SOMETIMES YOU WONDER if outside expectations around Leinster are a little unrealistic, but the province themselves aren’t very impressed with their form so far this season.
“We haven’t really hit our straps,” is how assistant coach Robin McBryde put it yesterday.
Last weekend’s last-gasp loss to Benetton in Italy was Leinster’s sixth of the season in the URC, their most in a league campaign since the 2017/18 season.
Leinster lost just two games in last season’s URC campaign, which ended in glory with an impressive performance against the Bulls in the final victory at Croke Park.
The start of this season was hugely disrupted by Leinster having to welcome their squad back in different groupings related to the Ireland and Lions tours last summer, but they’ve never entirely ‘hit their straps’ since.
They are unbeaten in the Champions Cup coming into Saturday’s semi-final clash with Toulon at the Aviva Stadium, having beaten Harlequins, Leicester, La Rochelle, and Bayonne in their pool before knock-out wins against Edinburgh and Sale.
There have been a couple of tense battles along the way and generally speaking, this season has been in contrast to previous campaigns when Leinster would often cruise through long periods of the schedule only to come up just short at the business end.
Their last seven games in both competitions have seen them lose to Cardiff, lose to Glasgow, beat the Scarlets, beat Edinburgh, beat Sale, beat Ulster, and then lose to Benetton.
“Inconsistent, in one word,” is how McBryde put it.
“We’d a great result up in Ulster, we weren’t as good at the weekend in Benetton.
“But when it’s mattered, we’ve found a way. We need to find a way on Saturday.”
Jacques Nienaber and Leo Cullen at training yesterday. Grace Halton / INPHO
Grace Halton / INPHO / INPHO
There’s no doubt that some Leinster fans will be worried that their team aren’t the force they have been at times in the past, but there remains the prospect of glory on two fronts in the coming months.
Leinster still have two home games to go in the URC regular season, meaning they could earn top-two status for the knock-outs, while they’re only two wins away from finally ending their wait for Champions Cup glory.
It’s not that simple, of course. The job directly at hand is beating Toulon in Dublin this weekend, with Leinster seen as 11-point favourites against the French side.
The Irish province were firm favourites at this stage last year when Northampton visited the Aviva and rocked Leinster. Among the lessons from that huge blow was how Leinster let a defeat the previous weekend in the URC linger too long into the Northampton preparation, according to McBryde.
Leinster lost 35-22 away to the Scarlets in April 2025 and despite it being an almost entirely different team to the one that faced Northampton a week later, McBryde said it had an impact.
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He hopes there will be nothing similar this time around after most of Leinster’s frontliners returned for the loss to Benetton.
“What’s in my mind is that at the same stage of last season, we went away to the Scarlets and lost before facing Northampton,” he said.
“My learning from that was don’t waste your time looking backwards. It’s all about the Saturday in front.
“There’s a Buddhist story about avoiding the second arrow. If you get shot in the back with an arrow, you spend so much time worrying about the first arrow, you forget about where the second arrow is coming from.
“You just keep on piling on the misery of that metaphorical arrow. On the back of a loss, all those voices in your head saying ‘you’re not good enough,’ we’ve got to avoid all of that.”
“We’re aware of it, but my own experience is that we spent too much time worrying about what went wrong against the Scarlets and that took up way too much energy in the week before focusing on Northampton.
“You can’t ignore it, it’s there, but you can’t dwell on it. It is what it is. Move on.”
There have been several mentions from Leinster players in recent times that they are holding each other more accountable than in previous seasons.
The sense is that senior players in the group have recognised that Leinster need to be better at calling things out when they fail to meet the highest standards.
This is something that McBryde has welcomed.
“It’s a strong message coming from your peers,” he said.
“With the high standards the internationals bring back from Irish camp, there’s an expectancy to know your detail inside out really.
“From a coaching point of view, I’m not going to retrace their steps. They’ve got to see it as they see it and call each other out.
“They’re used to training and playing at a certain standard; anything below that, like, come on. You can’t have double standards, basically.
“They know what an international set-up looks like and feels like, they know the demands basically. That shouldn’t be any different really when you step back into the Leinster camp.
“With some payers it happens naturally, because they’re good leaders, but others you have to poke them a little bit.”
