LEINSTER HOPE THIS is the year their long eight-year wait for another Champions Cup title finally comes to an end, but as it stands the current squad don’t have the look of champions elect.
A lot can change between now and the 23 May final in Bilbao, but right now Leinster are, by Leo Cullen’s admission, “a work in progress.”
That feels a strange thing to say about a squad littered with senior international players, but the province have yet to properly hit their stride this year. However, they might not actually matter. It’s what they do from here on in that will define their season.
What Cullen will hope to see in the coming weeks, starting with this evening’s home round of 16 meeting with Edinburgh [KO 5.30pm, Premier Sports 1], is more cohesion between his players, who are finally all back in the building together again.
How Leinster’s season was disrupted by last summer’s Lions tour has been regularly highlighted – the province had a total of 14 players in Australia – but in truth, many of their key men have played roughly the same amount of games as they had by this stage last year, where Leinster were about to crush Harlequins (62-0) and Glasgow (52-0) in their opening Champions Cup knockout fixtures, before it all fell apart against Northampton Saints in the semi-finals.
Look back at the numbers, and you’ll find Jamison Gibson-Park and Caelan Doris had only played one more game for Leinster this time last year. Josh van der Flier is on the same tally as he was at this point. Joe McCarthy, Tommy O’Brien, Tadhg Furlong and Dan Sheehan have all had more involvement.
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Caelan Doris and Ryan Baird both start for Leinster today. Gavin Cullen / INPHO
Gavin Cullen / INPHO / INPHO
What’s more instructive is where those games have fallen across the campaign. While the likes of Gibson-Park and Doris went straight into Champions Cup from Six Nations last season, this time they’ve had the benefit of a URC run-out against Scarlets in between.
Yet those Lions demands meant that for many of Cullen’s senior men, they only had a game or two with Leinster before heading into November internationals. When they returned, the province started to build some momentum – none of Leinster’s five defeats this season came when the internationals were back on deck in December and January.
If Leinster’s stars did indeed manage to shake off the cobwebs in that mixed outing against Scarlets last week, a kind Champions Cup draw can allow them play their way into stronger form as the province’s goals now become the sole focus of those internationals who are so used to dipping in and out of the club season. Beat Edinburgh, and they’ll be at home again next weekend against Sale Sharks.
Tightening up their defence would be a good start. As mentioned above, the province have already lost five URC games this season, having only lost two across 2024/25. In that competition they’ve conceded a total of 299 points across their 14 games, already up on the 256 shipped across all of their 18 regular season games last season.
We saw a similar trend in the Champions Cup pool stages. Compare their six pools games across the last two seasons, and while Leinster scored two more points this time around (rising from +113 to +115), their points against jumped from 54 to 80.
This doesn’t mean Leinster won’t be lifting a trophy in Bilbao next month, but highlights the work needed if they are to go all the way, with Bordeaux and Toulouse looking impressive on the other side of the draw.
The loss of RG Snyman to another ACL injury is a dent to Leinster’s ambitions, but the return of Ryan Baird is timely. Baird, like Andrew Porter, Jamie Osborne and Hugo Keenan, hasn’t really been able to properly contribute this season – playing three games in Leinster blue before suffering a broken leg during the November internationals – but can bring energy as over the final stretch of the season.
Rieko Ioane's impact has been limited. Grace Halton / INPHO
Grace Halton / INPHO / INPHO
Rieko Ioane is another who will hope to lift things, having only had a limited impact so far. The New Zealander was a statement signing but has not matched the heights of fellow All Black Jordie Barrett last season.
At 10, Harry Byrne gets the nod again and may well stay there for the run-in. Sam Prendergast’s tough spell continues as he misses out out on the matchday squad completely, with the in-form Ciarán Frawley covering out-half off the bench.
And even if they don’t find that statement performance this afternoon, Leinster should have too much for an Edinburgh side who have been bitterly disappointing on the pitch. The Scottish side are currently 13th in the URC. Lose today, and their season is effectively over. Leinster hope theirs is only heating up.
LEINSTER: Hugo Keenan; Tommy O’Brien, Rieko Ioane, Jamie Osborne, Jimmy O’Brien; Harry Byrne, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong; Joe McCarthy, Ryan Baird; Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt).
Replacements: Gus McCarthy, Alex Usanov, Tom Clarkson, Brian Deeny, Max Deegan, Luke McGrath, Ciaran Frawley, Robbie Henshaw.
EDINBURGH: Piers O’Conor; Darcy Graham, Matt Currie, James Lang, Malelili Satala; Ross Thompson, Charlie Shiel; Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman, D’arcy Rae; Marshall Sykes, Grant Gilchrist (capt); Liam McConnell, Dylan Richardson, Ben Muncaster.
Replacements: Jerry Blyth-Lafferty, Boan Venter, Paul Hill, Glen Young, Freddy Douglas, Ben Vellacott, Mosese Tuipulotu, Jack Brown.
