D’Arcy aims to progress one millimetre at a time

LAST time out it was the English league leaders. This Saturday it will be their French counterparts standing in the way.

If Leinster go on to win a second Heineken Cup next month they will have done it the hard way. Three weeks have elapsed since that Anglo-Irish heavyweight clash but time hasn’t dulled the memories of what was a bruising, bone-crunching evening of fearsome intensity on Lansdowne Road.

The first quarter, in particular, was a blur of huge hits and though Leinster were deserving winners in the end, they soaked up a flood of Leicester pressure before finally leaking a try mere minutes before the finish.