Something has to give as Leinster and Northampton put double ambitions on the line

Chasing the double. Leinster are at it, looking for Champions Cup and United Rugby Championship (URC) titles. So are Northampton in the Premiership. They are top of the table while Leinster are second in the URC league standings.

In this week’s other European semi-final between Toulouse and Harlequins, Toulouse are second-placed behind Stade Francais in the French Top 14. Suddenly the talk is of doubles.

Leinster managed to do it in 2018, when they followed up their European success against Racing ‘92 by pummeling Scarlets a few weeks later. In so doing, they also became the first side to complete a European-Pro14 double.

In all it has been done 10 times since the beginning of the European Rugby competition in the 1995-96 season. Leicester, Wasps and Toulon have done the domestic European double. Saracens did it in 2016 and 2019 and Exeter Chiefs did it the following year.

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Doubles are one of those things that players and coaches shy away from discussing. Grandiose talk of what’s coming down the tracks, rather than what is immediately in front of them, begets bad luck. It divides attention. It fouls up simple thinking and yet for clubs and coaches, ambition is ambition.

“Yeah, it’s definitely been something that’s been considered throughout the squad and obviously more so by management,” says Northampton and England centre Fraser Dingwall. “I think over the last couple of weeks we’ve rested and rotated players a bit more within the last two games.

“Against Leicester it worked and then against Quins we didn’t come away with the victory, so it’s a fine balance between conserving energy for these critical games in the run that’s coming but also not falling away from the pace and ruining all the hard work we’ve put in before.

“It’s something that’s left to the management to balance the squad but all we can take from it is the confidence we’ve got in the depth within the squad and the trust with all the boys that come and give themselves a shot.”

When Northampton’s director of rugby Phil Dowson reacted to the double question with “I think it’s feasible,” he raised a few eyebrows for nothing more than his honesty. Keeping the two plates spinning is a multitasking challenge and with the number of international players Leinster have makes it even more complex.

In January, when Andy Farrell picked his 34-man Irish squad for this year’s Six Nations Championship, there were 19 Leinster players included as well as Sam Prendergast, who was picked on the training squad.

These last two URC weeks with Leinster in South Africa was another example of coaches having to keep balls in the air as most of the players who will face Northampton on Saturday remained at home in Ireland.

In leaving out their frontline players, Leinster were vulnerable and were caned twice, which cost them their place at the top of the URC table. Peaking on demand four or five times a season, switching in and out with international players, combined with the player welfare system Ireland operates, can be a head wrecker for week to week selection.

But it has been and can be done again with luck, breaks and the bounce of the ball.

“Yeah, recent history shows it is possible and I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t do it but it’s not something that just happens,” says Dingwall, who won his second England cap in this year’s Six Nations Championship along with six of his Northampton team-mates. He played at inside centre in England’s win against Italy.

“It comes from each week, you fight for each week and every team will be coming after you, especially when you’re sat at the top of your league,” he says. “That means that everyone’s got a bounty on your head. You’ve got to be hungrier than those people who are chasing after you so, yeah, a week at a time but I don’t see any reason why we can’t.”

That’s fighting talk from Northampton and perhaps it’s the no fear attitude they and their coach possess they need to have coming into such a hostile environment like Croke Park with over 80,000 fans.

Munster are the only other rugby club side to have played at the GAA venue, when they appeared in the 2009 Heineken Cup semi-final, a match Leinster won in front of what was then a world record club rugby attendance of 82,208 fans.

“I think we’ve got to go out with the mentality we’re going to win this game,” says Dingwall flatly. “Get after it and wrestle for the victory rather than hoping they are going to roll over for us.”

Northampton know what they have to do. The double depends on it.