LEINSTER AND LEICESTER Tigers had very different weekends as the two clubs geared up for Saturday’s Champions Cup knock-out date in Dublin.
Leo Cullen’s Leinster welcomed the Bulls to the RDS for a top-of-the-table URC clash on Friday night, coming through a niggly first-half two points down before pummelling their visitors into the ground – outscoring the South African side 35-0 after the break on their way to a highly impressive victory.
Around the same time Leicester were engaged in a gripping Premiership clash with a Newcastle side who are now winless from 14 league games this season. Despite falling down to 12 men late in the game, the Tigers dug deep to claim a 19-12 win in a game which ran past the 100 minute mark.
It was a gruelling night for the Tigers – who sit seventh in the Premiership – ahead of a rather daunting trip to Dublin.
Leinster, on the other hand, were able to reflect on their defeat of the Bulls as pretty ideal preparation for what’s coming down the line this weekend. Met with a physical Bulls team who played direct and caused them some real issues at the scrum early on, Leinster figured their opponents out and finished well on top of Jake White’s men.
Europe is a different beast, but if Leinster can build on that performance at Aviva Stadium on Saturday, it could be another long night for the Tigers – who took a 55-24 beating when they came to Dublin in last year’s quarter-finals and lost 27-10 at home to Cullen’s men in the pool stages earlier this year.
“The big thing is that it was a proper, physical game and there’s a lot of similarities with Bulls [and Leicester],” said Cullen.
The way they play and the way Leicester play, because it’s based on them trying to test you out on set piece which is scrum and lineout drive.
“I thought we dealt with the lineout drive, there was once maybe midway through the second half where they got us on one on the far sideline.
“But we managed their maul well, it’s good for us to get a maul try as well, which is a big thing against the Bulls, they don’t enjoy being driven over their own try line so that was good for us.
“There was plenty of positives in that regard. Their kicking game, you saw the Bulls’ game against the Stormers, they would have kicked the ball a hell of a lot and Leicester, they play a strong kicking game as well.
“So there’s plenty of things they tested us out on. Using the bench was important for us today again, the impact the guys bring when they come off the bench is hugely important in the way the game is played these days.”
Leinster and Leicester have become well acquainted in recent years – as well as going head-to-head twice this season, Leinster won quarter-final games against the English side in both the 2022/23 and 2021/22 seasons [14-23].
“I think it’s always nice knowing your opposition a little bit,” says Leinster back row Jack Conan.
“It can be difficult when you haven’t played a team before or haven’t played them in a few years.
“We’re familiar enough with them but also they’re familiar with us, so it just means you can’t rest on your laurels and you have to go back to basics and keep on mastering those aspects of the game and again, some of setpiece stuff [against the Bulls] wasn’t perfect at times and we know how much of a challenge that will be next week if we don’t up the stakes again and up our levels.”
There’s been significant personnel changes on both sides – Johnny Sexton leaving and Jacques Nienaber joining Leinster while Steve Borthwick left the Tigers for the England job last season, with Dan McKellar now the man in charge at Welford Road.
Still, the Tigers gameplan hasn’t had a drastic overhaul and Leinster expect another physical, direct approach this weekend.
Conan acknowledged the province will take confidence from their win at Leicester in January, explaining why home advantage is another significant boost for them this weekend.
“You definitely use it [the pool game] as maybe a blueprint of what we did last time around, but we know it’s going to be unbelievably tough. And it’s great because you get to play them at home on a big pitch, which is huge, and hopefully a good day, it wasn’t the best day when we played them over there, the pitch was heavy and it’s a smaller pitch.
“Hopefully playing them at home on a bigger pitch will suit us more but we know it’s going to be a difficult challenge and they’ve a lot of players coming back over the last two weeks from England and stuff who will add a lot of value to them, and I’m sure they’ll be raring to go as well.
“It will be a massive week of work for us, and then a huge occasion on Saturday.”
