A GAME LIKE Leinster’s 62-0 trouncing of Harlequins on Saturday doesn’t really do anyone any favours.
For the London side, semi-finalists in the Champions Cup last year, it was a humiliating experience. They will feel embarrassment and frustration around conceding 10 tries while failing to register a single point on the scoreboard.
For the competition organisers, the result takes the weight out of Danny Wilson’s strong pre-game comments that Quins ‘would never’ rest their frontline players for a Champions Cup knockout game, á la Saracens, who left out a number of England internationals against Toulon on Saturday but still managed to go 22 points up before losing a bizarre encounter 72-42. With Sale and Leicester also well-beaten, Northampton were the only Premiership side to survive the weekend.
The paying customer can also feel short changed. There’s time and money involved in coming to Dublin for a weekend and if you’re a travelling supporter you might remember Saturday’s scoreline and think twice about investing in an expensive away day. Leinster supporters will anticipate a much sterner challenge against Glasgow Warriors in Friday night’s quarter-final but it will be interesting to see what type of crowd the province can attract to the 51,700-capacity Aviva Stadium just six days out from bringing over 55,000 to Croke Park. They do a wonderful job of generating massive interest in these games but some supporters might be tempted to keep their money in their pocket for anticipated bigger days out down the line.
And for Leinster, the province have to hope such a one-sided contest was a sufficient tune-up for the quarter-finals. As impressive as Leo Cullen’s side were, one imagines they would have felt greater benefit from a more testing afternoon. For 70 minutes they had it all to easy.
Yet as the saying goes, you can only play what’s in front of you and Leinster showed enough to suggest their Champions Cup charge is shaping up nicely, with key players looking razor-sharp. James Lowe was excellent on the wing, Josh van der Flier had perhaps his most influential game this season and Sam Prendergast made the most of a dominant performance from the Leinster pack by putting his wonderful passing and handling game on show. Jordie Barrett came in with 30 minutes to play and the result long beyond doubt, but his every touch oozed class. There were no fresh injury concerns, with Joe McCarthy and Rabah Slimani both ‘ok’ after ankle knocks, while Rónan Kelleher took part in the warm-up and could return from a neck injury this week.
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Leinster's Sam Prendergast and Harlequins' Nick David. Nick Elliot / INPHO
Nick Elliot / INPHO / INPHO
Leinster had the obvious benefit of being able to keep their own internationals out of URC action for the previous two weekends, using some of that time for a goal-setting retreat in Wicklow with Jacques Nienaber running training, and it looked as though the province perfectly planned their preparation. Any potential post-Six Nations slump was certainly shaken out of the system.
“I actually found it easy enough (to switch back into Leinster),” said Josh van der Flier.
“Sometimes it can be tricky without much of a turnaround. With the way the games fell we got given the week off after the Six Nations so it was weird having that time in the middle of the season. You feel like you should be playing rugby or training but that was good, just freshen up and forget about rugby for a while.
“Once we got back in then the week after we were ready to go and excited. We had a great first day back down in Wicklow. Lads came in hungry and trained really hard last week and this week just gone.
“Lads worked so hard out there (v Harlequins). There were some great hits put in and scramble defence, especially in the first 20 minutes or so and throughout. The centres and outside backs did particularly well in organizing the forwards and making sure we weren’t in too much trouble. Quins have some very dangerous players as well so very pleased with it.”
“There was a decent lead into this game,” added Cullen.
“The lads were able to watch Harlequins in action over the last couple of weekends, against Saracens and Bath, and have a very clear plan.
“Everyone is working away and the intent was really positive because we know that Quins are a very good attacking team and score a lot of tries. That has been a big focus the last couple of weeks so fair play to the players, they are working hard for each other and that’s exactly what you want.”
Robbie Henshaw. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
This week presents a very different challenge, a six-day turnaround for a Friday night meeting with a Glasgow side who will hold no fear going up against a fellow URC team. Warriors’ own six-try, 43-19 thumping of Leicester Tigers highlighted how the reigning URC champions are determined to make a mark in Europe this season.
“Glasgow are obviously URC champions and going really well under Franco Smith since he’s come in,” Cullen said.
“They have so much experience from Scottish internationals littered throughout their squad and dynamic in the way they play. They are a very good mauling team once they get you in their 22, usually their hooker will score a lot of tries off the back of mauls. They have a very big backline that can cause a lot of trouble, a lot of pace.
“You saw particularly away from home last season, winning away in Thomond in the semi-final, and then they won away in Loftus in the final so they are pretty comfortable being on the road. They have a hell of a lot of threats across the board.”
