History hangs over Leinster as latest Champions Cup bid ramps up

Jamie Osborne sporting a black eye in Leinster training this week following last week's hard-fought win over the Scarlets. Pic: Grace Halton/Inpho

Leinster find it impossible to escape their Champions Cup history at this time of year, so maybe it’s no coincidence that Leo Cullen’s men decided to embrace the past ahead of Sunday’s Champions Cup round of 16 tie at home to Edinburgh.

Like all squads, there is a premium put on ways to bond as a group that don’t involve an oval ball. Barbecues have been popular, and they did a walking tour of Dublin a while back. This week they made for the Kilmainham Gaol museum and tour.

James Ryan, whose grandfather was an Irish revolutionary and prominent politician, must have loved that. Josh van der Flier, a history buff who loves listening to podcasts on the subject, actually felt guilty that he hadn’t visited before.

“I loved it, I really enjoy history so I was just delighted to be there in terms of get to see all the sites and hear some pretty amazing stories,” said the Ireland flanker. “An emotional place, to be honest. I'm not a very emotional person, but it was very emotional.” 

So, while we’re on the subject of history… Four-time winners of the tournament that some still call the European Cup, Leinster have morphed from a side that won all four of their first four finals to one that consistently comes up painfully shy in that quest for a fifth title. Eight years now and counting.

We’re at a point at this stage where only nine of the current Leinster squad knows what it is to play a part in a successful Champions Cup final - in Bilbao in 2018 - and only five of those will be involved against Edinburgh this weekend.

Van der Flier played all six of their pool games that season before succumbing to injury. He did merit a medal for his efforts, but the drive to back that up on the field of play when the decider returns to the San Mames this May is obvious.

“Yeah, absolutely, it's a major motivator.” 

Leinster are unbackable favourites for this latest appointment in the competition’s knockout stages with 14 Ireland internationals plus All Black Rieko Ioane filling out their starting XV and a bench boasting another six men with Test experience.

There is no place for Sam Prendergast with Harry Byrne preferred at No.10 and Ciaran Frawley, as he did through the back end of Ireland’s Six Nations, providing cover at out-half and more besides from the replacements list.

Ryan Baird comes back in from injury for his first start in six months: timely given the news earlier in the week that RG Snyman is out for the season with another ACL problem. An injury to Garry Ringrose leaves Ioane and Jamie Osborne to plug the midfield.

Edinburgh’s chances, slim to start, haven’t been helped by the loss to injury of captain Magnus Bradbury and wing Duhan van der Merwe. Head coach Sean Everitt has summed it up well by saying they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

For Leinster, the opposite applies. This week and for all those that follow.

If question marks over their ability to get over the finishing line in this tournament aren’t new then the criticisms of so many aspects of their game this early in the season is something we haven’t seen for a long time.

Last week’s URC defeat of the Scarlets in Dublin, with the slow start, early indiscipline and a defence that again looked too porous given the nature of the opposition, wasn’t an ideal dry run given they had so many of their Ireland crew back on board.

“There was a lot of good stuff, I thought,” said van der Flier. “We created a lot of opportunities, but it was a little bit frustrating looking back on it. It was a great win for us. Any time you get a bonus point win is great, but it was definitely a little clunky at times.” 

The worry is that, while Leinster embarked on a long winning streak through December and January with that Irish contingent involved, it never really looked all that convincing. There’s nothing to say they will click from here through to May either.

A huge focus, in that sense, remains on the defence.

Jacques Nienaber’s introduction of a blitz ‘D’ has been a source of constant debate, all the more so with the lack of success in the Champions Cup on the back of it. Win one of the last three ‘European’ titles and it wouldn’t be nearly as much of an issue.

Nienaber himself spoke of the need to ‘rewire’ how players think when he arrived, but van der Flier and other players themselves continue to play down the difference between the way it used to be and the way they still go about things with Ireland.

“It's definitely a small difference. It's probably more very specific situations where it might be different, but the principles are the same. It's not like you have completely different principles from one to the other.

“It's probably just a bit more … uncompromising.” 

Leinster need that, and everything else, to start clicking.