5 days ago
Leinster's Ryan Baird: 'You'll find out if you are a man or a mouse'
Leinster back row Ryan Baird says the province will find out this weekend if they are men or mice.
Leo Cullen's side face defending BKT URC champions Glasgow Warriors in the semi-final at Aviva Stadium on Saturday (2.45pm, live on RTÉ).
Leinster won 16 games in a row from the start of the season but have lost three times since March, to Bulls and Scarlets in the URC, and the devastating defeat to Northampton Saints in the Champions Cup semi-final.
They've managed to put three wins in a row together since their European exit but looked far from their best in victories over Glasgow and Scarlets.
Baird, who was yesterday named in the Ireland squad for the summer tour, has played 80 minutes in each of the last three matches and feels that the real measure of the Leinster team will be revealed in the final stages of Saturday's clash.
"It's very easy at the start of the game to be very clear, present and understanding exactly what you are trying to execute but once the fatigue comes on, that's the challenge and that's when you see the best teams win," the 25-year-old (below) told RTÉ Sport's Michael Corcoran.
"It's when they have the ability to execute the fundamentals of the game under pressure, under fatigue, the last 10 minutes of game.
"By no means we'll be taking that part of the game for granted. There'll be visualisation done.
"Even in the way we train, putting yourself under fatigue to mimic it, even if it's only for a minute or two during the week.
"It's all those moments that you've accumulated over the whole season, it's what you'll have to trust.
"When the pressure comes on, you'll fall back on what your habits are.
"It's incredibly exciting when you put yourself in a position where you don't really know what's going to happen and you'll find out if you are a man or a mouse."
Baird also revealed that, unlike some of his team-mates, he opted to watch the Champions Cup final, where Bordeaux Begles beat the Saints 28-20.
He says they can use that feeling as motivation when they face Franco Smith's side, who impressed in their quarter-final win over Stormers.
"I was sitting in a pub, with a Mi-wadi, just to be clear, watching the Champions Cup final and you just have this sick feeling in your stomach," said the Dubliner, who has 27 Ireland caps.
"We were there for three years in a row and you don't get that taste so to have another opportunity to get a trophy, we're incredibly fortunate.
"Some teams don't get that second chance and we have that second chance.
"We haven't won the URC since it was reformatted, so there's no shortage of motivation."
