URC quarter-final: Leinster v Scarlets, Aviva Stadium, Saturday, 3pm, live on RTÉ 2 & Premier Sports 1
As strong a team coach Leo Cullen could field, in-form Tommy O’Brien and Garry Ringrose were unavailable for selection while Tadhg Furlong and Robbie Henshaw remain on the injury list as Leinster face into potentially their final match of the season.
This week Cullen was positive and hopeful but was aware that it could also be the last time Leinster fans see All Black Jordie Barrett in a Leinster shirt. Ross Byrne, who moves on and the venerable Cian Healy, who will retire at the end of the season, are also not included.
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However, a Leinster defeat is not what the bookmakers believe will happen as they go into the match as firm favourites on a summer bank holiday weekend, where travel could be on people’s minds as much as trucking up to Aviva Stadium for a URC quarter-final.
That said, people have skin in the game for a Leinster team that is feeling the pressure to win something this season after falling away to Northampton in the Champions Cup.
For the avoidance of appearing to disrespect the Welsh opposition Cullen was adamantly against discussing anything that could or might happen after Saturday.
“We are literally looking at this game,” said an exasperated Cullen. “We have fallen into this trap before, people looking too far ahead, and it is actually doing our heads in because everyone is just talking about the next thing and nobody wants to talk about the here and now.
“It has got to the point where it’s undermining of the teams we play against (sic) because I would rather focus on the Scarlets and who we are playing this week. Listen, we were talking about the semi-final if you remember and there was talk about Cardiff and EPCR and there was no talk about Northampton. Can we talk about the actual game?”
Scarlets are unchanged from last week, while Leinster have made six changes some forced, some not and arrive with a strong bench that includes twice World Cup winner RG Snyman and Irish hooker Dan Sheehan.
Jimmy O’Brien will make his 100th Leinster appearance while Jack Conan will captain the side at number eight.
“That’s the thing about a league format that goes into a knockout phase,” said Cullen. “You see teams in the league format, because they have good cohesion and this has been their sole focus for a while, Scarlets are a team that is in form.
“We rate their coaches, we know Dwayne Peel and Jarred [Payne] as well and those guys know the system here and they have a very good inside knowledge about us. Teams are building cohesion, yes. We’d love if the team that tops the league gets the trophy, like the Premier League.
“It’s a battle for qualification for the next Champions Cup and into the playoffs which means it’s now on the day. There’s no point in us talking about the future because we’ve fallen into that trap before. We can’t do it again. We feel like we owe it to the people that support us to put in a proper bloody performance. We need to be solely focused on this week.”
Scarlets beat Leinster 35-22 at the end of April in Parc Y Scarlets, so they will arrive in Dublin with a pathway that has been recently successful for them. This time out it is a dramatically different Leinster squad that finished on top in the league phase, whereas Scarlets ended just above the cut line in eighth place to make the playoffs.
Scarlets Head Coach Peel said this week there is no greater challenge than travelling to Dublin to face Leinster but hoped that his players would embrace the prospect of competing against an international starting XV, with a glut more Test match players to feed in from the bench.
But if there was a theme from Cullen it was respect and looking no further than 3pm on Saturday afternoon, while reminding the room that Leinster were also beaten by Scarlets in a 2017 semi-final playoff.
“They haven’t changed that drastically in the way they play, strong poachers at the ball,” he says. “They scored a couple of tries before half time which takes my recent memory back to Northampton. We conceded 17 points in the 12 minutes before half time when Northampton had a man in the bin. That’s a proper sucker punch to a team, isn’t it?”
Yes, and something Leinster are determined not to repeat.
Leinster: H Keenan; J O’Brien, J Osborne, J Barrett, J Lowe; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, R Kelleher, T Clarkson; J McCarthy, J Ryan; R Baird, J van der Flier, J Conan (captain). Replacements: D Sheehan, J Boyle, R Slimani, RG Snyman, M Deegan, S Penny, L McGrath, C Frawley.
Scarlets: B Murray; T Rogers, J Roberts, J Williams, E Mee; S Costelow, A Hughes; A Hepburn, R Elias, H Thomas; A Craig, S Lousi; V Fifita, J Macleod (capt), T Plumtree. Replacements: M van der Merwe, K Mathias, S Wainwright, D Davis, J Taylor, E Jones, I Lloyd, M Page
Referee: H Davidson (SRU)
