DAN McKELLAR USED his press conference this week to highlight some flaws in the Champions Cup knockout schedule.
The Leicester Tigers boss saw his side beaten by Leinster on home soil earlier this season, and their reward for coming through the pool stages is a trip to play the province again in Dublin tonight [KO 8pm, RTÉ/TNT Sports].
Pull off an upset at Aviva Stadium, and the Tigers will be tasked with taking on either La Rochelle or the Stormers in next weekend’s quarter-finals – the two other teams Leicester faced on their route to the last 16.
As McKellar pointed out, “something’s not right” when the knockout rounds just form a higher-stakes repeat of the pool stages. McKeller’s issue was with the system rather than with having to play Leinster in particular, but you can understand if the English side are a little sore about having to see Leo Cullen’s boys in blue so soon again.
Even with the likes of Garry Ringrose, James Ryan and Jimmy O’Brien ruled out through injury, Cullen is able to name 13 Ireland internationals in tonight’s starting 15, with Test-quality players such as Rónan Kelleher and Jack Conan held in reserve.
The province last won European rugby’s top prize in 2018, but Leinster in Dublin is still a challenge few teams fancy.
Leicester sit seventh in the Premiership table and come to Dublin without the services of key men George Martin, Tommy Reffell and Ollie Chessum, and with the home side heavy favourites, this game represents something of a free hit for the visitors.
Yet the flipside is that Leinster can’t afford any lapse in focus on their return to Aviva Stadium. The Champions Cup is the trophy they so desperately crave, and with each passing year they fail to achieve that goal, the pressure rises.
“I think that pressure is there all the time,” says Cullen.
“I wouldn’t get a sense that this is more or less than previous years, like it’s the same. But that’s a self-inflicted pressure (laughs), like as in, I’m not that worried about what other people think, I’m worried about what we think within the four walls of our own building.
And yeah, we have our own pressure that we have on ourselves, we want to be the team that wants to lift the trophies at the end of the season.”
This is the fourth meeting of the sides over the last three seasons, with Leinster winning the three previous clashes by a combined scoreline of 105-48.
Leinster know what’s coming again tonight. The Tigers don’t deviate too far from their preferred gameplan and with conditions forecast to be difficult in Dublin, they’ll hope their direct, physical approach can unsettle their hosts.
“They have pretty good experience across their group, Leicester. Their DNA is their DNA. They have obviously had a change of coach recently enough with Dan (McKellar) coming in but they will go back to forward power and trying to disrupt.
“They have a strong kicking game, they kick the most of the teams in the competition now, so again, it tends to suit these types of games, which is more pressure, knockout games – we have seen that at the highest level over the last couple of years.
“We need to make sure we have prepared for certain things in their game, so making sure that we try to implement what we tried to train this week.”
And while Leinster are unbeaten in the competition this season, Leicester find themselves playing knockout rugby despite winning only half of their matches – beating the Stormers (home) and Stade Francais (away) before a heavy defeat at La Rochelle (45-12) was followed by a home loss to Leinster (27-10).
Having put the Bulls to the sword at the RDS last week, this feels like another opportunity for Leinster to lay down a marker. The return of Hugo Keenan at fullback is a boost, while the decision to start Ross Byrne over younger brother Harry was the biggest call facing Cullen this week.
It’s an important day too for Caelan Doris. The backrower had a good Six Nations but was off-colour in the defeat to England. He’s spoken previously about not performing on the biggest days and as he captains Leinster for the first time in Europe, he needs to be the man setting the tone.
“It was his birthday during the week, 26, so those guys are relatively young still,” Cullen says of Doris.
“There are a number of players that built up a lot of experience in this tournament and on the international stage as well. You want them to bring all that to the fore now.
“Caelan, his playing performances from an individual and how he fits into the team, he plays a lot at ‘8’, but sometimes he is even slotting into that ‘7’ role with Ireland and with us as well. He’s adding layers to his game all the time.
“It sounds young doesn’t it, 26? But he has so much experience under his belt over the last couple of seasons. He has been excellent in how he has led the group this week, hopefully it leads into a positive performance.”
All the signs point to a home win, but with Storm Kathleen arriving this morning the forecast suggests it could be a pretty miserable night for the 40-odd thousand due to make their way to Dublin 4 – although the worst of the conditions may have passed by the time kick-off arrives.
“The weather does play a big part in this game that we play,” Cullen says. “It’s supposed to ease a little bit by kick-off so we’ll see how that plays out, I’m not quite sure.
“But it’s [Aviva] more enclosed depending on what way it comes. One end is a lot more protected than the other end, the baby end. It has a tendency to swirl in the stadium anyway, which is another dynamic. So depending on when the gust comes.
“Adaptability I think is key. Again when you get to this knockout stage it’s definitely a consideration because ideally you’d like to be able to play. In the RDS it’s a bit more exposed. There definitely is more a feeling of shelter [in the Aviva] particularly at the big end.
“The unpredictability of Irish weather. Predictably unpredictable.”
LEINSTER: Hugo Keenan; Jordan Larmour, Robbie Henshaw, Jamie Osborne, James Lowe; Ross Byrne, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong; Ross Molony, Joe McCarthy; Ryan Baird, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt).
Replacements: Ronan Kelleher, Cian Healy, Michael Ala’alatoa, Jason Jenkins, Jack Conan, Ben Murphy, Harry Byrne, Ciaran Frawley.
LEICESTER TIGERS: Jamie Shillcock; Freddie Steward, Dan Kelly, Solomone Kata, Ollie Hassell-Collins; Handre Pollard, Jack van Poortvliet; James Cronin, Julian Montoya (capt), Dan Cole; Harry Wells, Kyle Hatherell; Hanro Liebenberg, Olly Cracknell, Jasper Wiese.
Replacements: Charlie Clare, Francois van Wyk, Will Hurd, Finn Carnduff, Emeka Ilione, Tom Whiteley, Phil Cokanasiga, Mike Brown.
Referee: Pierre Brousset (FFR).
