LEINSTER HAD A visit from historian Paul Rouse yesterday as they build towards this Saturday’s URC clash with Munster at Croke Park.
While this game won’t be on the scale of the famous 2009 Heineken Cup semi-final when Leinster reversed the trajectory of the inter-provincial rivalry, there is huge anticipation with more than 74,000 tickets sold for the 82,300-capacity stadium.
Leinster made a return to Croke Park last season when they hosted their Champions Cup semi-final against Northampton at the GAA headquarters, so they have recent experience of the hallowed venue.
Leo Cullen invited Dublin football captain James McCarthy to speak to his Leinster players about Croke Park before that Northampton clash but this time around, they leaned on the knowledge of Rouse, a professor of history at University College Dublin who has spoken to the Ireland national team before.
“It was only a 15 to 20-minute presentation where he went through the history and detail of the place but he also said, ‘Don’t make any more of it than what it is,’” said Leinster assistant coach Robin McBryde yesterday.
“I personally enjoy that type of thing. It’s not too heavy, not too intense, but it gives a different feel to the week and it deserves that because of the nature of the opposition that we’re playing. It’s a derby.”
Leinster have their own in-house Croke Park specialist too, with former Dublin footballer and selector Declan Darcy having joined Cullen’s coaching set-up in the summer of 2022.
Darcy, who is a ‘performance coach’ for the province, had a similar message to Rouse when he addressed the Leinster squad.
“Dec was saying that at the end of the day, rugby is 15 against 15,” said McBryde. “Don’t get lost in the hype. It’s a great place to go and play, don’t get lost in the occasion.”
While Cullen, Jacques Nienaber, Seán O’Brien, Tyler Bleyendaal, and McBryde are front and centre in Leinster’s coaching staff, Darcy is a somewhat invisible force when you’re looking from the outside.
Indeed, it would be easy to forget he’s there given that he doesn’t have to deal with the media and doesn’t sit in the coaching box during matches. But Darcy is working away behind the scenes doing his best to coax better performances from players and coaches.
“He keeps himself to himself and that’s what I like about him really,” said McBryde. “He doesn’t push himself to the fore anywhere. He’ll just have a quiet conversation with certain players and he’s there as a sounding board for me, which is great.
“He’s massively experienced and he knows the high intensity of games and what it’s like to be part of a team trying to leave a legacy, working towards something and winning games, and winning the big games.
“He’s been around. You may not have seen him, but he’s there. I find him invaluable really with regards to a resource of a sounding board, a different pair of eyes, seeing how the dynamics… certain relationships that he can see forming and what have you.”
These are early days in the season but Leinster would love to deliver a statement performance on the big stage against Munster this weekend as they look to continue building momentum.
They’re aware of some of the criticism and question marks from the outside after they came up short in the Champions Cup final against Toulouse and the URC semi-finals against the Bulls last season.
Leinster know what people say about them after three seasons without a trophy. Indeed, one of their themes last season was ‘The Man in the Arena,’ part of a famous speech by Theodore Roosevelt in 1910.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better,” said Roosevelt.
“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
This makes sense when you consider some of the things Leinster said towards the end of last season – hints at the theme.
And they’re convinced that there won’t be any scar tissue that holds them back this season, that the weight of previous losses won’t prove too burdensome.
“I’ll just say looking at it from the outside, from my point view, Ciarán Frawley, he’s got over it by his actions; nailing that drop kick out in South Africa,” said McBryde, referring to how Frawley had narrowly missed a similar attempt in the Champions Cup final.
“I congratulated him, said, ‘Fair play to you,’ and thought, ‘That’s bloody great, shame you couldn’t do it a couple of weeks earlier!’ I’m not blaming him.
“That’s the nature of the game. It’s how you dust yourself off and get back up. We had ‘The Man in the Arena’ as our sort of theme last season, so it is not the critic that counts.
“You have to live by that, be able to put yourself out there, not worry about the end result really. You have to give it your best shot. If on the day it is not quite there, just dust yourself off, get back on the horse and go again.
“We have had to do that over the past three years. It’s no different this year which is one positive, if you can call it a positive, knowing that we have been here before. It would be great if we get ourselves in a position to win it. I do genuinely sense that there is a different feel, a different vibe about the place.”
McBryde points to new attack coach Bleyendaal, how senior coach Nienaber’s role “is a little bit different to what it was last year” and jokes that the players are probably sick only of his voice.
Whatever about the business end of the season, the Leinster coaches have their hands full this weekend making sure the province keep their winning streak at Croker going.
