Caution the key word for Matt’s marvels
But now hype has been called ashore after a job well done. That well-worn utility reality is about to step into the breach.
"It is important that the guys don't get influenced by what has been going on this week," Leinster coach Matt Williams admits.
"It can happen. There is so much goodwill and enthusiasm out there within this province, I just need to take a walk down my village and I see it, people coming up talking to me.
"Soccer and GAA people are completely on-side, behind us 100%. But the players have to let everyone else enjoy it. The game will be on video for prosperity, they can watch it the rest of their lives. We have to make sure we win in. We have to deal in reality."
The reality has changed since Williams touched down in the Northern Hemisphere over three years ago, to watch a World Cup and ended up Leinster coach.
Goals have changed. For the past couple of weeks, as hype reached fever pitch, Williams likes to tell of the first time he saw Leinster play.
There were no more than 1,200 people in Donnybrook as Munster walloped the home side on a cold November night. Three years of consistent improvement has turned that story into sentiment.
A new tale is been spun this season.
"It is going to be a great day," Williams agrees.
"We have concerns, there is such little time. That would be our biggest concern. I believe it's always the game when we just come back is when the team is at our most vulnerable.
"If we get through, we will get into some kind of roll, maybe rediscover the momentum before the break.
"If the team does need anything to lift them, after the break, they will get it from playing in front of nearly 50,000 of our people in Lansdowne.
That's an unique experience. The semi-final, if you are lucky enough to make it, you have to give 20,000 tickets to your opposition.
This is solely Leinster people and that will give us a great lift." Williams cut his coaching teeth in his native suburbs of west Sydney, schooling himself in all the sports sciences in the down-time his former teaching profession afforded him.
By 32, he was part of the coaching staff on the "Emerging Wallabies" side, progressing into the legendary Bob Dwyer's back-room for the 1995 World Cup.
Thereafter he was the longest serving coach in New South Wales Warraths history, taking the famous side for over 50 games.
Sadly, though, it all went pear-shaped in the end. In the weeks before his resignation in 1999, he was being mentioned more times daily in the Sydney Morning Herald than John Howard, Australia's eccentric Prime Minister.
Last year, after leading Leinster to the lesser promised land of the Celtic League, Saracens, with their big bucks, came a calling.
His expertise was highly-sought but the Leinster branch managed to negotiate a deal which ensured he stayed. They need not have worried.
Williams wasn't about to abdicate after starting something in the province. "I could see the potential in the province and the potential in the team.
"I had a few offers from England, but you could see this was a special group of guys. It's no exaggeration to say this team are like a family, we are talking about a very tight, close-knit bunch of guys who really feel like they are playing for their home.
"The commitment to each other, setting ourselves the goal and committing it, one goal for all of us that this is what we are after.
"We said it after losing to Biarritz three years ago and we have stuck at it. We want to succeed desperately."
Defeat to Biarritz two years ago was the turning point.
Williams explains: "There was so much natural talent, so much promise in this team that it was important we came up second that time against Biarritz, because there was so much talent there, they needed to lose.
"We had a lot of time to nurture the talent. They didn't hide, they faced up to that defeat, accepted it and didn't run. You need to bleed, you need to know the pain of defeat.
"I firmly believe it takes that kind of catharsis before becoming a champion."
Last year's crumpled defeat at Welford Road wasn't in the script, however. But Williams is not a subscriber to the "Leicester are unbeatable" pamphlet.
"We didn't play well in Welford Road and we had to play guys with injuries, but they are still beatable.
We beat them there that year, they didn't have their full team out to be fair. Okay, they are a great team, but every team in this competition, particularly at this stage, is capable of beating any other on any given day.
"If anyone works on any other assumption, they are going to fail."
That is why there are no false illusions in the Leinster camp this week.
"No. We have a very good analysis of our opposition, they are an excellent side with some very good players. We cannot get caught up in this perception that because they are an French team and French teams never travel well and then, it is a home game and Leinster never lose home games. All of that, it is simply not true."
There is no hiding the historic nature of this afternoon. Williams realises this game alone will be a badly-needed boost to the branch coffers in the Pale.
"The population of Dublin has never been mobilised like this for a rugby game, they are getting behind us, in financial terms, too.
"You have got to understand Saturday's game is worth one whole year's revenue for us as far as gate receipts go and if we hold half that, when we come to play European Cup next year, we might have to come down here again, because we will be getting 20 or 25,000 and that is just for the pool games.
That will change the face of rugby in Ireland like that. It is the best rugby experience I have ever been part of."
And it may still get better.
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