Watch: No trad sessions for Leinster this week as Leo Cullen sticks to the process
SPECIFIC ROLE: Leinster's Will Connors. Pic: Tom Maher, Inpho
Munster may be out of this year’s Champions Cup but for Leinster all eyes remain on their southern border.
La Rochelle’s residency in Cork this week has dominated the discourse ahead of a mouth-watering quarter-final at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening that is virtually sold out just six days after tickets first went on sale.
Ronan O’Gara’s team took his squad to his hometown and melded his past life with his current one. The team has stayed in Fota Island Resort, they trained in Temple Hill, kicked in Virgin Media Park and explored the town with it.
There was dinner in Isaacs and groups spotted in The Cork Arms and Sin É with a traditional Irish music session going down particularly well with a cosmopolitan Top 14 squad that is seeking a hat-trick of successive titles.
It certainly beat traipsing back home from South Africa, where they won a round of 16 tie, unpacking and repacking bags after no time at all and then making for Dublin. Leinster, by way of contrast, have had the luxury of home comforts.
Their form in the pool stages brought with it a second seeding for the knockouts and home advantage all the way through to, and including, a possible semi-final. So there was no trad session for the boys in blue this week.
“No, we had a bit of one the previous week actually, impromptu,” said a laughing Leo Cullen on Friday. “It was short though, a bit of punch to it, off the back of one of the players [Robbie Henshaw] getting married the previous week. It was good.
Leo Cullen says he isn’t getting distracted by the La Rochelle/Cork/ROG love-in this week pic.twitter.com/Jp6lwTBlKy
— Brendan O'Brien (@byBrendanOBrien) April 12, 2024
“The lads are all in good form and, again, the big thing is there's such great excitement and we're very appreciative of the turnout that's going to be here. A pretty much sold-out game, in the space of a week it's pretty phenomenal, the interest that's there.
“Hopefully it will be a great contest between two proud teams fighting it out for their respective clubs and all the people that represents. That's what we've tried to focus on, tried to deliver a good plan, train well and try deliver the best version of ourselves.”
You could pick a few holes in that.
Cullen has clearly cut his cloth to measure with this week’s opposition in mind. Will Connors, who started in the pool stage win against them in France last December, starts in the back row on a European week for the first time since that day.
“I think he's the best chop tackler in the game, that I've come across,” said Cullen when asked for his thought process there. “I'm struggling to… As you ask me that question, I'm sort of thinking who is better out there.
“In terms of getting guys on their backs - and they've got some big guys so get them on their backs and make them have to work - he delivers that in spades and we'll see how he goes.”
Josh van der Flier drops to the bench as a result. Another held in reserve is Ross Molony with Jason Jenkins getting the nod in the second row on account of the extra few kgs of South African beef he will bring to the table against a physical La Rochelle pack.
Leinster have also gone for a 6/2 bench split with Jack Conan and Rónan Kelleher joining van der Flier and Molony as part of a second wave that will be tasked with negating that physical edge as the game ticks down to the last defining minutes and seconds.
For La Rochelle, Ronan O'Gara has made one alteration to the side that eventually got the better of a stubborn Stormers side on a 22-21 scoreline in Cape Town last weekend.
Influential full-back Brice Dulin - understood to be nursing a leg injury - misses out, with his replacement coming in the form of blistering French international winger Teddy Thomas.
Thomas' inclusion means South African back-three operator Dillyn Lleyds switches to the 15 jersey for the Aviva clash.
H Keenan; J Larmour, R Henshaw, J Osbourne, J Lowe; R Byrne, J Gibson Park; A Porter, D Sheehan, T Furlong; J McCarthy, J Jenkins; R Baird, W Connors, C Doris.
R Kelleher, M Milne, M Ala'alatoa, R Molony, J Conan, L McGrath, C Frawley, J van der Flier.
D Leyds; J Nowell, UJ Seuteni, J Danty, T Thomas; A Hastoy, T Kerr-Barlow; L Penverne, T Latu, U Atonio; U Dillane, W Skelton; J Cancoriet, L Botia, Greg Alldritt.
Q Lespiaucq-Brettes, A Kaddouri, J Sclavi, T Lavault, P Boudehent, Y Tanga, T Iribaren, I West.
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