Jacques Nienaber and his defence playbook at Leinster

Everyone loves a great try from their teams own 22 or a out of the world backline move from a scrum but what about if you don't have the ball? What about defence? We have all heard defence wins you matches and World Cups.

Leinster takes on the Bulls in the final of the URC and they have one of the best defence coaches in world rugby. Ahead of the final, lets take a look at how Jacques Nienaber have sculpted the Leinster defence

General Team Defence Stats (20 matches = 18 league, 1 QF and 1 SM)

Leinster have made 3045 tackles(6th) and missed 381 (1st) with a tackle success % of 77% (13th). They have won the most turnovers (143) and lost 262 turnovers (8th)

Tackles Opp Half/ Tackles Own 22/ Tackles Own Half

Teams defend differently when they are on their own tryline or on half way. What stays the same is that you want your bigger players closer to the breakdown and your faster backs on the outside. Lets take a look at the top 5 players who made the most tackles in those 3 areas of the field.

Tackles Opp half

66 Scott Penny, 47 Max Deegan, 40 Gus McCarthy/Ryan Baird, 36 Diarmuid Mangan

Tackles Own 22

37 Scott Penny, 31 Max Deegan, 27 Andrew Porter, 26 Diarmuid Mangan, 24 Gus McCarthy

Tackles Own half

84 Scott Penny, 61 Max Deegan, 60 Andrew Porter, 58 Diarmuid Mangan, 56 James Ryan

Try saving tackles

Out of the 58 players Leinster used in the 20 matches, seven of them made a try saving tackle

Ciaran Frawley, Andrew Osborne, Thomas Clarkson, Gus McCarthy, Andrew Porter, Caelan Doris, Robbie Henshaw

Turnovers won

15 Leinster players have made 4 or more turnovers in the 20 URC matches

9 Caelan Doris, 7 Diarmuid Mangan/Alex Soroka, 6 Tommy O'Brien/Ronan Kelleher, 5 Ryan Baird/Jack Boyle/Jack Conan/Jordie Barrett, 4 Thomas Clarkson/Gus McCarthy/Jimmy O'Brien/Max Deegan/RG Snyman

Tackle machines

When it comes to player tackles made, Scott Penny made a wopping 150 tackles in 16 games. Max Deegan made 108 tackles also in 16 games with Diarmuid Mangan making 94 tackles in 11 games. Max Deegan also leads with 11 dominant tackles with Baird and McGrath on 10

High Tackles

Only two Leinster players have been penaltised for high tackles. Brian Deeny and Thomas Clarkson

So can the Leinster defence wall stand up to the physical Bulls? The defence stats show that Leinster have the system and players to do it but will they show up on the day?

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