Leinster much improved for latest meeting with some old friends

Caelan Doris, Joe McCarthy and RG Snyman during a Leinster Rugby captain's run at the Aviva Stadium. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Funny how some circles can close. Leinster’s season began over seven months ago with a pair of tune-ups against Northampton Saints in Dublin and a trip to the Stade Chaban-Delmas where they faced Bordeaux-Begles.

Leo Cullen and his staff went out for a meal with their Bordeaux counterparts the day before that second friendly and the conviviality spread sufficiently for everyone to agree that it would be fantastic should they meet again in Cardiff.

The odds on this happening in three weeks’ time aren’t long. Toulouse are missing some irreplaceable names for their all-French showdown while these Saints are a very different proposition to the side that lost here at the same stage 12 months ago.

Both Leinster and their visitors show seven changes from their XVs when compared to that Croke Park encounter. The difference is that Leinster look a much improved side from then, while Northampton don’t appear to be near as good.

Simple maths tell us as much.

The Irish province finished third in the URC in 2023/24 but sit well clear at the top now. The Saints were Premiership champions last term but probably won’t even make the playoffs this time around. Simplistic? Yeah, but that's just the start.

Northampton were anything but sacrificial lambs at GAA HQ. Down 20-3 at the start of the second-half, they kept their opponents scoreless thereafter and only lost by three points after a hotly-debated turnover at the death went in Leinster’s favour.

If Northampton’s knockout breezes against Clermont and Castres need treating with a suspicious eye then the same holds for Leinster’s pummellings of Harlequins and Glasgow. And yet the wind appears to be almost all in Leinster’s sails.

Jacques Nienaber was only in the door as defensive guru the mid-season before, now everything is bedded down, Tyler Bleyendaal has had a full campaign shaping the attack, and the personnel changes all scream improvement.

Sam Prendergast is an upgrade at out-half, while RG Snyman, Rabah Slimani and Jordie Barrett have brought as much punch as pizzazz to a dressing-room that was already swimming in Ireland Test caps, silverware and motivation after recent seasons in blue.

“Even looking back at the semi-final last year, where we started really well and faded during the game, I feel we’ve come a long way since then, especially defensively,” said Jack Conan. “We were still embedding a defence system that we weren’t used to. It has now become habitual to us. We’re comfortable with it.

“Everyone understands their role, whereas previously, maybe 90 per cent of the lads did. But even if you have 10 per cent of the lads who don’t, or who aren’t 100 per cent certain in one aspect or one moment of the game, it leads to problems. We’ve come a long way defensively in the space of a year and that just gives everyone confidence.” That Conan starts this game on the bench is a statement in itself. That this three-Test British and Irish Lion isn’t even the most talked about man on that bench speaks for the talent that Leinster have in the 23 and even outside of it.

Anyone who saw Barrett’s performance against Glasgow in the quarter-final is entitled to ask on what planet the All Black, when fit, doesn’t make the starting XV for the semi-final. It’s a decision without logic from a form standpoint.

The suggestion has been that Leinster may have had some stipulations forced on them in terms of playing time, and prioritising Ireland players in those positions, when bringing in the likes of Barrett, Snyman and Slimani.

Cullen has evaded that question before but he had to face it again here when opting for Garry Ringrose and Robbie Henshaw in the centre, Hugo Keenan at full-back and James Lowe and Tommy O’Brien taking a wing each.

“Aw, this is top-secret now, so it is. This might upset people,” the head coach laughed. “You can’t get into the ins and outs but he could have got picked, yes. Everyone wants to know. There’s always bits in the background that go on…. It depends who you ask.” Snyman’s start is devoid of complications, what with James Ryan’s ongoing absence from injury, but it will be interesting to see how selection goes if Leinster frank their pre-match favouritism here and make it to the Principality Stadium.

Of course, lose this and the questions about selection policies will become all the more demanding and desperate. It’s worth noting as an aside the youth of some of those who missed out with Jamie Osborne, Jack Boyle, Gus McCarthy and Tom Clarkson all unused.

And all of them Irish internationals.

It’s impossible to see their bid at a fifth star being shot down here. The bench alone, from which Andrew Porter will likely be unloaded after 20 or so minutes, is persuasive enough to back them. After that, it’s Bordeaux, or Toulouse, or bust.

Leinster: H Keenan, T O’Brien, G Ringrose, R Henshaw, J Lowe; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; C Healy, D Sheehan, T Furlong; RG Snyman, J McCarthy; M Deegan, J van der Flier, C Doris.

Replacements: R Kelleher, A Porter, R Slimani, R Baird, J Conan, L McGrath, R Byrne, J Barrett.

Northampton Saints: J Ramm; T Freeman, F Dingwall (capt), R Hutchinson, T Litchfield; F Smith, A Mitchell; E Iyogun, C Langdon, T Davison; T Mayanavanua, A Coles; J Kemeny, H Pollock, J Augustus.

Replacements: H Walker, T West, E Millar Mills, T Lockett, C Munga, A Scott-Young, T James, T Seabrook.

Referee: P Brousset ( Fra).