WITH EACH PASSING year the expectation around Leinster never fails to relent. A squad that measure themselves on winning the Champions Cup are often touted as heavy favourites to be crowned kings of Europe, and anything less is a bitter disappointment.
Yet it’s closing in on five long years now since the province last captured European club rugby’s top prize.
In 2019 they fell at the final hurdle against Saracens in Newcastle. The following year, the same opposition left them battered and bruised at an empty Aviva Stadium in the quarter-finals. Since then, La Rochelle have been the thorn in Leinster’s side, winning a semi-final in 2021 before last year’s stunning final success in Marseille.
The narrative around most of those defeats has been that Leinster lost the power battle. There’s certainly more than an element of truth in that, but it’s only part of the story.
“You lose finals and you lose semi-finals, and we always try and delve deeper than needs to be delved when it comes to it,” says Brian O’Driscoll, a man with three Champions Cup medals to his name.
The closer you get to the top the closer it gets between the sides, and that’s the reality of it. That’s why you see bigger points differentials at quarter-finals, less in semis, and less again in finals, because the cream rises to the top.”
Toulouse, the only team to have won the competition five times, are true European Cup royalty. They’ll once again bring a powerful pack to Dublin but it’s far from the only string to their bow, with the French side’s real point of difference the game-changing talent in their backline. Not many teams can do both to such devastating effect.
Currently leading La Rochelle by one point at the top of the Top 14 table, Ugo Mola’s side have played some scintillating rugby this year and will be confident of spoiling Leinster’s party – their desire fueled by a disappointingly flat performance at the same stage, in the same venue, last season.
“They look like they’re in flying form, don’t they?” O’Driscoll continues.
“They’re an improved team on last year. While (Anotine) Dupont is still in the form of his life, I think the danger would be that (Romain) Ntamack looks as though he’s back hitting some form having struggled the last six or seven months I would suggest, and then there’s plenty of grunt up front as well.
“They’ve got some huge size in the second row, they’ve got a big powerful front row, so Leinster are going to have to be very, very sharp to deal with their power game but I do feel as though if Leinster play the way they have played this season, then again they might have too much for them at home.
But you just don’t know, do you? Like, they’re one of three or four teams that you would suggest Leinster might find it difficult against. But that’s always the case at semi-finals and finals? You don’t ever have a cakewalk into a final and breeze it.
“When you come to the knockout stage and more so semi-finals and finals, there’s nothing between these teams and so you’ve got to find a way. Whatever the best part of your game is, you’ve got to put that across to the opposition and in the few occasions that Leinster have come unstuck it has been that they’ve been overpowered, but it’s a game of trying to overpower the opposition! It’s not like they’re getting caught out by these teams.”
Looking at Leinster, the man currently wearing O’Driscoll’s old number 13 shirt is playing some of the best rugby of his career.
Garry Ringrose was at his influential best in the quarter-final defeat of Leicester, picking up where he left off in the Six Nations on his return from a head injury.
“He’s developed huge range to his game,” O’Driscoll says.
He’s got a massive, massive engine, and I think that’s contributing significantly to his involvement, the amount of touches, making good decisions.
“He’s got a beautiful balance of experience now, he’s got the know-how, been there before, and then an appetite to continue to learn and improve and evolve and change his game too. There’s been some big defensive reads.
“But it’s a very well-oiled team. They’ve a very clear understanding of what they’re trying to do and what they’re trying to achieve, angles of running, and he’s got everybody else doing great roles for him as well. I’m sure he’d be the first to admit that the creation of some of the space for him or his ability to create for others is largely down to the jobs other people do in advance of him getting the ball.
“It’s such a cohesive unit that it’s very much team-orientated but he’s really thriving on the back of it. Plus, on top of it, his own skills, his own footwork, his own passing game, all those components are improved too. He’s been in the form of his life, for sure.”
Ringrose crossed for two tries against the Tigers – bringing his tally for the season to nine with club and country – but perhaps the most impressive aspect of his game this season has been his defensive work. Not only has Ringrose made some superb reads as he continues to grow as a key defensive leader for both Leinster and Ireland, he’s also more physical than ever in the tackle.
“He has enough miles on the clock to understand and read situations and knowing what their strengths are, and all of a sudden you’re taking a snapshot of the picture in your head before the play unfolds and you’re looking at different scenarios evolving.
“And he’s kind of one step ahead on that because of the personnel and the position and knowing what they favour doing, and also catching them a little bit on the backfoot.
“Sometimes he’s looked to play soft and then he’s sprung into making a big collision. And he doesn’t get the guy every time, but he’s changing the impact of where that next ruck is going to be and he’s breaking up the sequence of what that attacking team is trying to achieve, and that has a positive knock-on effect to just creating a bit of disarray or a bit of uncertainty as to what they do next and it allows for the defence to set.
“So there’s kind of method to the madness of the shooting the whole time, where he’s trying to have the attack second-guess themselves as to what they’re trying to do or whether he’s going to come or whether he’s going to play soft. The beauty of good 13 play is being unpredictable in what you’re going to come at defensively.”
O’Driscoll highlights the quality of the players around Ringrose, and while the absence of Johnny Sexton is an obvious blow, the former Ireland and Leinster captain believes the fact there is clarity around Sexton’s injury can be a good thing for the squad. They know that from here in on this season, Ross Byrne is the man at 10.
“There’s a comfort that comes with that, that Ross is now the guy,” O’Driscoll adds.
“I think he’s running the backline much better now, he’s been way more of a viable option because I think 10s that play off the line a little bit defensively, you have to let them run. Because you look at the threats outside him with Robbie (Henshaw) and Garry (Ringrose) and James (Lowe) and Hugo (Keenan) and Jimmy (O’Brien) and all these guys, they’re all really fast and loose and that’s probably not Ross’ game.
“So if he doesn’t take the ball to the line, defensively, I just push off that, whereas if he takes the ball to the line if he’s offered an opportunity to go through a gap, he’s got to take that because that has the defence second-guessing themselves, that tightens them up for the next time the pass is on.
I look at 10s over the course of my career, the guys that weren’t willing to play at the line, you let them play away at the line and you pushed off and you double-teamed other players who you felt were a greater threat.”
Given the form of those Leinster players, and the fact the province will enjoy home advantage through to the final should they make it, O’Driscoll naturally sees them as favourites to go all the way – but the vote of confidence comes with a word of warning.
“It’s hard to see how you would make someone else favorites above them, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think it has the capabilities of being close at semi-final or final level.
“There are some people who think that (it’s Leinster’s to lose) and I can understand why because of the home run, but they still have to do it. You still have to get it done. You still have to harbour all of that pressure and enjoy it and deliver.
“I think the ambition from last year, the disappointment and hurt from that lost final will really be fuelling their fire. But nothing will be handed to them.”
Brian O’Driscoll has teamed up with Guinness to support their ‘Never Settle’ campaign.
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