Leinster will look to mix of the old and the 'new' in bid to change Champions Cup script

Josh van der Flier, right, and Harry Byrne during a Leinster Rugby Squad training session at UCD in Dublin. Pic: Jamie O'Brien/Sportsfile

Another year, another now-or-never Champions Cup showdown for Leinster. It really can feel like a case of things appearing to be so much the same the more they should be changing when it comes to their Sisyphean efforts.

Saturday in Bilbao will be their fourth stab at a decider in just five years. It will be their fifth in the eight seasons since they extended their then-impeccable finals record to four wins from four appearances after edging Racing 92 in the Basque Country.

What’s noticeable about their frustrated efforts up to now is how little churn there was in the ranks in recent times. Skirt back to their last final push, when they lost to Toulouse after extra-time in London in 2024, and the recurrent nature of it all is plain.

Of the 23 that featured that day, only Ross Byrne, Jason Jenkins and Michael Alalatoa are not around anymore. And only Byrne, Jordie Barrett and Cian Healy are missing from the squad that fell to Northampton in the semi-final 13 months ago.

The norm for Leinster, this is extraordinary in a wider rugby context.

As many as 13 of the players Leo Cullen names this week could find themselves playing in their fourth final in this five-year spell. Hugo Keenan, Jamison Gibson-Park, Andrew Porter, Tadhg Furlong and Caelan Doris are all likely to make it four final starts from four.

Garry Ringrose would be another only for injury two years ago.

Forwards coach Robin McBryde spoke earlier this week about how Leinster have collected tidbits from all of those agonizing defeats, adding them like magpies into the nest of information that informs their training sessions and games going forward.

The thinking is that they must be all the stronger for those experiences, that the lessons learned will amount to a fuel drum of information that can propel them over the line against a heavily-fancied Bordeaux-Begles in Spain this Saturday.

The flip side, of course, is that there is a danger with so much scar tissue.

Leinster used just 30 players in the course of those three successive deciders between 2022 and 2024, with the likes of Rhys Ruddock, Ross Molony and Charlie Ngatai also fading from the scene, but there are winds of change as they return to the San Mames.

Tommy O’Brien’s journey to belated overnight sensation is apparent yet again in the fact that he would be appearing in his first Champions Cup decider should he be passed fit. Rieko Ioane would be another ‘newbie’ if selected. So would Harry Byrne.

The out-half is guaranteed to get the nod at No.10, which means he will look to do what Johnny Sexton and his brother Ross couldn’t when losing those tight tussles to La Rochelle (twice) and Toulouse in the recent past.

Byrne showed signs of nervousness with the boot in the semi-final against Toulon in Dublin two weeks ago and Leinster’s tight-as-a-drum losses in recent deciders would suggest that they can’t afford a similarly iffy effort from such a pivotal figure.

That holds for everyone, really.

Injuries to Ryan Baird and RG Snyman, among others, deprive Leinster of options and depth on the bench. It leaves players like Jerry Cahir, Max Deegan and Scott Penny all in the mix to feature on the province’s biggest day for the first time.

No two stories are the same. Deegan and Penny have plugged away at the club for years, ignoring the opportunity to pitch up somewhere new with more regular game time to work for this very chance at the biggest game of them all.

Cahir was playing AIL last year and working a day job with Vodafone.

Thomas Clarkson is another who will be new to this experience, most likely as a replacement. Paddy McCarthy and Alex Usanov are two more greenhorns who would be candidates to make the step up should they shake off foot and ankle injuries in training.

There could actually be as many as seven of the matchday squad breaking new ground at this rarified level. That wouldn’t be worth remarking upon in most other places, but it would add up to change of seismic proportions for Leinster.

It also begs the question as to how many more chances will come this collective’s way if this one doesn’t work out.

Leo Cullen could name seven players in their thirties in his starting XV. Four of those are 33 or older. Another three of the expected starters will be leaving their 20s behind at some point in the next six months.

Four from that ten have never played in a winning Champions Cup final team. Another three played cameo roles off the bench in 2018. Time isn’t exactly up for this team yet but the wrong side of the hourglass is filling up for some of them.