Paul Rouse helps Leinster do Croke Park homework ahead of 'blood and thunder' derby

Saturday will be the first time in 15 years that the old rivals meet at the home of the GAA

82,300 people attended Croke Park for the Champions Cup Semi-Final between Leinster and Northampton Saints last May Photo: ©INPHO/Ben Brady

Leinster coach Robin McBryde is predicting a “blood and thunder” provincial derby when they meet Munster in a Croke Park stadium rapidly approaching sold-out status ahead of Saturday’s URC meeting.

It’s 15 years since these old rivals met at the home of the GAA, when a world record crowd for a club game of 82,000 took in their seminal Heineken Cup semi-final, and Leinster have reportedly shifted over 75,000 tickets as things stand.

“It’s an interpro game so it is the same for both sides. It’s not our ground. Form book is out the window. It doesn’t matter, it is all on the day. There is probably a little bit more blood and thunder about the game as opposed to playing the nice stuff.

“You can turn your season around if your season isn’t going great. You get a big game against your local rivals, win that and it just spurs you on to better things. It should be a great occasion.

“No disrespect to the first three games or opponents, we have been sort of welcoming the internationals back, there have been different combinations, we haven’t had much cohesion really up until this week.

“Some of the boys were playing their game at the weekend against Benetton so they have got that under their belt. It feels like this is the start of it now.” 

Leinster forwards and scrum coach Robin McBryde during a squad training session at UCD. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

The ‘hosts’ this week have the benefit of having played at Croke Park earlier this year when they edged Northampton Saints in a Champions Cup semi-final in front of a near-capacity arena. So this won’t be new for them.

Leo Cullen’s side bought fully into the venue and its mystique that time, bringing in nine-time All-Ireland winner James McCarthy to speak to the squad, while Declan Darcy, former Dublin player and selector, is a performance coach with Leinster.

They repeated that approach this week with historian, former Offaly football manager and Irish Examiner columnist Paul Rouse invited in to share his expertise on Croke Park and what makes it the iconic venue it is.

“One of the things I took away from it, it was only a 15-20 minute presentation where he went through the history and detail of the place, but he also said 'don't make any more of it than what it is',” said McBryde.

"Declan Darcy has great experience of playing there as well. Dec was saying at the end of the day rugby is 15 against 15. Don't get lost in the hype. It's a great place to go and play, don't get lost in the occasion.”

More immediate in Leinster’s minds right now will be some injuries with Jimmy O’Brien and Jordan Larmour doubts this week. And there is the situation at hooker where they are reaching deep into the depth chart.

Dan Sheehan is a long-term absentee while Rónan Kelleher injured a foot against Benetton and is still being assessed. Academy hooker Gus McCarthy has been flown home from the Emerging Ireland tour in South Africa while Lee Barron is another option there.

Also part of the picture this week is RG Snyman who made his Leinster debut in northern Italy four days ago and is now set to face his previous club in one of the most impressive settings available to the club game anywhere in the world.

“He’s been brilliant, really good in the group,” said McBryde. “I would say the same thing about Rabah (Slimani) as well. There are two experienced individuals, they know who they are, they are not trying to be anything that they are not.

“It’s great that James Ryan and RG, they were playing on opposite teams, calling the lineouts against each other in South Africa during the summer and now they are working side by side, learning from each other.” 

Snyman and Slimani bring what McBryde describes as different sets of eyes to the building. Maybe more important is how those long-term servants see things having endured yet more misery at the end of another trophyless season last time around.

McBryde said before the Champions Cup final that the result would not define them either way and the forwards coach agreed that it was a good question even as he pointed to other fresh voices in the form of Jacques Nienaber and Tyler Bleyendaal.

“You have to talk individually. I’ll just say looking at it from the outside, from my point of view Ciarán Frawley, he's got over it by his actions: nailing that drop kick out in South Africa.

“I congratulated him, said ‘fair play to you,’ and thought ‘that’s bloody great, shame you couldn’t do it a couple of weeks earlier’. I’m not blaming him.

“That’s the nature of the game, it is how you dust yourself off and get back up. We had the ‘man in the arena,' it was our sort of theme last season, so it is not the critic that counts. You have to live by that, be able to put yourself out there, not worry about the end result really.”