Leinster go into action this weekend on home soil facing Northampton Saints at the semi-final stage of the Champions Cup for a second consecutive year. Both sides have had contrasting campaigns in their respective leagues. Leinster have only lost twice in the URC while Northampton are 7th in the Premiership.
This would lead you to believe that Leinster will win pulling up but I have a feeling Northampton will come out all gun blazing and whether this will be good enough is the big question. Memories of last season’s game in Croke Park will weigh heavily on Northampton.
Leinster will have demons to banish as they have been to three finals in recent years and have tasted defeat each time. They brought Jordie Barrett in to supplement RG Snyman’s signing and both of those men have played key roles in Leinster’s march to Saturday’s game in Dublin.
Snyman has signed a fresh 1 year deal to stick around come what may but Barrett will head back to New Zealand at the conclusion of his 6 month deal with he will hope a URC winners medal and a Champions Cup winners medal.
This is the time of the year where Leinster up to 2021 knew how to cross the winning line but in recent years they have found French sides in particular a tough nut to crack in the Champions Cup while Munster and the Bulls have done for them in the URC over the past couple of years.
The investment in Snyman, Barrett and Reiko Ioane has suggested that Leinster will look to continue to dine at the top table over the next year or two at least. They have another bunch of young talent coming through and that will supplement what is already in the squad in the coming years.
For now though, Northampton on Saturday at 5.30pm will occupy the minds of the Leinster squad who rested an entire 23 last week with an eye to the upcoming challenge. They have been here many times over the past 4 years in particular and will hope the pain of losing the previous 3 finals will stand to them, only time will tell on that front.
Leinster in recent months have begun to play the attacking all court game they have honing and will hope this will see them past Northampton but for their part Saints will feel they need to start quickly to stand any hope of knocking Leinster off their perch.
I hope Saturday’s game lives up to the billing and both sides go out and have a go and we will then see who will come out on top.
Northampton have some good players in their ranks like Fin Smith, Henry Pollock, Alex Mitchell and George Furbank. They will hope all the afore mentioned men stand up and are counted in what will be a tough encounter and will be fierce at the break down in particular, where Doris, Van Der Flier and Conan will take on Alex Cole, Juarno Augustus and Henry Pollock.
In another Lions audition, Sam Prendergast will go up against Fin Smith, both of these men will go a long way to helping their sides pick up the win on Saturday. This game promises much and will be close on the scoreboard with only the bare minimum between them by the 80th minute on Saturday. I feel Leinster might just have enough to get to a 4th Champions Cup final in a row…
Toulouse will take Bordeaux Begles on Sunday in the second semi-final after Toulouse defeated Toulon with the final kick of the game in their quarter final with Toulon in the Stade Felix Mayol a few weeks ago. Bordeaux beat Munster in their quarter final to set up an all French semi-final.
This will be a tight game where both sides have two good packs of forwards as well as the attacking game plan to cut each other apart at will. Like the first semi-final, this game promises much and let’s hope it will deliver. Toulouse don’t have Antoine Dupont to call upon as his recovery from his ACL injury continues.
If Bordeaux have fixed there leaky defence since the Ulster and Munster games I give them a fighting chance to overturn Toulouse but if they concede as many points as they did in those two games they won’t be able to get past Toulouse as if it becomes shoot out, one feels Toulouse’s experience in big games will be enough to get them past Bordeaux.
Two exciting semi-finals await in the Champions Cup and I will stick my neck out and say Leinster will play Bordeaux Begles in next month’s show piece in Cardiff….