Saracens play Bedford in the Championship tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean they’ve vacated the space they occupy in Leinster minds.
he Londoners have loomed large over the Irish province since that May 2019 day when they overwhelmed them at St James’ Park in Newcastle.
Last September, Leo Cullen’s side looked well set to reverse that result, but were once again subsumed by the three-time champions at the Aviva Stadium.
The nature of this strange and relentless rugby season meant they were immediately plunged into a new campaign and were without many of their leading lights for much of the ensuing months, but still the brains trust at UCD have been plotting for the day where their team could test themselves against the best once again.
This evening, they travel to Sandy Park in Exeter; the home of the European champions.
Saracens are no longer on the stage, but the Chiefs are an opponent who will test Leinster more than any team they’ve faced since that Aviva Stadium humbling.
If they emerge unscathed, they’ll have healed the wound and taken another step towards a fifth European title. Lose and the PRO14 trophy they won last month will be scant consolation.
That’s the realm Leinster operate in right now and, when a single game can swing on a refereeing decision or an individual error, it’s a tough world to occupy.
The fear for Cullen and Co is that nobody they’ve played since has been able to ask them the kind of questions that Saracens did and that Exeter will today.
Their two PRO14 defeats to Connacht and Ospreys came when most of the frontliners were away, their European wins over Montpellier and Northampton Saints were comfortable enough and their last 16 meeting with Toulon was cancelled.
Knowing what challenge is coming and rising to it are different things and it will only be when Mathieu Raynal sounds the first whistle that they’ll be fully aware of where they stand.
Certainly, they have the quality to beat any team left in the tournament when they get things right and, against Munster in the PRO14 final two weeks ago, they found a level of intensity and pace that their visitors couldn’t deal with.
That they couldn’t match it with a ruthless killer instinct when finishing their chances off is cause for concern, but two weeks of work on the training-ground should help in that regard.
In the Saracens quarter-final, Leinster’s scrum crumbled and they were destroyed by the English side’s brilliant maul.
Since then, they’ve rejigged how they operate at scrum-time by mimicking Saracens’ approach of having both second-rows on both feet before the engage, but the other tweaks to their game have been less easy to recognise.
They’ll miss their injured players today.
James Ryan and Caelan Doris would be major assets in the collision battle that Exeter will engage, Will Connors’ tackle technique would be valuable, Garry Ringrose’s cutting edge, defensive aggression and ability to create will be missed and Jamison Gibson-Park’s capacity to change the pace of a game off the bench will all be missed.
Still, they have huge quality in their team; just as Exeter do.
“I definitely think they’re a more systematic team than Saracens would be, and they’ll play more as well,” Cullen said.
“In terms of attack, they have quite a systematic way to attack in the middle third of the field; Saracens will play much more a squeeze in.
“Defensively, they have some similarities, all the English teams have a strong attention to detail around set-piece which serves them well on the big day as we’ve seen on many occasions.
“There are certain similarities but some differences as well. Their coaching group, they have a strong core of players that have been there coming through the system together over a long period of time, which is quite similar to ourselves here.”
Asked if a win this evening would atone for the Saracens games, Cullen simply smiled and said: “Don’t look back in anger.”
“It’s just controlling what we can control now. It’s the next game,” he said. “It means so much to the group now. They want to be successful. They want to achieve on the biggest stage and this is the biggest stage for club rugby in the northern hemisphere.
“There are brilliant match-ups over the course of the four games so we’ll see where we sit at the end of the weekend. Hopefully, it’s still in the draw but it will be a great test.”
The landscape has changed since Cullen captained his province to three titles in four seasons, but if this generation of Leinster players want to be spoken about in the same breath as that team then they will need to start coming out on the right side of these seismic affairs.
Whether it was the 2009 quarter-final win over Harlequins, the 2011 final comeback against Northampton Saints or the nail-biting 2012 semi-final against Clermont-Auvergene, that team found a way when the chips were down.
In Cian Healy, Devin Toner and Johnny Sexton, there are still veterans of that side leading the charge, but the young men around them are desperate to play a role in backing up the 2018 win over Racing 92 in Bilbao.
Their domestic dominance is well and good, but this is where they will be truly be measured.
Up front, they appear to have the weapons to match an Exeter tight-five with set-piece and ball-carrying ability.
Rónan Kelleher has to bring set-piece accuracy to match his full-court game, while the return of Tadhg Furlong is a real fillip and Andrew Porter will make a big impact off the bench.
The veteran second-row pairing of Scott Fardy and Devin Toner is picked for their collision and lineout work, while Ryan Baird can up the tempo after half-time and, while they’re missing a host of quality back-rows, the trio of Rhys Ruddock, Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan is a high-quality combination.
Behind the scrum, Luke McGrath is in excellent form and Sexton is rolling back the years, while Rory O’Loughlin brings a physical edge alongside the outstanding Robbie Henshaw.
Exeter may look to test the back-three of Hugo Keenan, Jordan Larmour and James Lowe in the air, but if they can handle that area then they are all able to carry a threat with ball in hand.
The champions have a pack to be proud of, a second-row pairing of Jonny Hill and Jonny Gray that’s capable of mixing it at the highest level and Europe’s in-form back-row in Sam Simmonds.
His brother Joe is a classy out-half who really should be playing international rugby, while Henry Slade and Stuart Hogg can hurt any defence whether it’s with ball in hand or with the boot.
It’s evenly matched and it will come down to discipline and accuracy across the 80 minutes.
Referee Raynal will have a key role, particularly policing Exeter’s ruck-work during their long phases of pick and goes when they tend to dive over the ball without allowing a contest.
That’s one of the reasons they’re so hard to beat.
It’s why this is a major test of Leinster’s credentials and an examination they are surely relishing.
They’ll need an almighty performance to dethrone the champions.
Verdict: Exeter Chiefs
