ONE DOWN, TWO to go in Leinster’s three-week charge for a fifth straight league title.

The province shrugged off any European hangover by making light work of Glasgow Warriors in their United Rugby Championship quarter-final clash on Saturday, teeing up an intriguing semi-final date with the Bulls at the RDS on Friday – with the winner advancing to the URC final one week later.

Those within the Leinster camp continue to stress that their appetite for league success remains as strong as ever despite dominating the competition in recent seasons, with the inclusion of South African sides the Bulls, Sharks, Stormers and Lions adding a new dynamic to the challenge this year as the Pro14 became the URC.

The league tends to play second fiddle to Europe but with the Champions Cup gone for another year, the URC has taken on a heightened importance for a Leinster team desperate to finish the season with some silverware to show for all their endeavor.

“Every single competition we are in we want to win,” says attack coach, Felipe Contepomi.

“That’s the nature of Leinster rugby. We want to win. We are winners and we want to win, and we want to win this competition, as we wanted to win the Rainbow Cup and we didn’t.

“So we don’t diminish any competition. Every game for us is important.”

“I personally think the URC is a great competition and for coaches it’s unbelievable because you play against different styles week-in, week-out; different sorts of rugby and within your style and your philosophy, how you adapt to different styles is great.

“But also for spectators and everything, I think it’s a great tournament to be involved in. And if you see in terms of attraction I can say that I watch a lot of rugby, I watch Top 14, and URC is much more attractive rugby. There’s much better rugby than in many games in the Top 14. I think it’s a great competition.”

Glasgow let the side down in that regard last weekend, but the Bulls will pose a sterner challenge on Friday. Leinster are still waiting on a few key players to prove their fitness ahead of the fixture, with Tadhg Furlong, Johnny Sexton and James Lowe all hoping to feature.

“We would like the three of them to play but I think they are making progress and it’s tough, but you always want them in the training sessions and so on,” Contepomi continues.

“We won’t put in someone that is not set to succeed, because it’s a semi-final and you need everyone to be 100% sure that they can be there to do the job for the team. Hopefully the three will be available, but we can’t say today (Monday) for certain. We’ll give them as much time as we can.”

With Ulster away to the Stormers on Saturday, the semi-finals will pit the pick of Ireland against the best of South Africa. It’s a good outcome for the tournament organisers, who will have been massively relieved to see the South Africans recover from a slow start to the season and make their presence very much felt in this new-look competition.

“I definitely strongly believed that the South Africans would add a bit of quality in the tournament, and the quality comes as well because it’s such a different style of rugby, and for me as a coach that’s the beauty of the URC,” Contepomi says.

“You play Scottish teams, Welsh teams, Italian teams and now South African teams, Irish teams, all different styles of rugby but still you have your philosophy, your own style of rugby that you need to prevail against different styles.

“That gives you a lot of learning as well as a coach and as a team, it’s a challenge because if you go and watch the Top 14 or the Premiership, there are one or two styles but most of the teams play in a certain way, or there are trends within the competitions. 

“Here, you can see the Bulls being a very South African team and it’s great for us. It’s great because we will play against a power-based, territory-based team with high speed on the edges and very powerful on the centres and upfront.”

Power-based teams have of course caused Leinster problems in the past, with La Rochelle’s impressive win in Marseille the latest example – although Ronan O’Gara’s side certainly brought more to the table than just bulk and bite.

Still, Contepomi is confident Leinster have the ability to beat a power-based team.

“Well, the key for me is obviously trying to move them around and play with intensity, but more so with accuracy, and make sure that we are accurate on the day and we make our style of rugby prevail against them.

“But it’s a big ‘if’ and it all starts with the setpiece, making sure we have a good setpiece and that we’re very clinical in those areas.

“If you ask me Toulouse are more similar to La Rochelle than the Bulls would be and we beat Toulouse. If you ask me, Leicester are a very power-based team and we beat Leicester. So I wouldn’t say we have to prove ourselves against anybody. We need to make sure that we keep improving ourselves and we compete against ourselves in terms of making sure that we improve.

“But I wouldn’t make the comparison, are the Bulls like La Rochelle. We lost against La Rochelle in the last minute and we did things that we could have done differently and probably win that game. We weren’t far off. We weren’t thrashed by La Rochelle. We weren’t beaten in every single corner of the pitch.

“I wouldn’t go that route in saying that we need to prove ourselves. Yes, we need to make sure that we keep improving ourselves and making ourselves a better team. That’s my view.” 

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