How Leinster's seven-year Champions Cup itch has intensified
Leinster's wait for a fifth star will stretch now to at least eight years after Saturday's Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton Saints in Dublin. That's four lost deciders, two semis and a quarter-final exit since beating Racing 92 in Bilbao in 2018.
The Boston Red Sox endured an 86-year 'Curse of the Bambino', Mayo have spent decades trying and failing to get over the line in the football All-Ireland, and England's footballers are now onto 59 years of hurt.
Leinster's 'drought' isn't nearly as long but rarely has one team in any sport packed so much heartbreak into such a short span of time as a Leinster side that keeps finding new and more heartbreaking ways to lose.
2018-19:
Leading Saracens by 10 points on the cusp of half-time in a final held at Newcastle United's St James' Park, Leinster failed to score again and gave up their crown on a 20-10 scoreline to an English side securing their third title.
2019-20:
Undefeated in both competitions all seasons, in a run that stretched to 23 games, Leinster were fancied to exact revenge on Saracens for the previous year's decider but trailed 22-3 at half-time and fell short with a second-half comeback, losing 25-17.
2020-21:
A truncated campaign saw Leinster play just twice in the competition thanks to Covid before a semi-final trip to La Rochelle where they were comprehensively outplayed by the home team. The 32-23 win was far more comprehensive than the scoreline suggests.
2021-22:
The province somehow held a narrow lead in the closing stages in Marseille's Orange Velodrome but a dogged defense eventually succumbed to a 79th-minute Arthur Retiere try as Ronan O'Gara's La Rochelle squeaked home by 24 points to 21.
2022-23:
Here we go again! Leading 17-0 after a blistering start in the Aviva Stadium final, Leinster were on the La Rochelle line in the dying moments but saw their last chance go up in smoke when Michael Ala'alatoa saw red for a dangerous clearout. La Rochelle's day again, with a point to spare.
2023-24:
This decider pitched up at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London but the end result was more agony. Ciaran Frawley missed with a last-gasp drop kick in normal time before Leinster fell away in extra-time. Toulouse eventually pulled through by nine points.
2024-25:
Unbeaten all year, again, Leinster were 19-point favourites for their semi-final against Northampton Saints but Jacques Nienaber's blitz defence was broken by five stunning tries and the English side clung on in the end to win 37-34 with Leinster controversially denied a last-gasp try.
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Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Bulls hoping numbers add up as they look to commemorate former teammate in URC final
Jake White is hoping that the stars will align for his team to commemorate the passing of former Bulls player Cornal Hendricks when his side faces Leinster in the BKT URC decider at Croke Park. The 12-time Springbok passed away from a heart attack last month aged just 37 and the Bulls soon retired his old No.14 jersey for the season in tribute. This followed a minute's applause for the player 14 minutes into their game against the Dragons shortly after his death. 'He died on the 14th of May, and Saturday we play on the 14th of June,' said White, the Bulls coach. 'It's quite an ominous number. Funny enough, I was doing a bit of homework and I read that Bloody Sunday, 14 people died at Croke Park. 'It's quite amazing that the number 14 comes up. So there is a lot of nice memories of Cornal that we will use and the number 14. Hopefully it will be a fantastic day on the 14th of June for us as a club as well.' The numerical touchstones don't stop there. Hendrick's first Test for South Africa was earned against Wales in Durban on June 14th, 2014, his son's birthday falls on the 14th of December and Hendricks and his wife Stephaney had been together for 14 years. 'There is a lot of relevance [to] the number 14 not being used this weekend,' White added. 'Sometimes you need that. You guys are from Ireland and look what Munster did in the time that they lost their coach [Anthony Foley] and how quickly the reason why just turned the way Munster became for that year. 'Stars are aligned. Hopefully we will use that in our favour.' The Croke Park factor has been thoroughly researched in terms of the stadium's role in Irish history and in the national psyche. Tournament organisers hope that the stadium will be in and around half-full, or more, for a final that has all the makings of an epic. The trip north of the equator is never easy but the Bulls have done what they could to mitigate the disadvantage with 95% of their party travelling business class via the London route rather than economy through the Middle East. The fact they flew on Sunday, rather than midweek, will serve them equally well as it has given them the chance to find their feet earlier in the week in Dublin. Tuesday found them in St Mary's RFC for a weight's session. All that helps. The sunshine, too. Saturday seems to be promising heavy and persistent rain while the Bulls will have to make do without the superb No.8 Cameron Hanekom who was injured in last week's semi-final against the Sharks while Elrigh Louw and Gerhard Steenekamp are other absentees. White wasn't making a meal of any of it. Leinster will be missing key players too and the former Bok World Cup-winning coach sees other similarities in the fact that these are two clubs who have to leave recent final disappointments behind them now. Leinster's three successive Champions Cup agonies between 2022 and 2024 are all too familiar while the Bulls came second-best in URC deciders in 2022 and again last year. White dismisses all that as irrelevant, especially on his side. 