Leinster ride their luck to bring it home

Wasps 20 Leinster 20: European Champions Cup Pool 2: Matt O’Connor put a mostly positive spin on a game that got away from his Leinster team in Coventry on Saturday, but there can be no escaping the difference between the worth of a home and an away berth in the last eight.

Leinster’s players have become practised at minimising the importance of such matters but O’Connor knows better than any player and coach in the European game just how important it is to inhabit that home dressing room come April.

In three out of the last four years, he has had to pack his passport and challenge one of the continent’s big boys on their own turf. In 2012, his Leicester team lost to Leinster in Dublin. A year later, Toulon doling out the damage to the Tigers.