Will the last back row at Leinster please turn the lights off?

Andy Farrell has been helping Ireland channel their “true Irish grit” in recent weeks — and Ross Molony wants Leinster to do the same.

Fergus McFadden says he has already seen signs that Andy Farrell is learning from Ireland’s awful 2019.

It is not long now until Adam Griggs’ Ireland women’s side opens up their calendar with the visit of Scotland to Donnybrook but the Six Nations has, for once, been relegated down the list of priorities.

Last Saturday week,before he’d oversee Leinster steamroll Connacht in the RDS, Stuart Lancaster popped over to DCU on the other side of town to speak to coaches from all sports and all over the country on the theme of talent development.

Take a quick look at the statistics of this year’s Heineken Champions Cup and the numbers almost paint a picture of the rugby Leinster are playing.

The French have always been partial to the grand, dramatic gesture and Fabien Galthié held true to that great tradition last week when sweeping the decks clean of old-timers and naming a Six Nations squad awash with youth.

Less than a month to go until Andy Farrell selects his first Ireland team and the list of known unknowns when it comes to selection is a lengthy one after the trauma of Japan.

For Leinster, history beckons — and it’s only mid-season.

Forget the 14 tries Leinster have plundered against the Saints this last two weekends. Ignore the fact that, with this win, they became the first team in history to make the European Cup’s knockout stages with two rounds to go. Never mind the physicality and the finesse and the star power.

If there is one drawback to consistent excellence then it could be the manner in which it frames the odd, inevitable mistake.

The always pragmatic Leinster coach Leo Cullen summed things up best when describing Leinster’s hard-fought win away to Lyon on Saturday: “It’s just about getting the job done at the moment, isn’t it?”

Leinster may have a smooth running conveyor belt of talent coming through but many of those plotting a course along it find that there are bumpy patches and detours along the way.

Leinster withstood a fierce onslaught from TOP14 leaders Lyon to grind out a hard-fought 13-6 Heineken Champions Cup win at the Stade de Gerland.

Leinster warmed up for next week’s Champions Cup match with a clinical 42-11 PRO14 derby win over Connacht at the Sportsground tonight.

Leo Cullen claims he feels no sense of bitterness towards Saracens who thwarted Leinster’s Heineken Champions Cup ambitions in last May’s final at St James’ Park in Newcastle.

The rain was bucketing down outside Leinster’s Dublin headquarters earlier this week as Joe Tomane looked back on his journey from Australia via France to Ireland.

James Lowe is not yet eligible to play for Ireland, but his thoughts on the World Cup final suggest he’ll fit right in.

Leo Cullen has questioned why there was no mention made of the coaching changes at other Irish provinces after Brian O’Driscoll and Isa Nacewa pointed to Stuart Lancaster’s arrival in Leinster as a potential cause of Ireland’s World Cup disappointment.

A late rally from Leinster carried them to a narrow Guinness PRO14 victory over 14-man Benetton Treviso.

Rob Kearney has ended speculation about his immediate future.

Tadhg Furlong wouldn’t usually be of a mind to do much the day after a game.

He wasn’t exactly written out of history yet when you think of Westmeath’s solitary Leinster title success 15 years ago, Jack Cooney’s name doesn’t immediately spring to mind.

Leo Cullen vented his anger last week at what he perceived as suggestions in some media outlets that Jonathan Sexton had been ‘dropped’ for the semi-final win over Munster. He need not have bothered as Sexton’s selection for today’s decider was always going to refute such spin.

Reasons to be fearful for Leinster today?

Munster were left to rue their poor discipline after succumbing to another Guinness PRO14 semi-final defeat at the hands of Leinster today.

Leinster made light of their European final disappointment in Newcastle to brush past rivals Munster and ease into next Saturday’s Guinness PRO14 decider.

Today’s meeting of Leinster and Munster at the RDS will, inevitably, be used as another opportunity to measure exactly how far Joey Carbery has come since he moved the 200km down the road from Dublin to Limerick.

As Leinster and Munster discovered to their cost in Europe this past month, knowing the threat that is coming your way and being able to deal with it are different matters entirely.

Munster and Leinster have named their teams for tomorrow’s Guinness PRO14 semi-final at the RDS Arena.

The frustration Leinster players and coaches felt after last weekend was absolute. That stuff is hard to internalise. You can’t have enough of those stars on your shirt.

Leo Cullen is hopeful his bruised and fallen European champions can recover from their Saracens loss but wary of Munster’s own desire for silverware as preparations begin for Saturday’s Guinness PRO14 semi-final.

The received wisdom for Leinster’s loss was poles apart in the moments after Saturday’s final whistle and in the hours that followed when thousands of post-mortems had been undertaken in the pubs and eateries around Newcastle.

Brendan O’Brien Conan: We didn’t play the Leinster rugby that got us to the final

It would be lazy to dismiss Leinster as just another PRO14 casualty of the Saracens juggernaut.

Peter Jackson picks his XV for the Heineken Champions Cup Team of the Tournament.

An absorbing Heineken Cup final that lived up to its billing in every way. The Leinster players must have woken up yesterday wondering what hit them.

Dig around through the entrails of Leinster’s last ten years of European triumphs and there are surprisingly few threads connecting them all.

Donal Lenihan on the players and performances that could shade today’s meeting of the European superpowers in Newcastle.