for you bokes, how do you guys categorise form? Is it winning games? Is it scoring tries? We've scored the most tries in the League. I'm asking the question. What's form to you blokes? Because you ask about it a lot.
O'Connor was not finished, and he spoke with passion and clear logic in his arguments citing his experience in Leicester.
The five seasons I was at Leicester we scored the most tries in The Premiership hands down in four of those years. I want to play with the ball in hand.
Our philosophy is finding a competitive advantage against the opposition to win the game. That's our style of rugby.
O'Connor argued that what Ireland did with such success and praise in November, is no different to what Leinster are doing right now:
It's all about coming up with a plan for this group of blokes to beat the guys on the other side of the line this week. That's the end of the game, that's it. That's what we do. Did Ireland do it in November? 100%. Are we trying to do that every week? 100%.
O'Connor again bemoaned the IRFU player welfare system and the struggles of changing up to 10 players in your line up every week. He also pointed out that should Leinster start playing champagne rugby with no results, that the biggest opposition would come from the media.
Five or six years ago, Leinster were playing a tremendous of rugby, slinging the ball around, a fantastic brand of rugby. What were the press saying then? Ladyboys. Soft. We've got a test pack that will go out on Sunday. What's your competitive advantage relative to the opposition?
It was part of a bizarre press conference that also featured Jamie Heaslip hitting back at Paul Kimmage's comments about drugs in rugby.
