European Cup Quarter-final Leinster v Leicester: Each time a Leinster forward steps in front of a microphone, the media exact a price. This week was entirely predictable.

Do you think the pack can match Leicester's eight? Is our frontrow good enough to hold the Leicester scrum? Oh yes, and what about the performance against Bath, the away one? There is a perception that accompanies the Leinster team and it is not always positive. The players pick up on it in the loading of the questions, the unsympathetic angles, but they've come to shrug it off.

The perception is the forwards occasionally underperform and, given the level of talent available to the province, the team has, over the first 10 Heineken European Cup competitions, not matched expectations. Munster and Ulster players are seldom subjected to such niggling enquiries, though Mark McCall did get a reasonable dusting down earlier this season over a series of weeks when Ulster were evidently feeling poorly.

On Wednesday morning at Old Belvedere, Reggie Corrigan, Malcolm O'Kelly, Eric Miller and Felipe Contepomi were the four players asked to explain those perceptions, ones they don't hold themselves. They were asked to fill column inches in the build-up to today's match against Leicester and tell us their feelings about regular criticism.

The Argentinian was given the soft ride, while the bigger boys, between the easily fielded questions about Martin Johnson, were again asked to talk about team lapses and not hitting the high notes when required.

"Leinster forwards tend to come in for criticism no matter what," said Corrigan. "It has been a trend that has gone on over the past few years and, yes, you can get angry about it and annoyed about it, but ultimately you've got to be focused. You can't have a knee-jerk reaction. We will go out today very committed to being physical up front. I believe that's an area Leicester are strong in. We'll have to match them."

O'Kelly was almost dismissive and joked away the suggestion of a Leinster frailty.

"Ah, sure we always take criticism for everything, you know," he shrugged before referring to the semi-final match two years ago in Lansdowne Road against the French side Perpignan and acknowledging, "We have been guilty of not performing on the day."

The secondrow's view of the Bath game was equally succinct.

"I was happy with the performance against Bath at home but not the away match. We let ourselves down badly that day. The media were right to have a go at our pack that day but that was a once-off. All your season's mistakes in one game."

Miller, who had an eye-catching game against Llanelli last week, was more analytical.

"The press always pick on something. We've six wins out of six in the pool stages. That's the bottom line. Going back to those situations where we maybe haven't performed as well . . . if we play our best we can take on anyone but I don't think we've shown that so far," said the number eight.

Miller is correct. There is always a bottom line and for Leinster and the European Cup, it can be measured over the last 10 years since the inaugural competition in the 1995-96 season.

Since then the Leinster team have played 58 matches over all 10 tournaments. They have won 37, drawn one and lost 20. That is a win rate of 64 per cent.

Munster and Ulster, thanks to the non-competitive way the teams have been nominated by the IRFU into the competition, have also contested all 10 tournaments. Munster have played in 67 matches over the period and won 45, giving them a 67-per-cent win rate, while Ulster have played in 57 and won just 24, for a 42-per-cent record.

Of the three Irish sides Ulster are the only one to have lost more European Cup matches than they've won.

The obvious irony is Ulster are the only Irish province to have held the European Cup, after beating Colomiers 21-6 in the 1999 final. They may rightly claim they have been in some extremely difficult pools, but bottom lines don't account for that.

Leicester, who must go through a competitive process to even start in the competition, have played in eight of the 10 tournaments and won the trophy in 2001 and 2002. They defeated Stade Français 34-30 in the 2001 final and dashed Munster hopes the following year with a 15-9 win in Cardiff. Their win rate in the competition of 41 from 58 matches is 71 per cent.

The reality is Leinster's record in the competition is reasonable, behind that of Munster and Leicester but way better than Ulster's.

But Declan Kidney will take hope from this year's encouraging run, which has been more impressive than other campaigns as Leinster have been scoring more tries than in any other year. The 33 touchdowns from their opening six pool matches eclipses the figures for the previous nine seasons, the closest being the 2002-03 season, when the Lions ran in 25 tries in eight matches.

Defensively, Leinster have conceded 10 tries so far in this European run, the smallest number since they played in the first year of the tournament, when they conceded five tries in three matches.

In 2003, when Perpignan beat Leinster in the semi-final, the Irish province also let in 10 tries, but over eight matches.

But perceptions are difficult to remove and perhaps the casual way in which the Perpignan home tie was let go has jaundiced opinion. There is also the fact the team have been unable to get to within touching distance of the final in any other year.

One semi-final and two quarter-finals in 10 years is another bottom-line statistic.

It may be that Team Leinster do not always add up to the sum of the constituent parts and when O'Kelly remarked, "You can imagine how difficult it was playing in the Millennium Stadium, with 80,000 watching you, then going to Llanelli with 5,000 Leinster supporters," it indicates there may be difficulties with the international players re-entering the provincial orbit.

"I wouldn't even know what you are talking about," said coach Declan Kidney when the words "underachievement" and "Leinster" were put to him. "They've done really well. They've won their six group matches. That's all you can ever do.

"We've gotten a home quarter-final and managed to get where we are in the Celtic League with a big squad. Part of our job is to provide players for the national team and I think we've done that very admirably. So that doesn't come into my way of thinking at all.

"We'll be judged by our results. I personally will judge it by whether we have given everything we have out on the pitch. If that gets us results I'll be delighted for the players but seeing them give everything will be my own personal barometer for it."

If Leinster halt the charge of the English team towards what would be an unprecedented third European Cup win, they will assume the mantle of favourites for the competition. The players understand that and also know how quickly critical judgments will be made. In a way it is a form of flattery but the sniping can hurt.

"You realise the scrums are going to be big, the frontrow work is going to be big," says Corrigan. "I know I am in for a tough day at the office. I won't need a slap on the back of the head to wake me up.

"The players feel the pressure. There's no doubt about that. They know there is expectation there. They know people are expecting big things from this squad of players. That has its own pressure. We know we've the talent. We know that at our best we can beat anyone. That's the key. Getting everyone fired up and ready to rock from the beginning."

We know it too.