Toulon tie the opportunity for Leinster to scratch their Northampton itch

It's 12 months since Leinster's surprise Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton. Against Toulon on Saturday, they aim to right some wrongs

Garry Ringrose: "We were in this position a year ago and after the result of that game would have bitten your arm off to, maybe not fast forward the clock, but just to be in a position now again." Pic:  Tyler Miller/Sportsfile

So much has gone right for Leinster’s finest in the 12 months since they got caught napping by Northampton Saints in an extraordinary epic of a Champions Cup semi-final in Dublin.

Fourteen of them went on a successful tour to Australia with the British and Irish Lions. Tommy O’Brien got a Test debut in Georgia. And a whole clutch of them were drivers in an Ireland side that rediscovered some of its mojo in the Six Nations.

Good times, but none of it recompense for that 37-34 defeat at the Aviva Stadium.

How raw was it at the time? Leo Cullen admitted it would stick in the throat. He used the word horrific twice and declared it to be a day that would haunt them. His captain Caelan Doris opted for the sports standard “gutted” after the final whistle.

Now, 12 months later, they finally get the chance to make amends. To themselves as much as anyone else. For all the uncertainty over their form this season, Leinster know that it isn’t until May and June that the accounts are settled.

Everything else is small change.

“Yeah, I'd say energised by the fact that it's May,” said Garry Ringrose ahead of Saturday’s last four tie at home to Toulon and on the back of his own efforts in red, green and blue jerseys this last year.

“We were in this position a year ago and after the result of that game would have bitten your arm off to, maybe not fast forward the clock, but just to be in a position now again and get another crack at a semi-final.

“Obviously, lots has happened in the interim. So yeah, excited, motivated, I guess.” 

European semi-finals are enormous undertakings in and of themselves. Being a Leinster player these days means added baggage. A load that becomes more onerous with every agonising exit from the back end of this competition since their last win in 2018.

Imagine the atmosphere in Ballsbridge this weekend if Toulon start like a train. Or if Leinster find themselves in a nip-and-tuck affair come the final quarter. The visitors will know that. They should be aiming to feed off the province’s recent past.

For Leo Cullen’s side, this may be a game that is decided between the ears as much as the lines. This isn’t Northampton. It isn’t La Rochelle or Toulouse. Those games are done and gone. They can see this as a potential for more pain, or as a gateway to paradise.

“I guess there is a bit of that,” said Ringrose. “You focus on the possibility, or the opportunity, that's in front of us. But last year and the past 10 years, there's always lessons and learnings you try and pick up, and scars you have.

“Valuable ones to go through and experience and hopefully be better come the next opportunity. So there's a little bit of that. But, yeah, you're just excited, motivated for the work that's gone in for this group over the last year to get to this point.” 

Maybe the psychologists would tell us that this is the type of occasion that needs to be stripped of its wider significance, but Ringrose is actually framing it in bigger terms again as he talks of the work everyone in the building has done to get back to this point.

It’s a fair observation. If we as onlookers tend to focus on the players and the coaches then there is an army of staff, medical personnel, S&C employees, logistics support and so many more departments again all invested in the 80 minutes to come.

Munster players have made much the same point in the weeks since news of impending redundancies were announced. For Leinster, the stakes aren’t as critical in that sense, but the opportunity to scratch a nine-year itch must be a powerful propellant all on its own.

Ask Ringrose what this tournament actually means to him, after all the agonies since beating Racing 92 in that final eight years ago and he has to pause. It’s a simple question but a deep one, and it gets to the essence of what they’re about right now.

“Not to repeat myself, but it’s the amount of work that goes in to get to this point, and the amount of effort and good performances, and maybe poor performances individually and collectively. That is: good days, bad days, easier days, tough days, training, the same the weekend of the game.

“Some games you win by a point, or a kick in the last play of the game. Like, even Bayonne away from home in the lashing rain, ugly winds, and then it's all just to get a crack, to get an opportunity like this. So yeah, I don't know what's the word I’m looking for. Unbelievably grateful to have gotten to this point considering all the work that's gone in.”