'This group of players have probably far exceeded expectations of anybody in the last four years. To play three finals… Every change of our team has [resulted in it being] the youngest of most teams in the competition. 'Over and above that, the experience of international rugby, compared to any other team we've played. You talk about the Glasgows, the Edinburghs, the Leinsters, the Munsters, they're laden with international players.' Clever stuff. White had started to lay the groundwork for these mind games before they boarded their flight when he labelled his Bulls as underdogs and remarking at one point that they needed nothing less than a "prayer" against opposition of this stripe. Franco Smith said Leinster are eight years ahead of everyone else in the URC after his Glasgow side was swept aside by the province in the other semi-final. His Bulls counterpart took that ball up and ran with it. White had watched the 'Against The Head' programme on RTÉ on Monday night and he repeated here some of the stats mentioned about the men in blue: 12 British and Irish Lions, another dozen on Ireland's summer tour. Plus Jordie Barrett, Rabah Slimani and RG Snyman. Oh, and the likes of Ross Byrne and Luke McGrath too. 'That's 30 guys in their squad. They probably have more Irish international caps than we have URC games under our belt. So that's the significant point. I don't know why Franco would say that. 'I don't know how he gets to eight years. But I will tell you something, there is no doubt that Leinster are the benchmark of what I do and how I prepare, and the benchmark of what's happened at the club.'
Irish Examiner
2 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Leinster must match physicality with mental focus to topple Bulls, insists Sheehan
The dream of lifting a trophy at Croke Park may be as close to being realised as it will ever be for Dan Sheehan but he knows Leinster will have to get both their physicality and mentality to a perfect pitch if they are to win Saturday's URC Grand Final. South African powerhouse the Bulls stand between Leinster and a first trophy in four years and have arrived in Dublin having been the architects of two semi-final defeats of the Irish province in the last three seasons. Ireland hooker Sheehan will not dwell on the past too much in that regard, while last weekend's Aviva Stadium dismissal of defending champions Glasgow Warriors ended a run of three successive last-four losses for Leinster. Yet the Bulls' victories at the same stage in 2022 at the RDS and on home soil in Pretoria last season are reminders of what is required by Leo Cullen's men this Saturday. 'It's good. It's physical,' Sheehan said of the challenge awaiting his team. 'You have to be brave and put yourself in front of these big fellas. 'They'll try to test you. They'll push buttons, it's chat after the ball goes out. It's rubbing your head in the dirt but you know they get you both sides of the ball and I think people enjoy it. I think fans enjoy it. 'I think when you get it right, it's incredibly rewarding to get a win over a South African team. We've experienced that over the years so I think it's a good battle and it's a good spectacle and I hope there's good excitement building through the week and we get a good crowd there. I think it will be a good game on Saturday.' That the decider is at Croke Park is a huge incentive for Sheehan, though he was also mindful that playing at the home of the GAA can also gives opposition visitors a lift. Describing the possibility of winning a trophy there as 'unbelievable', he said: 'It's something that we probably wouldn't have even been able to think of or hope for as kids growing up or even over the last few years that it would be a possibility to win a trophy in Croke Park and how cool it is and how it amplifies the occasion. 'Over the last year or so that we have played there three times and I think every time it's a great occasion and people get a bit of a lift from it, and I think the opposition also get a bit of lift from it. That's because they obviously read into the history of it. They realise that it is a big game for us as well. 'I think it's a benefit for both sides and yeah, definitely something we'll talk about during the week is trying to lift a trophy in Croke Park and how we do that is sort of our process during the week and how we get the mentality of things right early.' Leinster will undoubtedly get a bounce from a timely return to form in their semi-final success over Glasgow last Saturday, when they shook off a lacklustre 13-5 quarter-final win over Scarlets to dispel concerns of another semi-final shock with a six-try, 37-19 victory. Yet Sheehan acknowledged a stiffer test was to come from the Bulls. Speaking on Monday, he said: 'I thought the energy this morning was great, coming in excited about a final and off the back of a good decent performance on Saturday. The first conversations were positive, everyone knowing that we need to step it up again. 'We can't be happy with that and they are a completely different threat to Glasgow. We have become very familiar with Glasgow over the last few weeks so we haven't played a South African team in a while. It will be interesting now how we go over the next couple of days to get that mindset right. 'We need our physicality right, set piece right, our team game right and then hopefully bring an energy that they can't deal with.'