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Leinster look in good shape but Glasgow will be tougher test than sorry Quins
A GAME LIKE Leinster’s 62-0 trouncing of Harlequins on Saturday doesn’t really do anyone any favours.
For the London side, semi-finalists in the Champions Cup last year, it was a humiliating experience. They will feel embarrassment and frustration around conceding 10 tries while failing to register a single point on the scoreboard.
For the competition organisers, the result takes the weight out of Danny Wilson’s strong pre-game comments that Quins ‘would never’ rest their frontline players for a Champions Cup knockout game, á la Saracens, who left out a number of England internationals against Toulon on Saturday but still managed to go 22 points up before losing a bizarre encounter 72-42. With Sale and Leicester also well-beaten, Northampton were the only Premiership side to survive the weekend.
The paying customer can also feel short changed. There’s time and money involved in coming to Dublin for a weekend and if you’re a travelling supporter you might remember Saturday’s scoreline and think twice about investing in an expensive away day. Leinster supporters will anticipate a much sterner challenge against Glasgow Warriors in Friday night’s quarter-final but it will be interesting to see what type of crowd the province can attract to the 51,700-capacity Aviva Stadium just six days out from bringing over 55,000 to Croke Park. They do a wonderful job of generating massive interest in these games but some supporters might be tempted to keep their money in their pocket for anticipated bigger days out down the line.
And for Leinster, the province have to hope such a one-sided contest was a sufficient tune-up for the quarter-finals. As impressive as Leo Cullen’s side were, one imagines they would have felt greater benefit from a more testing afternoon. For 70 minutes they had it all to easy.
Yet as the saying goes, you can only play what’s in front of you and Leinster showed enough to suggest their Champions Cup charge is shaping up nicely, with key players looking razor-sharp. James Lowe was excellent on the wing, Josh van der Flier had perhaps his most influential game this season and Sam Prendergast made the most of a dominant performance from the Leinster pack by putting his wonderful passing and handling game on show. Jordie Barrett came in with 30 minutes to play and the result long beyond doubt, but his every touch oozed class. There were no fresh injury concerns, with Joe McCarthy and Rabah Slimani both ‘ok’ after ankle knocks, while Rónan Kelleher took part in the warm-up and could return from a neck injury this week.
Leinster had the obvious benefit of being able to keep their own internationals out of URC action for the previous two weekends, using some of that time for a goal-setting retreat in Wicklow with Jacques Nienaber running training, and it looked as though the province perfectly planned their preparation. Any potential post-Six Nations slump was certainly shaken out of the system.
“I actually found it easy enough (to switch back into Leinster),” said Josh van der Flier.
“Sometimes it can be tricky without much of a turnaround. With the way the games fell we got given the week off after the Six Nations so it was weird having that time in the middle of the season. You feel like you should be playing rugby or training but that was good, just freshen up and forget about rugby for a while.
“Once we got back in then the week after we were ready to go and excited. We had a great first day back down in Wicklow. Lads came in hungry and trained really hard last week and this week just gone.
“Lads worked so hard out there (v Harlequins). There were some great hits put in and scramble defence, especially in the first 20 minutes or so and throughout. The centres and outside backs did particularly well in organizing the forwards and making sure we weren’t in too much trouble. Quins have some very dangerous players as well so very pleased with it.”
“There was a decent lead into this game,” added Cullen.
“The lads were able to watch Harlequins in action over the last couple of weekends, against Saracens and Bath, and have a very clear plan.
“Everyone is working away and the intent was really positive because we know that Quins are a very good attacking team and score a lot of tries. That has been a big focus the last couple of weeks so fair play to the players, they are working hard for each other and that’s exactly what you want.”
This week presents a very different challenge, a six-day turnaround for a Friday night meeting with a Glasgow side who will hold no fear going up against a fellow URC team. Warriors’ own six-try, 43-19 thumping of Leicester Tigers highlighted how the reigning URC champions are determined to make a mark in Europe this season.
“Glasgow are obviously URC champions and going really well under Franco Smith since he’s come in,” Cullen said.
“They have so much experience from Scottish internationals littered throughout their squad and dynamic in the way they play. They are a very good mauling team once they get you in their 22, usually their hooker will score a lot of tries off the back of mauls. They have a very big backline that can cause a lot of trouble, a lot of pace.
“You saw particularly away from home last season, winning away in Thomond in the semi-final, and then they won away in Loftus in the final so they are pretty comfortable being on the road. They have a hell of a lot of threats across the board.”
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Champions Cup Last Eight Leinster Rugby