THERE ARE LOTS of Munster fans who would love to see Denis Leamy back with his home province as they assemble a new coaching ticket, but the Tipperary man is instead making waves as Leinster’s contact skills coach.

Having served his time in Irish club rugby, Leamy first joined Leinster as a development officer in their academy pipeline back in 2019. 

When Hugh Hogan left the province to join the Scarlets last summer, Leamy was promoted into the role of contact skills specialist and has been earning the respect of the Leinster players with his coaching ability.

Of course, there was plenty of respect there given what Leamy achieved as a player with Munster and Ireland, but the likes of Josh van der Flier have been impressed with his ability to bring that nous into coaching.

“He’s doing the contact skills work, a lot with the ruck, ruck threats of the opposition – he goes through that every week,” explains van der Flier.

“He works through what our attacking ruck was like, defensive ruck, our ball carry, a lot of the physical elements of the game.

“Then also the likes of poaching, a lot of things Hugh would have done, similar work. He works with defence, getting those two-man tackles or working on chop tackles, that kind of thing. He does a lot of that technical work before and after training and he certainly drives that in meetings.

Van der Flier competes at the breakdown against Connacht. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

“He has been brilliant. As a player obviously, you would have seen what he could do and he has brought some of that expertise and is a great person to learn from. There’s no one better to learn from than someone who has been there and done it at the highest level.

“He has been working great and been a huge addition to us in terms of the contact side of the game, tackles, rucks, that kind of thing. He has been brilliant.”

Leamy’s own experiences as a back row over the course of 57 Ireland caps and nearly 150 appearances for Munster before he was forced into early retirement due to a hip injury are very beneficial for the likes of van der Flier.

Leamy knows all about the nitty-gritty stuff involved at the coal face.

“It’s great, he is a great sounding board for running ideas [past],” says van der Flier. “We would have had a few good chats around different techniques and things we could work on or he found were good.

“I think with all the back rows, he has been brilliant. Anyone in the squad who has looked to work on tackle technique, working on their ruck, he’s been brilliant and he’s been very helpful for me in that area as well.”

The current focus for Leamy, van der Flier and co. is getting the job done in their second leg against Connacht in the Champions Cup Round of 16 on Friday night in Dublin.

Leamy will want quicker ball at the breakdown this Friday. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

They carry a five-point lead into this clash after last Friday’s meeting in Galway, but van der Flier says there is plenty of scope for improvement in the areas Leamy drives.

“Denis works a good bit with us on that work at the breakdown, getting our cleanouts, and getting a good ball carry as well.

“When we get it right, it makes a huge difference. I thought Connacht were good in that area, Bundee [Aki] and Conor Oliver were brilliant over the ball and they really made it tough for us. They slowed the ball down with those two-man hits and trying to hold us up or reef the ball, slowed us up that way.

“Full credit to them for that, they did slow us down and from our perspective, there’s always rucks you look back on that could be better but certainly there is always a balance.

“Connacht came in with a good game plan, slowed us down at times, and got a couple of turnovers. They were good and we can be better.”