THE WORD DEVIN TONER used a lot at Leinster’s press conference on Thursday was ‘massive’.
A home tie with Ulster on 30 March would not exactly have been circled with red marker at the start of the season as a must-win but Heineken Cup elimination is bound to change your goals.
Toner played from start to finish in his side’s 27-19 roughing up last December and remembers every minute of the chastening experience.
Tom Court and Nick Williams were the star performers of an Ulster pack that shunted Leinster up, down and across Ravenhill.
“We have been looking at that all week, the scrum and other parts of the pitch,” Toner told 98fm.
“We’ve got to agree that we did get bullied away in that last game so we’ll be doing everything we can to get back at them this time around.”
“Tom Court and John Afoa are great,” Toner added. “The whole tight five and pack have been playing really well this year. We’re going to have it up against us.”
Fortress RDS
Toner, as a 118-game, eight-season veteran with the Blues, knows all about peaking at the ‘business end’ of the season.
Accordingly, Toner and Leinster are on a nine-match winning streak that has seen them overtake Ulster as Pro12 leaders.
“At one point,” says Toner, “they were about 14 points clear at the top of the table so they’ll be gunning to get back on top.
We’ve got a 100% winning [league] record at home this season and we’ll be looking to keep that right up to the end.”
The 6ft 10in lock referred to Leinster’s ‘good home record’ against Ulster. That record includes 11 straight wins, with Leinster’s last defeat coming in 1999 at Donnybrook.
Toner added, “We all know they have quality players and what they can do but we’ve shown that we have quality too and we’re going to bring it to them.”
