Three years ago, when Stuart Lancaster first came aboard, Leinster were three-time Heineken Cup champions, and the prospect of winning a fourth, much less a fifth, seemed a long way off after they'd bowed out at the pool stages the year before after losing five of their pool games.
However, on foot of reaching their fifth final, Rob Kearney spoke of how Lancaster quickly set about setting such lofty targets, despite the apparent low base.
“Stuart came in two years ago, and he stood up on the gym floor and I’ll never forget the day. He said this team should go for five stars on their jersey and everyone just sort of looked around a little bit and thought ‘who’s your man coming in here shouting this at us?’ But it’s always been a big goal for this team over the last few years.
“You know, what an opportunity? What an opportunity to cement our place as the first team to get five Heineken Cups. But it’s going to be a huge challenge.”
Indeed, in this Kearney readily agreed with Johnny Sexton that this final against Saracens will be their biggest battle ever.
Physicality
"Yeah, I think so. They're a proper team, aren't they? They've very few weaknesses. They're so physical, they've got a great ability just to play their game plan, and their phased play is really excellent. So the physicality of it is obviously going to be huge given their pack, and then when Owen Farrell is there pulling the strings they just change the point of attack so much. But I thought our defence took a real step up today."
Like Sexton, Kearney will be seeking his fifth Heineken Cup win, albeit he was injured and ruled out of much of their 2011-winning campaign. With Leinster also having secured a home semi-final in the Guinness Pro14, they are striving to be part of an even more historic landmark than last season’s mere double, namely a double-double.
“The prospect of a double-double is what you set out for at the start of the year but we still have a fair bit of work to do before then,” said Kearney. “There’ll probably be a few changes for Ulster next weekend. It’s all eyes towards Sarries now, isn’t it? They are a pretty special team and it will be a proper final, they will give us a real test.”
Kicking game
This will assuredly be the case in Kearney's domain, namely in the air, given the way the kicking game of the Saracens halves, Ben Spencer and Owen Farrell, did so much to unhinge Munster in Saturday's semi-final.
“Their kicking game was superb. I felt a little bit bad for the Munster back three at times because Sarries were going up just to break ball and if a man is going up to do that, it’s very hard to take a clean catch. We’ve seen a little bit of an insight into their exit strategy and it’s something we’re going to have to work on in the next couple of weeks.”
As to where this Leinster team compared to last year’s champions, Kearney said: “I’d like to think we’ve got a little bit more squad depth. We’ve lost a couple of players and we’ve had a few injuries this year but today we were very comfortable out there. Guys were very sure in each other’s ability and we never looked over under-pressure. They had their purple patches but I’m still trying to weigh up if Toulouse didn’t really play their best game today or if we didn’t let them do it. It’s probably a combination of both.”
