Having shuffled his cards for Saturday's Guinness Pro 14 final against the Scarlets at the Aviva Stadium (kick-off 6pm, live on Sky Sports and TG4), Leo Cullen explained the rationale behind the four changes which sees Rob Kearney, Johnny Sexton, Cian Healy and Dan Leavy restored to Leinster's line-up.
The make-up of the Leinster backrow was a particularly competitive call, with Leavy returning and Rhys Ruddock and Jack Conan retained, as the Ulster-bound Jordi Murphy and Australian Scott Fardy remain on the bench. This was partly because Cullen was not of a mind to break up the secondrow pairing of Devin Toner and James Ryan.
“The combination of James and Dev is working quite well, Dev from a calling point of view, lineout-wise, has led the forwards really well this year, so that bit of continuity that he gives with his leadership on the field is hugely important.
“James, in terms of the numbers he has delivered and he’s been consistent in his performances and had some big games for us. In terms of the backrow, I think Rhys and Jack Conan give us good physicality. Dan comes back in just to freshen things up really. Jordi has done incredibly well over the period but again it’s just to try and get a bit of fresh legs in there as well.
“Scott, I thought, gave good impact off the bench the last day and he’s got a great presence around the group. There’s a couple of other guys that were pushing hard to get picked as well. Max [Deegan] was unlucky, he came off the bench the last day and came up with that big turnover right at the end. It’s tough on him missing out completely but hopefully we’ve got a good balance amongst the group.”
With James Lowe retained, Jamison Gibson-Park also misses out again, having played so well when starting Leinster's 38-16 European Champions Cup semi-final win over the Scarlets at the Aviva Stadium, as does Ross Byrne with Joey Carbery covering Sexton. Having the latter back, and captain Isa Nacewa fit to start his final game before retirement, is a huge boon.
“It’s huge,” admitted Cullen. “Isa did well to get through 40 minutes last week so we don’t have to manage him for anything beyond tomorrow, that I know of. It’s great to have him back again for this game. Johnny has done a good bit this week, he was touch and go last week, but he’s looked okay this week.
“It’s huge because it’s this amazing window for the team to do something very, very special. I think people sometimes just think it happens naturally, how we’ve tried to manage the group, making sure guys in the team are able to give a full account of themselves because we know it’s going to be a huge test for us.
“You sometimes get the feeling that there’s this assumption that it’s just going to happen for us. It doesn’t just happen. A huge amount of work has to go into it. We’ve had two incredibly tight games the last two weeks, a combined winning margin of four points, and we just need to make sure we’re clear in our minds that it’s different to the semi-final when we played Scarlets before.
“They’ve gone away and completely focused on getting to this point where they can have another crack at us. We know we need to try to deliver our best performance so we’ve prepared accordingly. It’s going to take a huge effort from us.”
Having been forced off midway through last week’s semi-final win over Munster due to the calf injury he picked up in the European Cup final win over Racing in Bilbao a week previously, Nacewa maintained he was “100 per cent, 100 per cent”, which by all accounts, if far from the case.
"I'm definitely aiming for far more that 40! It was a tough one last week but we got there. It's been a good week. As Leo mentioned, what Charlie Higgins [Leinster's Australian head of athletic performance] and Gareth Farrell [head physiotherapist] do behind the scenes is phenomenal, the way they manage us old heads and then the young guys as well. As an addition to this club, the impact of Charlie Higgins has been immediate. They manage us really well."
An utter pro to the last, you also believed Nacewa when he insisted he was giving no thought to this being his last game.
“I just don’t think about that. I will have plenty of time to think about that on Monday or next week. This week it’s been about the 55 players we have used to get us to this point. It is definitely not about me, it is about our whole squad.”
As for the Scarlets, Nacewa said: “Look, I think they’re going to come to play. They’ll look back on that final against Munster last year and the way they want to come and play the game. They’re going to come to attack far more than they did last time and they have got the skills to do it. They’ve got the team to do it. We just have to be chasing the performance we want first and foremost. That has been our biggest driver this week.”
Not completing an historic double would leave a sour taste in the mouth.
Recalling the final defeat of 2011 and 2011 to Munster and the Ospreys, Nacewa said: “It makes for a long summer. I remember the games we have lost in the past when we have been in a position and we have fallen short. It just sticks around for a long time.
“We have worked hard to get to this point and to have this opportunity now. With this group, it would be really special. We have talked about that at the right times this year and in the last week and it would be pretty special for this group.”
LEINSTER: Rob Kearney; Jordan Larmour, Garry Ringrose, Isa Nacewa (capt), James Lowe; Johnny Sexton, Luke McGrath; Cian Healy, Seán Cronin, Tadhg Furlong; Devin Toner, James Ryan; Rhys Ruddock, Dan Leavy, Jack Conan.
Replacements: James Tracey, Jack McGrath, Andrew Porter, Scott Fardy, Jordi Murphy, Nick McCarthy, Joey Carbery, Rory O'Loughlin.
SCARLETS: Leigh Halfpenny; Johnny McNicholl, Scott Williams, Hadleigh Parkes, Steffan Evans; Rhys Patchell, Gareth Davies; Rob Evans, Ken Owens (capt); Samson Lee; Lewis Rawlins, Steven Cummins; Aaron Shingler, James Davies, Tadhg Beirne.
Replacements: Ryan Elias, Wyn Jones, Werner Kruger, David Bulbring, Will Boyde, Jonathan Evans, Daniel Jones, Tom Prydie.
Referee: Stuart Berry (SARU)
