The Men of Gwent scored a famous away victory at the RDS last season thanks to some pin-point territorial kicking from Tovey. The 16-14 triumph back in February was their first win at Leinster at the 12th attempt, and Tovey is hoping they can pile on the pressure one again.
He said: “That win means we go there with confidence and sometimes we play better away from home. It’s up to the home team to entertain and we put pressure on them. As long as we do that again then there’s no reason why we can’t win there again. They won’t be taking us lightly after last season but we just have to concentrate on getting our game right.
“And after both our games we have spoken about the need to be more clinical. If we weren’t creating chances we’d be more worried but better teams will punish us if we aren’t putting points on the board.”
Lyn Jones side picked up a losing bonus-point at Connacht in the first round of Guinness PRO12 before battling to a 13-0 victory over Zebre. Leinster have endured a similar start to the Rodney Parade region after losing a raft of Ireland internationals to the Rugby World Cup. They kicked off their campaign with a 16-9 defeat to Edinburgh, before they put it right by beating Cardiff Blues 23-15 at home.
The Irish side have also lost captain Kevin McLaughlin after was announced last week the flanker, who made 86 appearances in the Pro12 during his career, was forced to stop playing rugby due to concerns over his susceptibility to concussion.
Back row forward Lewis Evans has made good progress with the foot injury that forced him off in the first half against Zebre and is in contention for Saturday. But Matthew Pewtner is still out with concussion.
The World Cup break has stopped Tovey from forging a partnership with new half-back partners Sarel Pretorious and Charlie Davies, but now he is relishing the chance to team-up with the new arrivals.
He said: “Sarel only had a week of pre-season training before the friendlies so it’s actually been good to start forming combinations. It’s useful to help get them up to speed with how the 10s like to play and see how they like to play.
“They are very different scrum-halves. Charlie is more of a game-controlling 9 while Sarel likes to run with the ball and when the weather is good it suits him down to the ground.”
