Former Leinster captain Kevin McLaughlin has questioned why the Scarlets players were talking about grazes and cuts in the build up to Saturday’s PRO14 final with Leinster at the Aviva Stadium.
The Scarlets trounced Glasgow 28-13 in the semi-final on a 4G pitch at Scotstoun Stadium but a number of their players were unable to train until the middle of last week after receiving cuts and grazes from the surface.
Scarlets head coach Wayne Pivac said Scotstoun’s 4G pitch was “very bad”, Steff Evans said it was “shocking” and Johnny McNicholl said such surfaces should be “illegal”, but McLaughlin insisted that senior Leinster players Johnny Sexton and Isa Nacewa would not have allowed such talk to enter Leinster camp last week.
“I just cannot believe they spent the week talking about that,” said McLaughlin on the latest episode of The Hard Yards.
“If I was Wayne Pivac I would have been absolutely furious. They’re playing a final and they’re talking about grazes on their legs?
“If they’re annoyed and they have issues with it go directly to Glasgow, don’t go to the media about it.
“The Leinster lads are looking at that and going ‘Jesus, where are these lads heads’ at?’
“There’s no way Isa or Johnny would have allowed any of the players mention a graze on their leg in the lead up to a final. There’s other things to be thinking about. It’s a distraction.
“They very fact that they’re mentioning it in the media means they’re thinking more about that than they are about how are we going to beat the best team in Europe this weekend.
“I actually could not believe it. When I began reading it I was like ‘Leinster have this game’. You need the leaders in your team to step up and go lads ‘that was tough, our legs are all sore but we’re all in the same boat so let’s forget about it and move on.
“We’ll think about it after we lift the trophy on the weekend. That’s the way your head is at.”
Listen to the full conversation surrounding the Scarlets training issues at the 2:50 mark below
Pivac said that his players were unable to train on Monday and some were still out of action on Tuesday because “to run around and knock the skin off again is not the ideal situation”.
“The main thing is to make the burns heal up,” he added.
“So, no-one trained yesterday [Monday] in terms of rugby work on the field and there will be some who won’t train today [Tuesday] which is unfortunate, but we will have a full training session on Thursday.
“It’s things that won’t stop them playing, but it’s not ideal.”
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