The natives are restless as Leinster look to banish the demons of semi-final defeats
Leinster have played some superb attacking rugby this calendar year but they haven’t come close to putting a 60-minute performance together let alone anything that approaches the full 80. Pic: ©INPHO/Grace Halton
Here they go again. This is Leinster’s fifth Champions Cup semi-final in Dublin in the last five years, their sixth in a row regardless of venue.
Zoom out again and it’s a 10th in 12 years, and all they have to show for it is a solitary title won in Bilbao in 2018.
Those aren’t good numbers.
The natives are starting to get a tad restless. Some disinterested even. Tickets sales as of Friday lunchtime were a disappointing 35,000, 400 of them bought in France, with tournament organisers hoping latecomers might push the crowd closer to the 40-mark.
Let’s put that in context. Leinster filled Croke Park when beating Northampton Saints at this stage two years ago. The lowest audience they pulled in the last four ‘home’ semis was the 42,207 shocked by the Saints win this time last year.
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Forget the iffy form this season, the debate over post-Lions disruptions, questions over Jacques Nienaber’s defensive machinations and how it might be with the mythical
The bottom line here is very simple for Leo Cullen & Co. Just win.
Pressure? Oh, you betcha.
“You use a little bit of fear during the week to prep,” Leinster captain Caelan Doris, “and then, come game day, it’s just about letting go, attacking the game, having the courage to play the way we want to play and going for it completely.” Letting go, he called it.
If that’s exactly what their public wants to see on the field then detaching from the baggage that is last year’s loss to Northampton in this same venue at this same juncture of the competition would be an impressive unloading in itself.
It’s probably not possible to overestimate the imprint left by that 37-34 defeat. Reminders of it – and the URC final win over the Bulls – have been on the walls of their training centre all season. Henry Pollock’s strut must be ingrained in their minds. And his words.
The video released after the game by the Saints will have cut just as deep. The theme they adopted about how Leinster weren’t as connected as them.
Pollock’s half-time prediction that the Irish side would s***t themselves.
The fact is that Leinster are deemed gettable now. Compromised.
Cullen was up front as to the blow they stomached 12 months ago but he sought some separation from it when quizzed again on it here.
Different challenge, different team, new faces in their own squad. Doris opted for a similar strategy.
“We’ve touched on it a few times over the last number of weeks and through the season really. There were lessons to be learned from that game. You kind of get reminded of them through the season but at the same time, it’s a clean slate in other ways.”
Tadhg Furlong misses out with injury this time, but Andrew Porter’s return does at least ease the sense of crisis at the loosehead position. Fifteen internationals will start for Leinster, including All Black Rieko Ioane whose job on the wing seems to be quite straightforward.
“I’m hoping he scores three or four tries.” Cullen laughed.
If the province can boast an impressive line-up then the absences of players like Paddy McCarthy, Ryan Baird and RG Snyman has robbed them of significant impact off a bench that does at least boast Ronan Kelleher and Sam Prendergast.
Alex Soroka and Scott Penny are newcomers to this rarified European atmosphere and Toulon will read the latter lines of that opposition teamsheet and see opportunity should they make it to the last quarter with ambitions intact.
Watching them dance to a boombox during their stadium walk-through on Friday evoked memories of similarly chilled vibes in the La Rochelle and Toulouse camps before finals Leinster lost in Marseille and Tottenham.
A reminder, as if it were needed, of yet more heartbreak.
The French seem to have turned a corner in the last month with four wins on the trot, in Stade Mayol and on the road, Top 14 and Champions Cup, and possess some brute physicality up front, a savvy half-back pairing and real class out wide.
Leinster have played some superb attacking rugby this calendar year, and big players are showing some encouraging form, but they haven’t come close to putting a 60-minute performance together let alone anything that approaches the full 80.
Conceding two maul tries in last week’s URC defeat to Benetton will have caught the eye of Toulon’s bruisers and there continues to be a disconnect between the sort of defence that Jacques Nienaber wants and the team presents.
They start here as double-digit favourites with the bookies but, while Leinster have won all six games in Europe this term, they have stuttered in all of them, starting with the concession of 28 points to Harlequins in December.
Leicester, La Rochelle and Bayonne were all beaten with some difficulty - it took a last-minute kick to see off Ronan O’Gara’s struggling side in January – and both Edinburgh and Sale belied their average abilities for long periods.
The hunch is that Leinster will have enough to do something similar here and find a way to get the win needed for another trip to Bilbao but if semi-finals are all about winning then it’s getting to a point where a bump in performance levels is required with it.
Otherwise, it’s hard to see them breaking this losing streak in the Basque country.
H Keenan; T O’Brien, G Ringrose, G Henshaw, R Ioane; H Byrne, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, D Sheehan, T Clarkson; J McCarthy, J Ryan; J Conan, J van der Flier, C Doris.
R Kelleher, J Cahir, R Slimani, A Soroka, S Penny, L McGrath, S Prendergast, J Osborne.
M Jaminet; G Dréan, JI Brex, J Sinzelle, S Tuicuvu; T Albornoz, B White; JB Gros, T Baubigny, K Sinckler; C Mezou, D Ribbans; J Kpoku, C Ollivon, M Shioshvili.
G Lucchesi, D Brennan, B Gigashvili, M Halagahu, Z Mercer, B Serin, E Abadie, M Ferté.
L Pearce (Eng).
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