Leaving as winners the only send-off Blues brothers want

RABO DIRECT PRO12 FINAL:

Brian O’Driscoll and Leo Cullen’s lockers are just two places apart in Leinster’s UCD changing room. Or, they were, at least. On Thursday of this week the two vets returned to the inner sanctum after one last training session at their state-of-the-art HQ and packed up their belongings.

Tonight, the pair will repeat the process at the RDS once the Pro12 final against Glasgow Warriors is put to bed. Over 30 years of experience as professional rugby players: parked in the time it takes to fill two sports bags.

Leinster have already dispensed with the send-offs, that box having been ticked after the last regular-season game at the RDS, and Cullen surely spoke for O’Driscoll when expressing the hope that their farewells could be overlooked.

“I think we’ve had enough of those send-offs now at this stage. Some more than others,” he added jovially to a collective chuckle. “But, listen, yeah, it is strange more than anything else. It’s a very, very strange feeling.”

Matt O’Connor took a similar line. Joe Schmidt made O’Driscoll cry with his pre-match speech before his last Ireland game, in Paris last March, but his successor at club level spoke of processes rather than passions last night.

Cullen will start from the bench, as expected. O’Driscoll’s input will be more immediate. Alongside his mucker Gordon D’Arcy for one last time. By the looks of Leinster’s bench, it may be a lengthy shift.

With Dave Kearney and Luke Fitzgerald injured, only Ian Madigan and the inexperienced Darragh Fanning will provide cover beyond scrum-half, meaning the outside centre may have to put in an 80-minute shift before he clocks out for the final time.

“It’s about the team performance and if we need Brian on the field for 80 minutes Brian will be on the field for 80 minutes,” said O’Connor. “Barring circumstance. He has had some very good 80-minute performances for us this season.

“Away at Castres he was exceptional, not necessarily in the special things that he is known for, but in the grit and determination and composure that he gave us in a really hostile environment. He was unbelievable.”

If Leinster are short of backs on the bench then the opposite is the case up front. Sean O’Brien is held in reserve while Jordi Murphy, capped for his country in the Six Nations, will be looking on in his civvies.

All told, Leinster have made three changes from the semi-final win over Ulster. Mike Ross replaces Marty Moore, Quinn Roux loses out to the fit again Mike McCarthy and Zane Kirchner steps in for the injured Dave Kearney.

Opposing them is a Glasgow side that shows two changes from the one that overcame Munster in the semi-final at Scotstoun, with Peter Horne replacing Mark Bennett at centre and Gordon Reid coming in for Ryan Grant at loosehead prop.

Stuart Hogg, one of their two British and Irish Lions, is again omitted from the 23, although coach Gregor Townsend diluted talk of a move away for his full-back.

This is the Scottish side’s first time in a final, but it has been coming. Four semi-finals in five years precede this and they have won their last nine games on their way to a showdown against a Leinster side they have troubled, though without topping, in the recent past.

Townsend admitted he used Leinster as a “role model” when he first took over the Scottish outfit, aping their focus on quick ball while in possession and their defensive patterns when they are not.

Townsend even spoke to Schmidt about his methods before taking over and O’Connor accepted there were indeed similarities between the sides, even if Leinster have won eight of their last nine meetings.

“There’s a lot of commonalties across the game now. It’s on the TV all the time. The level of analysis that goes into this level of the game now is massive.

“There are no secrets. The first time you do something on the field everybody has exposure to it.

“There’s a lot of similarities in what they are doing with what Leinster has done historically which gives you a little bit of insight into how they play the game, but you still have to be good enough to stop it.”

It’s a final between a coming force and one out to prove it is still the force of old. How far both are down their respective paths remains to be seen, but the hunch is that Leinster still have the nous and the ability to pull this off.

One last, happy waltz for O’Driscoll.

And Cullen.