RTÉ News
2 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Jake White: Final against Leinster is 'D-Day' for the Bulls
Jake White has known since very early this season that the road to a first BKT United Rugby Championship title for the Bulls would go through Dublin. Beaten finalists in 2022 and 2024, the Bulls have been the most consistent off the four South African franchises in these first four seasons of the new URC, but they've failed to get over the finish line. While suffering disappointment in losing at home to Glasgow in last year's decider, five wins from six to start this campaign gave a strong indication that the Pretoria side would be in the shake-up once again when the URC got down to the final weeks of the season. The head coach also suspected as much, and has had his players preparing to for this final Dublin trip for quite some time. "My message for the last four or five months was, 'if you think you're good enough to beat Leinster away, then you've got to win all these games to get to the final', which we've now done," White said, speaking from the Bulls' training base at St Mary's RFC. "The question I've said to them this week is, 'you've said you're going to beat Leinster away, now let's see how good we are'. "That's been coming for four months, because it was inevitable that they were going to get first place because no one was going to catch them. "It's now D-day for us, to do what we said we were going to do." While Leinster's home advantage makes them favourites to claim their first URC title, and first trophy since 2021, there will be no fear in the Bulls camp about what they will face. Their win against Munster at Thomond Park in April saw them become the first of the South African sides to win an away game against all four provinces, and they also had a clean sweep of wins against Irish sides in the 2024/25 regular season. Additionally, three years ago, White's side went to the RDS and pulled off a shock semi-final win against Leinster, before beating them in the semis at Loftus Versfeld 12 months ago. The former Springbok coach isn't willing to reveal what the secret sauce is from those previous semi-final wins against this week's opponents though. "I suppose there are [recurring themes], but I'm not going to share them with you on media," he added, with a grin. It doesn't take a genius to work out that they will go after the scrum, an areas they have had dominance in across the last couple of seasons, and notably in their last two meetings with Leinster. "It has been an element we have tried to improve on, and there is no doubt our scrum has made significant strides in the last couple of seasons. That's through personnel as well, which you can understand. "I mean, why would a guy like Rabah Slimani be signed by Leinster? There is only one reason, because they see that as an area where they want make sure they can improve. "A guy like Rabah Slimani comes along and there's something in the middle of the scrum, lineout that they needed. "I suppose every club and every director of rugby would like to be in that situation," added White, ahead of this Saturday's final at Croke Park, for which more than 30,000 tickets had been sold by Tuesday morning. The unusual quirk of this weekend's final is that both sides are looking to become champions for the first time, despite having the two best records of wins to losses over the last four seasons, with Leinster having won 59 games in the URC era, and Bulls next best on 54. But White, who lost powerful number 8 Cameron Hanekom to injury in Saturday's semi-final win against the Sharks, knows the regular season counts for nothing in the summer. "That's the nature of this competition. You've got to get it right. One of the messages I got to the players was: one of the things about this competition is that you need to play your best rugby in the last three weeks, and we haven't managed to do that in the four years. "We have managed to play really well over a period of time but we haven't managed to back up three performances in a row. That's the challenge for all these teams. "You got to have your best guys out, they got to be playing their best and you've got to prepare them the best they can be for those last three Saturdays." It's been an emotional month for those in Bulls and the wider South African rugby community following the death of wing Cornal Hendricks (above) last month. The former Bulls and Springboks winger died of a suspected heart attack, with Saturday's final falling on his one month anniversary. As a mark of respect, the Bulls retired his old number 14 jersey for the remainder of the season, and he says that number has been popping up a lot in his mind in recent weeks. "He died on the 14th of May, and Saturday we play on the 14th of June. It's quite an ominous number. "Funny enough, I was doing a bit of homework and I read that Bloody Sunday, 14 people died at Croke Park. It's quite amazing that the number 14 comes up. "There is a lot of nice memories of Cornal that we will use [for motivation] and the number 14. Hopefully it will be a fantastic day on the 14th off June for us as a club as well. "There is a lot of relevance, the number 14 not being used this weekend. Sometimes you need that. You guys are from Ireland and look what Munster did in the time that they lost their coach [Anthony Foley] and how quickly that turned the way for Munster that year.
