James Ryan: 'What’s the alternative to pressure? You don’t want to go after it?'

For Leinster, everything they do in these pool stages is prefaced by the utter expectation that they will sail through, most likely with home advantage baked in through to the semi-finals

PRESSURISED ENVIRONMENT: Leinster’s James Ryan. Pic: Andrew Conan/Inpho

If the opening weekend of the Champions Cup told us anything it was that our suspicions had merit before kick-off. 

The competition will again lack the frisson of the old days until it hits the later knockout stages, and Toulouse and Leinster are again ominously placed to be celebrating in Cardiff come the end.