Leicester Tigers vs Leinster Rugby
European Champions Cup Quarter-final
Welford Road, Leicester
Saturday, 7th May 2022, 17:30

TV: Live: BT Sports

First a word for the young fellas in South Africa.

Even after they got a losing bonus point against the Sharks the previous week, it still looked a tall over to avoid a heavy beating against the rampant Stormers. But the young lads and a few experienced old boys put in an incredibly gutsy performance to not only get a losing bonus point of their own but also to deny the Stormers a four-try one. This secured top spot for Leinster and home advantage for the knock-out stages. So in the event Leinster get to the Champions Cup final, they can focus totally on that and rest players for the Munster game at the Aviva. I would hope the senior pros gave the young fellas a round of applause when they got back to training this week and hopefully Leinster can take advantage of what they earned.

But to do that, Leinster will have to get past Leicester in Welford Road. It will be the first time the two clubs have played each other in eleven years, which is strange considering how often they met in the first two decades of the tournament. Leicester were the first English team Leinster ever played in the Heineken Cup, when they lost on a freezing cold Wednesday night in Lansdowne Road in 1996. But they went on to play each other in the pool stages three more times with the wins mostly going to the home side including two memorable wins in Donnybrook. They have met in the knock-out stages four times with quarter-final wins for Leicester in 2002 and 2005 and for Leinster in 2011, their last meeting. The most famous knock-out stage meeting was of course when Leinster beat them in the final in Murrayfield in 2009 to lift the trophy for the first time.

Since then Leinster have lifted the trophy three more times, but Leicester haven't added to the two consecutive cups won in 2001 & 2002. Part of the reason the two sides haven't met in eleven years is the sharp decline in Leicester's fortunes from 2013 to 2021 that incredibly saw them fail to even qualify for the Champions Cup twice. Things got so bad that they only survived relegation in 2019 due to the Saracens points deduction for Salary cap infringements. They haven't made the top four in the Premiership for the last four seasons, again remarkable for a club that qualified for every Premiership final from 2005 to 2013.

However there was finally signs of a revival in the second half of last season as new boss Steve Borthwick began to make an impact. It was based on a new crop of young players like Freddie Steward, George Martin, Dan Kelly, Oille Chessum, Tommy Reffell, Nic Dolly and Joe Heyes. They finished sixth in the Premiership and were edged in the Challenge Cup final by Montpellier having beaten Connacht and Ulster along the way.

This season Leicester have been the dominant team in English rugby leading the table with 18 wins and only four defeats. As well as the young lads they have huge experience in the likes of Ben Youngs, George Ford, Dan Cole and veteran wingers Chris Ashton and Nemani Nadolo. They've also got some very useful South Africans in Jasper Wiese, Hanro Liebenberg and Eli Snyman, Though he is leaving at the end of the season skipper Ellis Genge is the heartbeat of the team and he will have been practicing his soft shoe shuffle all week since he heard Mathieu Raynal was referee. Raynal let Genge away with murder at the scrum in the Ireland - England match as Genge wheeled the scrum so shamelessly apparently even Raynal himself admitted as much afterwards.

But the main question for Leinster is whether Leicester have the forward power to bully them up front in the way Saracens and La Rochelle have in the last three European campaigns. Well let's take a look at the engine room. Their selection of locks like Harry Wells, Ollie Chessum, Eli Snyman or Calum Green are some decent sized lads, but there's no Will Skelton-like monster. Their lineout maul has been a consistent source of tries and their set-piece is highly rated but they won't have come up against a pack like Leinster's before. Leicester's playing style is pragmatic and they kick chase a lot, a tactic that Saracens used to unsettle Leinster in previous defeats. But Leinster know what's coming and in Huge Keenan they have a man who's learned a lot from a similar aerial assault in Twickenham a few months ago.

Borthwick has made much of the fact that while his team were losing to Harlequins and hammering Bristol in the last two weeks, most of the Leinster starting squad have been relaxing in Dublin. Well, if both games hadn't been in South Africa with the risk of jet lag or getting trapped by a Covid outbreak, Leinster probably would have preferred to give their front-liners at least one game in the build-up. But Leinster have been good at getting their team primed and ready to operate with little preparation.

Unsurprisingly Leinster have chosen to go en-masse with the players that stayed in Dublin, the only caveats being Andrew Porter and Ronan Kelleher in the front row. Both were injured during the Six Nations and traveled to South Africa to gain needed match-time in the first match. However, Kelleher picked up a knock in training and traveled home without playing a single minute. They're joined in the front row by Furlong, with a fit again James Ryan and Ross Molony packing down behind them. The back-row has a familiar look, with Jack Conan at number 8 and Doris and van der Flier on the flanks.

Johnny Sexton captains the team at out-half, with Gibson-Park getting the nod over McGrath to partner him at scrum-half. Henshaw starts alongside Garry Ringrose in the centres, where Ringrose will have his work cut out to keep Matias Moroni in check. The back three of Lowe, Jimmy O'Brien and Hugo Keenan are the form selection in the back three. The strength of all three under the high ball and their positional awareness will be important to counter the Leicester kick chase game and will have made the selection easier for Leo and co.

The most surprising selection on the Leinster bench is that of Joe McCarthy, who gets the nod as second row back-up. It may well be that Ryan Baird is injured, but there's been no confirmation. With both Larmour and Dave Kearney injured, Tommy O'Brien is selected for the 23 shirt. O'Brien may find himself in the line of fire late on against Nadolo, who starts on the bench for Leicester, after Potter was preferred to start on the left wing for them.

It's going to be a tough battle and Leicester will be full of confidence as they're unbeaten at home this season. But by all accounts there should be a big traveling support and hopefully this will spur our lads on to a win.

by Jim O'Connor, © 2022-05-06