Mieres ready for Irish threat

 

By Mark Stevens

Ignacio Mieres believes the experiences Exeter Chiefs have tasted during their inaugural year in the prestigious Heineken Cup will serve the Devon club well for the future.

The Aviva Premiership club will wrap up their fixtures in Pool 5 this Saturday when they welcome defending champions Leinster to Sandy Park in the tea-time kick-off (6pm).

Although hopes of qualification into the last eight of the competition were thwarted with last weekend's 46-3 loss at Clermont Auvergne, Rob Baxter's side are still aiming to end their campaign on a high note, whilst at the same time throwing a spanner into the works of their Irish visitors.

Leinster, who have lifted the Heineken Cup on three occasions, must secure at least a victory in the Westcountry to keep their own hopes alive. Although even then results elsewhere may well mean their title defence ends in tatters.

It is, however, a clash which Argentine fly-half Mieres is clearly relishing, particularly after the Chiefs ran Leinster so close at the RDS back in October. On that day it took a late Jonny Sexton penalty to deny the visitors a share of the spoils as the champions narrowly edged home 9-6.

Fly-half Sexton will be one of a number of high profile names included in the visiting ranks for this weekend's tussle, others include Rob Kearney, Jamie Heaslip, Gordon D'Arcy, Luke Fitzgerald, Cian Healy, Leo Cullen and, of course, star centre Brian O'Driscoll.

“I think we are in one of the most difficult pools in the Heineken Cup, but it is better for us to be like that because we are playing against the best teams like Leinster and Clermont, and we want to play the best,” said Mieres, who was used as a second half replacement in France a week ago.

“We learnt against Clermont last weekend that from every little mistake we make, the top teams will score points. In defence, we need to be really alert and our physicality is very important as well in terms of stopping offloads. I think it was a big lesson for us. Leinster are another awesome team, and I am sure it is going to be a really intense match, as it was in Clermont, and we will need to play our best game to get a positive result.”

Despite the hefty scoreline, Mieres - who is now into his third season with the Chiefs - says he and his team-mates remain upbeat despite feeling the full force of Clermont, whose victory stretched their unbeaten home record to a staggering 54 games.

“We knew who we were going to play against. They had played 53 games at their ground without losing and are one of the favourites to win the tournament. We knew it was going to be a really, really tough game, and that is what happened,” said Mieres, who himself had spells with both Stade Francais and Perpignan in the Top 14 previously. “Wherever we go, we really want to play and try and do our best, but we got beaten by a really good team.”

Against many people's favourites for the Cup this season, the Chiefs enjoyed their best moments of the contest in the opening ten minutes or so of each half, but they failed to take their chances and were swept away by a hugely impressive six-try display from the star-studded Frenchmen.

“There were moments we felt frustrated because we were trying but we couldn’t get it right,” explained Mieres. "It was a big challenge. We came out and did the best we could, and sometimes we got it right and sometimes we didn’t.

“We showed a little bit of inaccuracy, but a lot of credit must go to Clermont as well, because they are a great side. We are still learning, this is our first year of playing in the Heineken Cup, and it is still a big learning curve for us.”

The match took a huge physical toll on Rob Baxter's side with several players picking up injuries that forced them to leave the field.

“I only played 30 minutes and I ended up feeling pretty tired, so I reckon the guys on the pitch for the whole game must have been exhausted,” admitted Mieres.