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'We haven’t really hit our straps' - Leinster eager to kick on
SOMETIMES YOU WONDER if outside expectations around Leinster are a little unrealistic, but the province themselves aren’t very impressed with their form so far this season.
“We haven’t really hit our straps,” is how assistant coach Robin McBryde put it yesterday.
Last weekend’s last-gasp loss to Benetton in Italy was Leinster’s sixth of the season in the URC, their most in a league campaign since the 2017/18 season.
Leinster lost just two games in last season’s URC campaign, which ended in glory with an impressive performance against the Bulls in the final victory at Croke Park.
The start of this season was hugely disrupted by Leinster having to welcome their squad back in different groupings related to the Ireland and Lions tours last summer, but they’ve never entirely ‘hit their straps’ since.
They are unbeaten in the Champions Cup coming into Saturday’s semi-final clash with Toulon at the Aviva Stadium, having beaten Harlequins, Leicester, La Rochelle, and Bayonne in their pool before knock-out wins against Edinburgh and Sale.
There have been a couple of tense battles along the way and generally speaking, this season has been in contrast to previous campaigns when Leinster would often cruise through long periods of the schedule only to come up just short at the business end.
Their last seven games in both competitions have seen them lose to Cardiff, lose to Glasgow, beat the Scarlets, beat Edinburgh, beat Sale, beat Ulster, and then lose to Benetton.
“Inconsistent, in one word,” is how McBryde put it.
“We’d a great result up in Ulster, we weren’t as good at the weekend in Benetton.
“But when it’s mattered, we’ve found a way. We need to find a way on Saturday.”
There’s no doubt that some Leinster fans will be worried that their team aren’t the force they have been at times in the past, but there remains the prospect of glory on two fronts in the coming months.
Leinster still have two home games to go in the URC regular season, meaning they could earn top-two status for the knock-outs, while they’re only two wins away from finally ending their wait for Champions Cup glory.
It’s not that simple, of course. The job directly at hand is beating Toulon in Dublin this weekend, with Leinster seen as 11-point favourites against the French side.
The Irish province were firm favourites at this stage last year when Northampton visited the Aviva and rocked Leinster. Among the lessons from that huge blow was how Leinster let a defeat the previous weekend in the URC linger too long into the Northampton preparation, according to McBryde.
Leinster lost 35-22 away to the Scarlets in April 2025 and despite it being an almost entirely different team to the one that faced Northampton a week later, McBryde said it had an impact.
He hopes there will be nothing similar this time around after most of Leinster’s frontliners returned for the loss to Benetton.
“What’s in my mind is that at the same stage of last season, we went away to the Scarlets and lost before facing Northampton,” he said.
“My learning from that was don’t waste your time looking backwards. It’s all about the Saturday in front.
“There’s a Buddhist story about avoiding the second arrow. If you get shot in the back with an arrow, you spend so much time worrying about the first arrow, you forget about where the second arrow is coming from.
“You just keep on piling on the misery of that metaphorical arrow. On the back of a loss, all those voices in your head saying ‘you’re not good enough,’ we’ve got to avoid all of that.”
He is hopeful Leinster have learned their lesson.
“We’ll find out Saturday,” said McBryde.
“We’re aware of it, but my own experience is that we spent too much time worrying about what went wrong against the Scarlets and that took up way too much energy in the week before focusing on Northampton.
“You can’t ignore it, it’s there, but you can’t dwell on it. It is what it is. Move on.”
There have been several mentions from Leinster players in recent times that they are holding each other more accountable than in previous seasons.
The sense is that senior players in the group have recognised that Leinster need to be better at calling things out when they fail to meet the highest standards.
This is something that McBryde has welcomed.
“It’s a strong message coming from your peers,” he said.
“With the high standards the internationals bring back from Irish camp, there’s an expectancy to know your detail inside out really.
“From a coaching point of view, I’m not going to retrace their steps. They’ve got to see it as they see it and call each other out.
“They’re used to training and playing at a certain standard; anything below that, like, come on. You can’t have double standards, basically.
“They know what an international set-up looks like and feels like, they know the demands basically. That shouldn’t be any different really when you step back into the Leinster camp.
“With some payers it happens naturally, because they’re good leaders, but others you have to poke them a little bit.”
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Building Leinster Northampton Show Time Toulon