Montpellier ready for ‘high-quality’ Leinster clash
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Montpellier director of rugby Philippe Saint-André is expecting a “high-quality” match when four-time European champions Leinster Rugby visit the GGL Stadium in their Heineken Champions Cup opener on Saturday.
The two sides last met in January 2018, with Leinster wrapping up a flawless pool campaign by defeating the French outfit 23-14 at the GGL Stadium en route to their fourth European title.
'It's important everyone's singing off the same hymn sheet this week.' 👊@DevinToner4 speaks about players returning from Ireland camp and preparations for Saturday's #HeinekenChampionsCup clash with Montpellier. ⬇#MONvLEI pic.twitter.com/nyZtzRjsf0
— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) December 10, 2020
Although Montpellier have added plenty of star quality during the off-season, including France wing Vincent Rattez and South Africa scrum-half Cobus Reinach, Saint-André admitted that his side will need to play at a very high level in order to beat the Irish province.
Previewing Leinster Rugby’s opening clash against the French side, Cullen admitted that defeat this weekend would see the pool become an even greater task.
“The fact that there’s only four pool games, that becomes even more of a challenge this year, so, for us, getting all the guys back and having a full squad to pick from, you know, bar a couple of guys who’ll miss out through injury…We know there’s very little margin for error within your pool,” he explains.
Having played Montpellier in recent years (2016/17 and 2017/18), the environment of GGL Stadium won’t be fully alien to Cullen and the team but he still acknowledges the challenge that they will present.
“We understand some of the power that they have, particularly in the forwards, and some of the quality they have in their backs as well.
“They’ve a lot of experience in terms of their playing group but, in recent times, Jake White is a World Cup-winning coach, Vern Cotter is a hugely experienced coach, both in France and internationally.
“They’ve a new coaching group now with Xavier Garbajosa who’s come in with Philippe Saint-André as director of rugby. So a hugely experienced group. We’re in for a great challenge.”
“For us, this will be a high-quality game, the first at home against one of the best teams in Europe,” said the former France head coach Saint-André .
“It will be about making this a very high intensity game. We know that against said teams, you pay for every mistake.
“And often, speaking from experience, playing a game of this level in the European Cup, it’s like doing six months’ training.
“So, for us, in terms of our progression, later down the line of course, we want to start the competition well and win our first game at home.”
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