Last Sunday was a special day for Dan Leavy in many ways.
Back in Mullingar his grandmother, Joan Leavy, was celebrating her 96th birthday, and watching her grandson deliver a virtuoso, try-scoring, man-of-the-match performance.
Sporting a black and red right eye when speaking after the match, Leavy made a point of this.
“It’s my granny’s 96th birthday today, so give her a shout out.”
He was particularly keen to make this public as the chance had passed by in his post-match, pitchside TV interview.
“I was going to squeeze it in earlier on but I couldn’t because they were all just focusing on my eye,” he said, laughing. “But yeah, happy birthday to her. She couldn’t make it today, but she was watching it at home.”
Leavy will be “over to her in the next few days”, and, asked whether his grandmother is a rugby fan or a Dan Leavy fan, the man himself laughed and admitted: “She’s a Dan fan. To be honest, I don’t think anyone in my family, even my parents, know the rules yet. They’re Dan fans anyway. So she’s at home. I’d like to say happy birthday to her. She’d love to see her name in the papers.”
Although St Michael’s was literally only a hop over the wall from his family home, rather surprisingly given his natural strength and athleticism, there is no rugby in the Leavy family tree. But they all seem to be fans, not least Joan Leavy, who has been a regular at his games since his schooldays.
“She came to my first cap, the Canada game last year, which was brilliant, and my aunts are all huge fans as well. They’ll be annoyed if they don’t get a shout out too.”
Leavy and Leinster are on the crest of some wave right now, and for all the “next-game” focus which is now commonplace in the modern game, it was good to hear a player savour Sunday’s quarter-final win over and put dethroning the champions in context.
“It’s a great win. Any time you put out a two-time champ, over the last two years, is a day to be celebrated and remembered,” said Leavy, who stressed the role of the Aviva Stadium capacity house in asking for the same three weeks’ hence against the Scarlets.
“The crowd was incredible today. We almost had a full house, we’re hoping for the same or even better again in three weeks’ time.”
Massive difference
“It would be brilliant because it does make a massive difference. Even though we’ve got a home advantage here, we’ve got to use it and you know, hearing the crowd roar like that and get behind you, it gives players two or three per cent that can be the winning or losing of the game.”
The Scarlets won’t be fazed over the thought of facing Leinster in the Aviva; they beat the same opponents they in the Pro12 semi-finals last year at the RDS, which has a more intimate feel.
“The RDS is special to us as well,” agreed Leavy.
“We’d like to think we’ve learned a lot of lessons from Clermont last year, and Scarlets, and that it’s helped us to evolve as a team. We’ve got two big weeks now in the PRO14 to put us into a good position coming into the knock-out stages, but we also have an eye now on a Scarlets team that is in serious form and they have so many Welsh internationals and world class players. So there’s a lot of big games coming thick and fast.”
Of course, Leinster lost their European Champions Cup semi-final to Clermont as well – a game Leavy also played in – and the memory of those two semi-finals remains a sore which only reaching the final will heal.
“I didn’t beat myself up over it, but there were a lot of learnings from it on a personal level. It’s knockout rugby as well. We started so slowly and I thought we were definitely in the fight towards the end and we couldn’t finish the game. So there’s belief. There’s great belief in the squad.
“We’re in a good spot, but we haven’t won anything yet. I think that’s one thing we need to learn from last year. You can play the best rugby, you can play incredible rugby all year but when it actually comes down to it, it’s days like today when you have to put in performances – do or die – and we performed again today.”
It’s been six years since the last of Leinster’s three cups in a four-year period, and no less than the survivors from those days, the new young tyros want that fourth star on their jerseys.
“Winning is everything,” said Leavy. “Last year we played some incredible rugby with a lot of young players coming through. Now it’s time to step up, and take our prize.”
Winning the Grand Slam with Ireland was one thing, winning a European Cup with Leinster another.
“We’re back home now with our clubs. Leinster is like a family. It’s such an honour to play for your country, but Leinster is your home for 90 per cent of the year. You’re with your best mates, so it’s special and something we’ve touched on. So like I said, it’s all well and good winning a lot in the League and stuff, but it’s do-or-die when it comes to the end of the season, and it’s time to step up.”
