Leinster must summon a performance to match the occasion in Croke Park
LEINSTER WERE ONLY on the pitch a matter of minutes yesterday before two pristine O’Neills footballs were produced. The warm-ups could wait – it’s not everyday you get to kick a couple of points into the Hill 16 end at Croke Park.
Jack Conan showed a nice right boot, slicing the posts from the 40 before Robbie Henshaw displayed his GAA roots by kicking a lovely score from the sideline. Tadhg Furlong sent a high ball towards the pack before a short game of non-contact broke out, where Sam Prendergast and Jimmy O’Brien looked impressively comfortable with ball in hand.
This is a very special week for these Leinster players, and a win in this Champions Cup semi-final meeting with Northampton Saints [KO 5.30pm, RTÉ/TNT Sports] would represent one of the most memorable occasions of their careers.
Naturally, the Croke Park novelty has absorbed much of the attention across the build-up but Leinster’s task today is to not let the occasion get on top of them. Whatever way you weight it up, there’s a pressure that come with being the home favourites in front of 82,000 supporters.
Robbie Henshaw and Tadhg Furlong.
Leinster have made efforts to ensure the players cope with that expectation. Their week started with video clips of the famous 2009 win over Munster here and their performance coach – former Leitrim and Dublin footballer – Declan Darcy, has warned the players how Croke Park “magnifies your performance” – be it good or bad.
Northampton have done their homework too, with Irish S&C coach Eamon Hyland giving the squad a history lesson on the significance of the stadium and its story.
They also squeezed in a bit of fun yesterday, although the Croke Park groundstaff must have shivered at the sight of burly props wielding hurls on their immaculate surface.
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The Premiership leaders come to Dublin without the services of captain Lewis Ludlam and winger Ollie Sleightholme, but still have the tools to make this an uncomfortable evening for their hosts. If the pressure is on Leinster, the Saints will surely see this as an opportunity to let the shackles off and spoil the party.
Twenty-one-year-old out-half Finn Smith has enjoyed a fine year and stole the show when Northampton visited Thomond Park earlier in the season, while Tommy Freeman is a dangerous ball-carrier in midfield.
There’s pace in the Saint’s backline and their strike-plays off setpiece have proved a real weapon, while there’s a nice aggressive edge to their team as well, with Courtney Lawes often setting the tone in that regard.
Lawes was one of the many Saints players who tried his hand with a hurl and a sliothar yesterday as the visitors took in their grand surroundings.
“I’m not the best [hurler],” Lawes said. “I went touchline to touchline but not many times.
Lawes tried his hand at hurling.
If you’re looking for players who might be overawed by the occasion, Lawes – who makes his 280th appearance for the club today – ain’t your man.
“It’s still a patch of grass, the pitch markings are the same and we know there’s a good opposition with tons of talent yet we’ve also got plenty of quality in our group as well and we’re excited about going to head-to-head with them.
It will be a great test for us. We’re a team that wants to push ourselves and we want to be the team we know we can be and there’s no better challenge than facing one of the best club sides in the world.
“We’ve proven to ourselves all season we can beat the best. We can perform when we need to perform and come away with the wins in the toughest conditions. We’ve been doing that all throughout the season and we don’t anticipate a change in that [today].”
Northampton currently top the Premiership but it will take a big Saints performance to upset the odds, with Leinster rightly favourites to book their place in the 25 May London final.
Six of their starting seven backs are Ireland internationals, and the exception, Jamie Osborne, hasn’t looked one bit out of place when starting the previous knock-out games against Leicester Tigers and La Rochelle.
And yet their advantage might come in the pack. Cullen has resisted the temptation to again select a 6:2 split, feeling his team won’t need that extra punch coming off the bench for the final quarter.
The strength in this Leinster pack can be summed up simply in the omission of Will Connors, who drops out of the matchday 23 completely, as Josh van der Flier returns at seven.
Yet the most telling selection is probably that of Ross Molony in the second row, with the Bath-bound lock backed to make a difference at lineout time over the more physical presence of Jason Jenkins.
Small tweaks to the squad, but nothing that makes the overall group look any weaker, even if Garry Ringrose and Hugo Keenan would have been welcome returns from injury.
“You want to focus on your game, so that’s how do we apply pressure on the opposition that we’re playing against on any given weekend,” said Leinster head coach Leo Cullen.
Leinster head coach Leo Cullen.
“A semi-final is no different so we would have strengths in our game and we want to make sure we use those strengths well to pressurise the opposition as much as we possibly can.
“The coaches and the players have done a huge amount of analysis on Northampton as a team because they’re sitting top of the Premiership and they’re in the semi-final, so they’re in the last four teams in the competition.
“That’s a touchstone to start with, there are so many strong teams that are not left in the competition so it’s not like they’ve just magically arrived here, they do have a lot of strengths themselves but making sure we’re able to pressurise some of their perceived strengths themselves… That’s the thing about playing in these big games, to apply the most pressure on the opposition, so that’s what we try to focus on.
There’s dealing with the occasion and all the rest, there’s nerves and different pieces, which is natural but you harness that in the right manner so it’s a positive for you and hopefully that will be the case.”
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Having had time to refresh and regather after La Rochelle, Leinster should be primed to kick on again here. Their defence looks meaner than ever under Jacques Nienaber and their slick attack can do damage against a Northampton team that leak a lot of scores – the Saints are one of only four teams in the Premiership to have conceded more than 400 points already this season.
Build on the La Rochelle performance and Leinster will be packing their bags for London.
LEINSTER: Ciarán Frawley; 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: Rónan Kelleher, Cian Healy, Michael Ala’alatoa, Jason Jenkins, Jack Conan, Luke McGrath, Harry Byrne, Jimmy O’Brien.
NORTHAMPTON SAINTS: George Furbank; James Ramm, Tommy Freeman, Fraser Dingwall, George Hendy; Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell; Alex Waller, Curtis Langdon, Trevor Davison; Alex Moon, Alex Coles; Courtney Lawes (capt), Sam Graham, Juarno Augustus.
Replacements: Sam Matavesi, Emmanuel Iyogun, Elliot Millar Mills, Temo Mayanavanua, Angus Scott-Young, Tom James, Tom Litchfield, Tom Seabrook.
Referee: Mathieu Reynal (Fra)