'Fairly sick' but Leinster still have drive for five, insists Will Connors

The eastern province came up short in North London on Saturday.

Mon, 27 May, 2024 - 00:05

Simon Lewis, London

Beaten, again, but not broken, Leinster’s self-belief that they are a squad capable of adding a fifth Champions Cup title for their province remains unshaken by a third final defeat in a row, according to Will Connors.

The flanker reflected the mood in the losing dressing room at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday evening as Toulouse celebrated their 31-22 extra-time victory and sixth European title along the corridor when he described the feeling as “fairly sick”. Equally there was a determination that Leinster’s ambition to add a fifth star above their own crest will not be undermined by this latest, agonising setback.

“It hurts. The last few years have hurt but there is no other real words for it,” Connors said having started at openside flanker ahead of Josh van der Flier.

“You look at the last few years, you look at today, we’re still an incredible squad, we’ve top end players across every position, you know that’s not going to break us. We’re going to come together, we still have the URC to bounce back with, we want a strong finish there.

“It’s a really tight group, this group will never fade away, we’re all mad to get that extra star on, to create a legacy that we’re all striving to do, we go again next year, we’ll bounce back.

“We’re hurting, there is no other way to put it. We’re in there, we’ll share each other’s company again, like the group is incredibly strong, it’s always been strong, that’s what we pride ourselves on, we’ve come the whole way up together, we’re best mates in there, you know we didn’t win today, we didn’t get the luck of the draw. We just have to bind together again and keep bouncing at it.”

Connors believes the depth of quality within the Leinster squad can help the bounceback.

“We’ve got the quality, you look at even lads who weren’t playing today, top quality players who are chomping at the bit to play top-end rugby. Even just across the back row, the likes of James Culhane who is only new into the system, they’re incredible futures ahead of them. With the players that are still here, everyone is going to group together again.

“We come together, we put our best foot forward for the URC, we do everything we can to bring a trophy home with us. We set out this year to do the double and look it’s not over yet for us.”

Leinster will inevitably carry regrets with them into this Friday’s league season-concluding derby at home to Connacht and beyond into next month’s play-offs, not least being unable to taking the try-scoring opportunities they created, succumbing to both a relentless Toulouse defence and not being clinical enough.

“It was two teams, two really good teams going at it,” Connors said. “All credit to Toulouse, they took their opportunities really well, and it is hard to reflect back at what went wrong for us but yeah it was a fast game, it was quick, it was tough.

“I haven’t seen it back but we probably could have been a little bit clinical in those areas. We usually pride ourselves on them. In fairness you look at Toulouse they were good at scrambling, it’s the heartbeat of their game, we probably didn’t deal with it well enough.

“They got over the ball, a few of their lads were good over the ball, and it just went their way.”