Home where the heart is for Leinster

Today is all about making sure their next match in the premier European competition is at the Aviva, writes JOHNNY WATTERSON

BUZZ WORDS, they come and go. This week’s have been “home quarter-final”. Leinster and their quest for a home Heineken Cup quarter-final; it’s an aspiration; a hope; a need, even a state of mind. All of the focus and energy, the preparation and anxieties hinge on Montpellier and conquering the second peak of the competition’s foothills. The first was getting out of the pool. Today’s is making sure the next match is on Lansdowne Road.

As the Six Nations Championship looms and the provinces finish off the final round of pool games, the four teams at the top of the class will have earned what they consider a significant advantage. The state of mind part is the comfort it brings, the feeling of wellbeing and appetite for more, a springboard into the last four.

The moment a home venue in the knockout phase became a possibility for Leinster, a game in the Aviva Stadium was Joe Schmidt’s goal and of the teams remaining, Leinster knows this to be true more than most.

With the competition now in its 17th year, Leinster have been involved in the knockout phase nine times. They have won the competition twice, played in five semi-finals and in eight quarter-final matches (in the 1995-’96 season teams went straight through to semi-finals from the pool).

But the statistics stack up even better for Leinster in the last decade.

In 2001-’02, Leinster lost in the quarter-final away to Leicester. The following year they met Biarritz and won 18-13 at home. That was the year of the doomed semi-final against Perpignan in Lansdowne Road.

The occasion was tailor-made for Leinster to showboat into what would have been their first final, they crashed and burned 14-21.

In 2004-’05, they lost in the quarter-final to Leicester 13-29 at home but the following year made amends and took the scalp of Toulouse in Stade Ernest Wallon 41-35 before losing to Munster in that season’s semi-final.

In 2006-’07, Leinster lost to London Wasps 13-35 away and didn’t make it out of the pool the following year. But in 2008-’09, Michael Cheika’s team beat Harlequins in an away quarter-final before going on to eventually beating Leicester in the Murrayfield final.

In 2009-’10, the mighty Clermont Auvergne arrived to Dublin in the quarter-final and fell by just one point, 29-28, and last year Leicester came over and were beaten 17-10 as Leinster went on to deny Northampton in the historic final game of two halves in the Millennium Stadium.

“Yeah, it’s important,” said Joe Schmidt of securing a home tie. “And you also saw last weekend (against Glasgow in Firhill) how just because a team might not have a whole lot to play for, you can’t take anyone for granted.

“I’ve seen a lot written about Montpellier this week, that it’s a fait accompli, that they will be gone and that Leinster will get a comfortable road into a home quarter-final, but I think that is far from the truth. It’ll be a lot tougher than people think and it’s going to be a real physical challenge.”

Of the eight quarter-finals Leinster has played in the competition, four have been at home and they have won three of those. Of the four away quarter-finals, Leinster have played, two of those have been successful with two defeats as well.

“If you look at our games home and away, at what’s gone on . . . if you look at Bath home and away and Glasgow home and away, it’s obviously very important,” said Eoin Reddan this week. “For some reason it’s easier to play at home than away, I think for years it’s been that way.

“Momentum is a huge part of that in rugby and the crowd does play a massive part in that, and we’ve been lucky to have unbelievable support over the last year or two, at the Aviva and at the RDS.”

Another consideration for Schmidt and his team is the long break over the duration of the Six Nations Championship. In many instances that can queer team continuity as players come and go from the Irish squad.

Others like captain, Leo Cullen may be sidelined after surgery, while Irish captain Brian O’Driscoll is still recovering from a shoulder operation.

Between the Irish Wolfhounds, the Irish under-20s and Ireland play begins on January 28th and finishes on March 15th when Ireland play England in Twickenham in the final Six Nations Championship match.

The Heineken Cup quarter-finals begin on April 6th, which gives Leinster just two PRO12 matches to find some fluency. That further magnifies the importance of the home draw and the comfort that brings to players who are reacquainting themselves with different provincial set ups and personnel. Leinster meet Ospreys the weekend after the final Six Nations match before playing Munster.

From there it’s straight back into the Heineken Cup quarter-finals.

“We’d love to be able to get some momentum, mainly for individuals to go away to national camp with a spring in their step,” said Schmidt. “We’ll come back after the Six Nations with a home game against the Ospreys, which will be pretty tough and some of the Six Nations guys will possibly be made available for that.

“The other’s against Munster away, so you’re right, we have very small windows to get some sort of rhythm with different guys. And then you get the conundrum of injuries factoring into that as well.”

It’s just another game the players will say; another team, another challenge, another day in the RDS. But a home match in the next round is something much more than that.

“I’ve seen a lot written about Montpellier this week, that it’s a fait accompli, that they will be gone and that Leinster will get a comfortable road into a home quarter-final, but I think that is far from the truth.