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Leinster step into Champions Cup knockouts still searching for best form
LEINSTER HOPE THIS is the year their long eight-year wait for another Champions Cup title finally comes to an end, but as it stands the current squad don’t have the look of champions elect.
A lot can change between now and the 23 May final in Bilbao, but right now Leinster are, by Leo Cullen’s admission, “a work in progress.”
That feels a strange thing to say about a squad littered with senior international players, but the province have yet to properly hit their stride this year. However, they might not actually matter. It’s what they do from here on in that will define their season.
What Cullen will hope to see in the coming weeks, starting with this evening’s home round of 16 meeting with Edinburgh [KO 5.30pm, Premier Sports 1], is more cohesion between his players, who are finally all back in the building together again.
How Leinster’s season was disrupted by last summer’s Lions tour has been regularly highlighted – the province had a total of 14 players in Australia – but in truth, many of their key men have played roughly the same amount of games as they had by this stage last year, where Leinster were about to crush Harlequins (62-0) and Glasgow (52-0) in their opening Champions Cup knockout fixtures, before it all fell apart against Northampton Saints in the semi-finals.
Look back at the numbers, and you’ll find Jamison Gibson-Park and Caelan Doris had only played one more game for Leinster this time last year. Josh van der Flier is on the same tally as he was at this point. Joe McCarthy, Tommy O’Brien, Tadhg Furlong and Dan Sheehan have all had more involvement.
What’s more instructive is where those games have fallen across the campaign. While the likes of Gibson-Park and Doris went straight into Champions Cup from Six Nations last season, this time they’ve had the benefit of a URC run-out against Scarlets in between.
Yet those Lions demands meant that for many of Cullen’s senior men, they only had a game or two with Leinster before heading into November internationals. When they returned, the province started to build some momentum – none of Leinster’s five defeats this season came when the internationals were back on deck in December and January.
If Leinster’s stars did indeed manage to shake off the cobwebs in that mixed outing against Scarlets last week, a kind Champions Cup draw can allow them play their way into stronger form as the province’s goals now become the sole focus of those internationals who are so used to dipping in and out of the club season. Beat Edinburgh, and they’ll be at home again next weekend against Sale Sharks.
Tightening up their defence would be a good start. As mentioned above, the province have already lost five URC games this season, having only lost two across 2024/25. In that competition they’ve conceded a total of 299 points across their 14 games, already up on the 256 shipped across all of their 18 regular season games last season.
We saw a similar trend in the Champions Cup pool stages. Compare their six pools games across the last two seasons, and while Leinster scored two more points this time around (rising from +113 to +115), their points against jumped from 54 to 80.
This doesn’t mean Leinster won’t be lifting a trophy in Bilbao next month, but highlights the work needed if they are to go all the way, with Bordeaux and Toulouse looking impressive on the other side of the draw.
The loss of RG Snyman to another ACL injury is a dent to Leinster’s ambitions, but the return of Ryan Baird is timely. Baird, like Andrew Porter, Jamie Osborne and Hugo Keenan, hasn’t really been able to properly contribute this season – playing three games in Leinster blue before suffering a broken leg during the November internationals – but can bring energy as over the final stretch of the season.
Rieko Ioane is another who will hope to lift things, having only had a limited impact so far. The New Zealander was a statement signing but has not matched the heights of fellow All Black Jordie Barrett last season.
At 10, Harry Byrne gets the nod again and may well stay there for the run-in. Sam Prendergast’s tough spell continues as he misses out out on the matchday squad completely, with the in-form Ciarán Frawley covering out-half off the bench.
And even if they don’t find that statement performance this afternoon, Leinster should have too much for an Edinburgh side who have been bitterly disappointing on the pitch. The Scottish side are currently 13th in the URC. Lose today, and their season is effectively over. Leinster hope theirs is only heating up.
LEINSTER: Hugo Keenan; Tommy O’Brien, Rieko Ioane, Jamie Osborne, Jimmy O’Brien; Harry Byrne, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong; Joe McCarthy, Ryan Baird; Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt).
Replacements: Gus McCarthy, Alex Usanov, Tom Clarkson, Brian Deeny, Max Deegan, Luke McGrath, Ciaran Frawley, Robbie Henshaw.
EDINBURGH: Piers O’Conor; Darcy Graham, Matt Currie, James Lang, Malelili Satala; Ross Thompson, Charlie Shiel; Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman, D’arcy Rae; Marshall Sykes, Grant Gilchrist (capt); Liam McConnell, Dylan Richardson, Ben Muncaster.
Replacements: Jerry Blyth-Lafferty, Boan Venter, Paul Hill, Glen Young, Freddy Douglas, Ben Vellacott, Mosese Tuipulotu, Jack Brown.
Referee: Luke Pearce (Eng)
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European Rugby Champions Cup Leinster Preview Edinburgh