AT THE TOP table following Leinster’s buoyant captain’s run at Estadio de San Mamés on Friday, Leo Cullen stresses that he has fond memories not only of the stadium but of the very conference room in which he sits, where eight years ago he celebrated Leinster’s fourth Champions Cup success alongside Johnny Sexton and Isa Nacewa.

Cullen, however, returned to Bilbao as recently as November for what he describes, with a chuckle, as “a busman’s holiday”. He both basked in fond memories and his cast his mind forward to the tune of seven months.

“It’s always nice to visualise things as you set off at the start of a campaign,” says Leinster’s head coach.

“See it to believe it in a certain way. It [brought] back some memories of being here as well. It was good, nice to be here.
It was short. We didn’t hang around here too long so we were on the route to somewhere else.

“It’s great to get to this stage, amazing to be here, a beautiful stadium and obviously steeped in a lot of tradition which we understand.

“Massive challenge for us, isn’t it?” Cullen added. “Bordeaux are a quality team. We have to make sure we deliver our best performance.

“We know it’s going to be a serious challenge, and we are fully respectful of the Bordeaux team and what they have achieved in recent times.

“But that’s what you want. You want to be able to test yourselves against the best and Bordeaux have probably been the best team in Europe over the last couple of seasons.”

Leinster were in a relaxed mood all through Friday, from their captain’s run to the media session in which Cullen, captain Caelan Doris and hooker Dan Sheehan held court.

During the former, the players tested the pristine surface at Estadio de San Mamés in a half-pitch game of tip rugby, each knock-on greeted with a noise that pierced the air amid virtually empty stands. Guilty parties were typically buried at the bottom of some kind of super-ruck — more a gentle pile-on than that over which Karl Dickson will preside this afternoon. The likes of Jamison Gibson-Park and Rieko Ioane in particular appeared to be in their element, the former at his innovative best and the latter beaming his way through the session.

To no extent did Leinster appear a side riddled by the angst of things typically going wrong for them at this stage of the season. When Dan Sheehan was asked why he and his side appeared so confident ahead of this latest stab at a fifth star, he shrugged: “I think our preparation’s been really good over the last few weeks.

“I think the belief amongst the players… obviously, Bordeaux will be the biggest challenge that we’ve come up with this year. It hasn’t been a perfect year of performances but we’ve been growing all the time.

“I think there’s full belief in the squad that if we get our performance out on the pitch; and I think there’s good hunger in it these days, enough motivation to do well.

“Yeah, I just think if we can put our performance on the pitch… then obviously we’ve got a massive challenge against a team that we haven’t really come up against.”

“A lot of it is down to trusting,” added skipper Doris. “Trusting the group, trusting the ability trusting each other, trusting the prep we’ve had this week and over the last number of weeks through the season where, as Sheeno mentioned there, it hasn’t been perfect.

“We’ve found ways in games that we’ve been behind in so hopefully that will stand to us. But I think in the big games you just want to attack it and, like I said, narrow it down, not think of it as one big massive occasion; moment by moment, there’s going to be a lot of fights and a big part of it is enjoying it.”

Doris and Sheehan were only young supporters when Leinster last conquered Europe in this city in 2018. The weather conditions in Bilbao then were altogether different than they are this weekend.

The heat and humidity on Friday, even for Ulster’s Challenge Cup final defeat to Montpellier late into the night, were oppressive. Doris took several of his teammates for a stroll around town after their media obligations, greeted by a rainbow of club colours from around the world. It was 34 degrees as Leinster attempted to inconspicuously navigate their surrounds, but it may yet stand to them in that it is expected to be slightly lower — somewhere between 27 and 29 degrees — come kick-off at 2:45pm Irish time, 3:45pm local.

There’s no denying such conditions still benefit Bordeaux, just as they did Montpellier in the curtain-raiser. Referee Karl Dickson will follow World Rugby protocols in which, if the temperature becomes abnormally high, there will be a water break in each half. For the moment, however, the plan is to play uninterrupted as normal.

Leinster’s skipper shrugged off the idea that the weather may prove a prohibitive factor for his side, recalling Ireland’s World Cup meeting with Romania — which was ironically staged in Bordeaux — as having played out in similar heat.

That was Romania, though. This is Bordeaux Begles, favourites to the tune of around five points, in from seven at the start of the week.

“The impact of the bench, as Sheeno mentioned, is going to be especially important with the heat over here,” Doris noted.

“So, fitting in, bringing energy, and taking it to another level in the last quarter is going to be important, and then just committing to it.”

Leinster’s efforts in that final quarter should be aided by the introductions of front rows Paddy McCarthy and Tadhg Furlong. The fitness of the former, as well as that of starting right wing Tommy O’Brien who will mark Louis Bielle-Biarrey, was briefly addressed by Leinster’s head coach at a time in which his selection was still embargoed. “They’re both making excellent progress,” Cullen laughed, knowingly leaning into cliché. “I hope you’ll see the feature at some point.”

The bench may well prove decisive in this game, and Bordeaux have an arsenal of options in their own right. Paddy McCarthy, for example, will likely be tested at scrum-time against replacement UBB tighthead Ben Tameifuna, while the likes of Gaetan Barlot, Ugo Boniface and Temo Matiu will bring bang for their buck off the bench.

Leinster, though, will feel that the likes of McCarthy, Furlong, Rónan Kelleher and Diarmuid Mangan will be able to punch holes in a Bordeaux side who haven’t lost a Champions Cup game since 2024/25 but have proven totally fallible in this season’s Top 14, losing on 10 occasions.

And that’s the thing: for all that an Irish rugby observer may gush about the options that Bordeaux have at their disposal, the same is true of the reverse. Leinster will field a 23 from which 20 are homegrown talents and all but one — Diarmuid Mangan — are internationally capped.

There are reasons for both sides to be afraid, but the only option for the rest of us — unless you’re an angst-ridden Leinster supporter — is to enjoy a mouth-watering encounter between two fabulous teams, one of whom will be crowned the kings of Europe come five o’clock Irish time.

Leinster: 15. Hugo Keenan, 14. Tommy O’Brien, 13. Garry Ringrose, 12. Robbie Henshaw, 11. Rieko Ioane, 10. Harry Byrne, 9. Jamison Gibson-Park, 1. Andrew Porter, 2. Dan Sheehan, 3. Tom Clarkson, 4. Joe McCarthy, 5. James Ryan, 6. Jack Conan, 7. Josh van der Flier, 8. Caelan Doris (c)

Replacements: 16. Ronan Kelleher, 17. Paddy McCarthy, 18. Tadhg Furlong, 19. Diarmuid Mangan, 20. Max Deegan, 21. Luke McGrath, 22. Ciaran Frawley, 23. Jamie Osborne

Bordeaux: 15. Salesi Rayasi, 14. Pablo Uberti, 13. Damian Penaud, 12. Yoram Moefana, 11. Louis Bielle-Biarrey, 10. Matthieu Jalibert, 9. Maxime Lucu (c), 1. Jefferson Poirot, 2. Maxime Lamothe, 3. Carlü Sadie, 4. Boris Palu, 5. Adam Coleman, 6. Pierre Bochaton, 7. Cameron Woki, 8. Marko Gazzotti

Replacements: 16. Gaetan Barlot, 17. Ugo Boniface, 18. Ben Tameifuna, 19. Lachie Swinton, 20. Temo Matiu, 21. Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, 22. Arthur Retiere, 23. Hugo Reus

Referee: Karl Dickson