There is a touch of Jim Gavin’s Dublin about Leinster right now – different sport, same ruthless principles.
To cut to the chase, Moses had Ten Commandments but six-time All-Ireland winning boss Gavin was content with just the eight.
1 Character. 2 Attitude. 3 Selflessness. 4 Ability to be part of a team. 5 Ability to buy into a culture. 6 Intelligence and ability to make a decision. 7 Athletic ability. 8 Football ability.
Numbers 1-5 essentially amounted to the same thing: the need for every player to leave their ego at the gate and do things Jim’s way.
Not that they had much choice in the matter. Six members of the 2011 All-Ireland winning side – including then captain, Bryan Cullen, didn’t start the 2013 final while former footballers of the year, Bernard Brogan and Michael Darragh MacAuley, got dropped for the 2017 All-Ireland replay.
Now, there is a point to this little history lesson.
Leo Cullen isn’t just a Gavin admirer but it was clear, when he spoke to this reporter just before the 2018 All-Ireland final, that he had been looking north of the river to study the Dublin template closely.
“One of the things we really admire about them is that they don’t get carried away with themselves,” Cullen said that August.
The old cliché, winning makes you weak, is applicable to us all, it creates a certain level of complacency or an expectation. To counter that, you need to make sure you start from scratch every week and prepare appropriately every time. That way you maximise the talent at your disposal.”
Now, let’s transfer Cullen’s observations about Dublin to his own side this season. They’re 14 from 14, have been without Johnny Sexton for most of the campaign, and will be missing him again for today’s game with Lyon.
Yet it hasn’t mattered. Nor have Dan Leavy, Jack Conan and more recently, James Ryan’s injuries.
Right across the board they’ve developed serious depth but having a big squad is only a useful tool if you manage it properly.
And Leinster have. Looking at today’s line up for their date with Lyon (kick off 13.00 BT Sport), the names that stand out aren’t the ones who got the nod to play but those who were asked to step outside the team room for the arm-around-the-shoulder treatment.
Caelan Doris and Jamison Gibson-Park must be hurting the most. At times this season they have excelled; today they’re on the bench.
Here’s a policy straight out of the Gavin manual. In fact you see this kind of selection behaviour in every good team no matter what the sport, Alex Ferguson calling complacency a disease, “especially for individuals and organisations that have enjoyed success”.
Leinster, too, have had their fair share of glory over the last couple of years but just as fresh in the memory is the miserable first European season they endured under Cullen in 2015/16. Their coach shipped a fair bit of flak that year, the sort of sore that never really leaves a man’s skin.
And the lessons learned from back then are clearly being applied right now. Yes, it’s too early to compare this team to the 2009, 2011, 2012 or 2018 European Cup sides; but the hype building around them is justified on the basis that pool rivals, Lyon and Northampton, are both second in their respective leagues.
Part of you wonders if Cullen secretly wouldn’t mind see the team lose one of these games, just as a reference for later in the year, a ‘remember-when’ moment.
Yet the fact only about six of the side feel secure with their place in the starting XV is significant.
The rest know if their standards dip, even to a small degree, then there’s a lengthy queue of alternatives waiting at the coach’s door.
That’s one of the reasons why there’s a full-house today, even though, on the outside, it appears as though Leinster have nothing to play for.
The truth is they do. A bonus point victory; securing top-seeding for the quarter-finals is not just one of those achievable goals that leaders like to give their staff. It genuinely matters.
History has shown that being at home in the knock-out stages makes a difference in this competition,” Cullen said. “We want that top seed.”
They’ll get it. While predicting rugby results is a hazardous business, given the capacity for every different game to take on a life of its own, you only have to look at how often French clubs down tools in rounds five and six of this competition to sense that Lyon might do the same this afternoon.
Impressive domestically, in Europe they’ve flunked, winning just one out of the 10 games they’ve played in the last two seasons. And while they put up a good show against Leinster in the corresponding fixture seven weeks ago, it’s telling that just six of that 23-man squad have travelled to Dublin today.
All of this points to a big home win, irrespective of how polite Cullen was in his assessment of Lyon’s merits. If Leinster turn up with the right attitude, this could be a hammering.
Leinster
15. Jordan Larmour
14. Dave Kearney
13. Garry Ringrose
12. Robbie Henshaw
11. James Lowe
10. Ross Byrne
9. Luke McGrath
1. Cian Healy
2. James Tracy
3. Tadhg Furlong
4. Devin Toner
5. Scott Fardy (Capt)
6. Rhys Ruddock
7. Josh van der Flier
8. Max Deegan
Replacements:
16. Séan Cronin
17. Peter Dooley
18. Andrew Porter
19. Ross Molony
20. Caelan Doris
21. Jamison Gibson-Park
22. Ciarán Frawley
23. Rob Kearney
Lyon
15. Toby Arnold
14. Xavier Mignot
13. Ethan Dumortier
12. Thibaut Regard (Capt)
11. Noa Nakaitaci
10. Jean-Marcellin Buttin
9. Jonathan Pélissié
1. Hamza Kaabéche
2. Badri Alkhazashvili
3. Francisco Gomez Kodela
4. Martial Rolland
5. Hendrik Roodt
6. Killian Geraci
7. Etienne Oosthuizen
8. Virgile Bruni
Replacements:
16. Jeremie Maurouard, 17. Raphael Chaume, 18. Kévin Yameogo, 19. Tanginoa Halaifonua, 20. Felix Lambey, 21. Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, 22. Joris Moura, 23. Josua Tuisova
