MAGNERS LEAGUE SEMI-FINAL:Leinster's Eoin Reddan's focus is firmly on winning another tough assignment and not on who his opponents are, writes JOHN O'SULLIVAN

EOIN REDDAN’S laconic delivery can occasionally be misinterpreted, especially in the absence of a smile but it doesn’t totally camouflage a sharp sense of humour. He just employs it sparingly. He’s familiar with the dog-eared script he’s about to thumb through once again: a player born in Limerick, playing for Leinster against old friends, when Munster visit the RDS on Saturday night.

The 29-year-old scrumhalf eschews sentimentality, but prefers a more hard-nosed appraisal of a third meeting between the two provinces this season. He claims that his focus is not on the identity of Saturday’s opponents but that they bar a path to where he’d like to go; namely the final. “At this stage of the season you’re fighting to get a home semi-final and you know if you get it, it’ll be a massive game.

“You’re not in a position to worry about who you’re playing against. The fact it is Munster adds to it from a rivalry point of view but the game will be massive anyway. Obviously everyone knows each other and that adds to it, but it’s a big game either way.”

Reddan exudes a positivity born from the practical rather than the abstract. This season the Magners League decided to introduce play-offs for the first time. Up until this point in the tournament history, Leinster, as the side that finished top of the table, would have been crowned champions. The scrumhalf would argue that the last statement is irrelevant.

“If someone said to you to win the league and you won it and then turned and said ‘hang on, you’ve to play these two games to win it’, that’s a different situation to what we’re in. We’ve known since May last year that we had to win these two games. In this situation it’s just pure excitement.

“It’s two massive games and as a player it’s two more knockout games that might help you in the future if you get to another Heineken Cup quarter-final, semi-final or another Magners League game, or even a World Cup quarter-final or semi-final. It’s great for players to be exposed to this. I’m accentuating the positives of it.

“Knowing what we’re aiming for, I think it’s just looking up and on to the end of the year. I don’t feel tired or that it’s been a long season because everything we’ve been playing for has come in these three or four weeks, maybe starting two weeks ago, and going on to the end of the season.

“I think it’s great. People keep asking about the long season but it doesn’t come into it for me, you’re always looking forward. There might be a few guys injured and that happens but if you take any window in the season, there’s guys injured.

“It’s an exciting end to the season, it’s massive. It’s in the back of your head when you’re playing away at Cardiff in the middle of the Six Nations; you know what you’re playing for and I think now we’re here we need to push on and really produce the goods on Saturday.”

He’s not interested in talking about the arrival of Isaac Boss next season because it doesn’t correlate with playing issues that preoccupy him at present. He does soften, though, when it’s suggested he’ll get a little verbal bashing from red-shirted rivals, erstwhile friends who’ll be keen to wind him up about his current address. Reddan smiles: “You assume I’m living in Dublin 4. Which I am! That part of it is great, playing against your friends. There is a bit of niggle there always but the day you spend one second trying to give someone niggle you are one second behind the game, so you have to be on your guard for that. That’s probably the hardest thing, to stay out of it all.

“These derby games, crazy as they are, can be very quiet sometimes on the pitch if people are on their games: Quinny (Alan Quinlan) especially. I remember playing against him for Wasps, probably would have been the first time I ever played him in a big game, and I didn’t hear a word. He was playing very well but so focused on what he was doing. That’s the way those games go sometimes.”

He’s not inclined to run his mouth, experience teaching him that the occasional remark can make a bigger impact. “It depends on who you’re lippy towards. When you start off (in your career) that’s what everyone assumes and maybe most scrumhalves start like that. Certain games might need it but I don’t think this weekend needs any of that really.”