Harlequins merit due respect before Leinster can start thinking of Cardiff

The Irish giants have certainly been eased gently into the knockout rounds, on the far side of the draw from the two Top 14 behemoths.

Sat, 05 Apr, 2025 - 06:34

Brendan O'Brien

Here we go, then. All going well, today’s Champions Cup round of 16 tie against Harlequins at Croke Park will be the first of four games that will determine their entire season, the last of them obviously serving the role as the ultimate arbiter.

The expectation is that Leinster will whirl through this tie and the two that follow - all of them on home soil in Dublin - before their mettle will be tested fully again in the decider, at the Principality Stadium against either Toulouse or Bordeaux-Begles.

Sure it’s written in the stars, no?

The Irish giants have certainly been eased gently into the knockout rounds, on the far side of the draw from the two Top 14 behemoths. Add in that home advantage from here through to Cardiff and the buzz is that it’s not far short of a carpet shy of a ride.

Except...

Look, they really should make it to the Welsh capital. There’s little enough to argue that they won’t, but it’s less than a year since another Gallagher Premiership side provided the opposition in Croker and Leinster just about sneaked their way through.

Two early James Lowe tries put the province in the box seat in that semi-final. A third shortly after half-time should have sealed their superiority, but Northampton Saints scored the last 14 points and the Irish side had just three to spare at the finish.

It’s a useful reminder this week, even if Leinster have had the advantage of keeping most of their 23 at home prepping just for this game while another bulk of the squad was off grinding out the hard yards on a two-game URC tour of South Africa.

Leo Cullen certainly thinks so.

“We talk about lots of different scenarios the whole time and we just have to make sure that we learn from previous experiences. We started the game pretty well that day and it looked like we were in pretty reasonable shape, but in the end it was an absolute nailbiter.

“That’s the challenge. We obviously haven’t played the last few weekends (sic) but that is what it is and we just have to go out and deliver our best performance. We can’t get caught up in stuff about the draw. We have no control over that stuff.”

That shadow team showed how thin the line can be between success and failure having let a win against the Bulls slip through their fingers in injury-time and dogged out a 10-7 victory against the Sharks seven days later.

Only two players, Max Deegan and Ross Byrne, will bridge that game in Durban and this one, and both start here on the bench. Four fit Ireland internationals will sit in the stands with Ciaran Frawley, Jimmy O’Brien, Cian Healy and Thomas Clarkson joined there by Tommy O’Brien.

Among the notable selections are those of Jamie Osborne on the wing, where he had limited success for Ireland against France, Rabah Slimani starting at tighthead, Jack Conan in the No.6 jersey, and Jordie Barrett being restricted to a bench role.

Cullen neglected to offer an answer earlier this season when asked if the signing of Barrett on a short-term deal had been greenlit by the IRFU on the proviso that he would not take the place of Ireland internationals come these big days.

James Ryan injuring a calf in training made the choice of RG Snyman less complicated.

Harlequins are helped by the return from injury of captain Alex Dombrandt at No.8. Leigh Halfpenny comes in at full-back and the juiciest subplots will be the respective performances of the out-halves Marcus Smith and Sam Prendergast ahead of next month's Lions squad announcement.

The visitors can be dangerous.

Their stunning 42-41 defeat of Bordeaux in France in last year’s quarter-finals would suggest as much, and it’s only a fortnight since they came from 12-0 down against Saracens to win at the same Tottenham Hotspur Stadium where Leinster lost to Toulouse eleven months ago.

“We’re hugely excited,” said Cullen. “Watching Quins the last couple of weeks, they had a big win over Sarries in the Spurs stadium, which brought back [bad] memories. They have an ability to stick in the game and score points quickly.

“That’s probably been their form, not just this season but for the last five, six, seven seasons really. They have that ability. You look at their team, they have plenty of threats, so it’s a great challenge for us.”

LEINSTER: H Keenan; J Osborne, G Ringrose, R Henshaw, J Lowe; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, D Sheehan, R Slimani; J McCarthy, RG Snyman; J Conan, J van der Flier, C Doris.

Replacements: G McCarthy, J Boyle, T Furlong, R Baird, M Deegan, L McGrath, R Byrne, J Barrett.

HARLEQUINS: L Halfpenny; T Green, O Beard, B Waghorn, N David; M Smith, W Porter; F Baxter, J Walker, T Lamositele; J Launchbury, C Cunningham-South; J Kenningham, W Evans, A Dombrandt.

Replacements: S Riley, W Jones, S Kerrod, I Herbst, G Hammond, D Care, J Benson, L Northmore.

Referee: P Brousset (Fra).