Heineken Cup: We won’t lose sleep over Ulster fans, says Greig Laidlaw

GREIG Laidlaw has shrugged aside talk in Northern Ireland of Ulster turning the Aviva Stadium into a second home for Saturday’s Heineken Cup semi-final, insisting that if Edinburgh play the rugby they are capable of they could nullify the effect of the crowd.

Ulster are predicting that at least 40,000 of the 50,000- capacity stadium will be made up of their supporters, with more from other parts of Ireland joining in the party. Edinburgh estimate that around 5,000 Scots from this side of the Irish Sea have bought tickets so far.

An Ulster spokesperson said: “I think the whole stadium will be white. That certainly is our aim. I think that the Ulster support will very much outweigh the Edinburgh support.”

Laidlaw, the Edinburgh captain, said: “It would be good to see as many Edinburgh fans travelling as possible, but as long as Ulster fans aren’t allowed on the pitch they will only have 15 players, and that’s the focus for us.

“Our fans were brilliant against Toulouse and I believe there is quite a lot travelling over and they will be as loud as they can be, and hopefully we will give them something to shout about.

“We know they’re noisy at Ravenhill and they’ll be able to just jump on buses and trains and down to Dublin, but it’s about us as a group of players not worrying too much about the crowd. There is a lot getting mentioned about the crowd, as it was before the quarter-final, and it is brilliant to be playing in front of these crowds, but what matters is what we do when we play the game, and not the surroundings.” The Borderer is a master at remaining cool and he spent time with the squad yesterday reflecting on the two league meetings with Ulster this season, both in recent months with Edinburgh missing key personnel and resulting in convincing wins for the Irishmen. Ulster are arguably the form side of late, having drawn confidence from and developed young talent around their strong South African spine and present one of the most powerful challenges, and they are especially cute in slowing down teams such as Edinburgh, who like a fast-paced style.

But Laidlaw spoke of drawing inspiration from taking on larger packs in the Heineken Cup, including three of the most feared in England and France, in the London Irish, Racing Metro and Toulouse eights, but emerging victorious, he feels, because of a superior tactical nous.

“The key for me in the cup has been doing all the little things right – not doing anything daft away from home to let teams in the game – and we controlled territory as well. We played some big packs and they were tight games but we came out on the right side of those results because we played most of the games in the right areas of the pitch.

“We’ve had a look back at those games and seen where we went wrong, and put something together that we believe will work for us this weekend. It’s about not changing too much, but playing the way we like playing and backing ourselves, because that will give us the best chance of winning the game.”

Laidlaw’s last experience of Dublin was in his third Test start for Scotland in the RBS Six Nations Championship, where the early promise of the tournament evaporated, but he views this occasion as being completely different and is relishing the prospect of returning to the historic Lansdowne Road home of Irish rugby and defying the odds.

He added: “I’m just wanting the game to come now, for training to be over and get to the weekend. We’re there because we’ve played well and we need to go into the game with that mindset. We don’t go around shouting about it, but we are a confident group and I’ve belief in all the players in the squad that if we do the job properly we’ll definitely be in with a shout.

“In the Heineken Cup there has been an element of honing in on these games and a slightly different feeling, and we’ve grown in confidence and stature. We’re a team with nothing to lose and that’s a dangerous team.”