Europe is where season starts in earnest for Leinster

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen during a Leinster Rugby captain's run at the GGL Stadium in Montpellier, France. Picture: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Leinster have more reason for encouragement than most ahead of a Heineken Champions Cup season which looks wide open thanks to a rejigged format and, crucially, the absence of English heavyweights Saracens, a team who have gone a long way towards defining Leinster’s seasons in recent years.

The London club have ended the province’s European hopes in each of the last two campaigns, bullying them in the 2019 decider in Newcastle before repeating the trick in last year’s quarter-final meeting in Dublin.

Just three months on, that defeat already has the feeling of a milestone game for Leinster given how often it’s be referenced by both players and coaches in the weeks since, but Cullen will take encouragement from a kind draw and the fact the province are already showing signs of growth ahead of today’s meeting with Montpellier at the GGL Stadium (KO 5.30pm).

Only five of the team that started against Saracens are in the first XV for the trip to France, with Hugo Keenan, Robbie Henshaw, Luke McGrath, Devin Toner and Caelan Doris the sole survivors.

Not all that change is based on form, however, as Johnny Sexton, James Ryan, Cian Healy and Andrew Porter all start from the bench following a gruelling schedule of autumn internationals.

There are notable injury absences, too, and with no Jordan Larmour, Garry Ringrose or James Lowe, there is a youthful look to the Leinster backline. Jimmy O’Brien has shaken off a back injury to make his European debut at fullback, while Keenan - who returns to provincial duty on the back of a hugely impressive start to his Test career - and Dave Kearney occupy the wings.

In midfield Robbie Henshaw and Ciaran Frawley - making his first European start - present an intriguing centre partnership full of invention, while scrum-half Luke McGrath saddles up alongside Ross Byrne, whose experience wins out over the form of younger brother, Harry.

Peter Dooley, James Tracy and Michael Bent might not be Leinster first-choice front row, but between them they boast 344 caps worth of experience in Leinster blue. The veteran second-row combination of Devin Toner and Scott Fardy is as reliable as any in the competition, while captain Rhys Ruddock, Josh van der Flier and Caelan Doris present a formidable and dynamic back row.

Montpellier have plenty of eye-catching names in their ranks themselves - four of the squad started in France’s win over Ireland in October - but there is little meat on the bones. The club have been desperately inconsistent in Europe over the years and their domestic form is all over the place, winning just three of their eight Top 14 games this season.

“It will be about making this a very high intensity game,” reckons Montpellier’s Director of Rugby, Phillip Saint-Andre.

“We know that against said teams (of such quality), you pay for every mistake. And often, speaking from experience, playing a game of this evil in the European Cup, it’s like doing six months training.” Not only do they need a huge performance if they are to record what would be just a second win in seven attempts against Leinster, who themselves have only lost one of their last 11 on the road in this competition, the hosts will need to ride out the introduction of a frightening Leinster bench in the championship minutes.

Cullen’s side come into this game on the back of seven straight bonus point wins in the Guinness PRO14, a run of games in which a string of experimental Leinster teams have barely been tested.

They have long made it clear they are too good for the fare on offer in the PRO14. For Leo Cullen and his squad, this is where their season really starts.