A repeat of their performance against Munster in the Heineken Cup semi-final at Croke Park can see Leinster reach their Holy Grail.

SO, IF Leinster are to reach their Holy Grail they’ll have to follow up their win over the newly-crowned Magners League champions by beating the newly-crowned English champions. Brilliant. Perfect. That’s the beauty of the Heineken Cup. You have to earn it. It tends not to be just handed out, and Leinster will certainly have earned the title European champions if they get there next Saturday in Murrayfield.

As with the 13 years getting there, from European lightweights (which all the provinces were) to two-time Celtic champions and much improved brand name to Heineken Cup finalists, it’s been a rollercoaster of a ride. Initially, there was the bonus-point wins on their Murrayfield bogey ground and at home to Wasps, the back-to-back games with Castres and the prosaic trudge through the latter pool games, the heroism away to Harlequins and the epic win over Munster.

Their league performance against Munster in Thomond Park a week before the Euro quarters was widely pilloried, but in a foretaste of what would come in the Heineken Cup semi-final, Leinster were ultra physical in the collisions and also counter-rucked so effectively that they forced nine turnovers at the breakdown in the first half alone.

But for three missed penalties by Felipe Contepomi that Thomond Park league tie could well have been a one-score game for the first hour, and that was without Brian O’Driscoll and Luke Fitzgerald. Munster, at the time, were probably playing the best rugby in Europe, especially at their Limerick fortress, and Leinster’s performance was put in further perspective by what Munster did to the Ospreys a week later at the same venue.

That same weekend, Leinster were rolling up their sleeves in a manner reminiscent of other hard-earned wins on foreign soil – the late, 13-man resistance to secure a 14-8 win against Northampton in Franklins Gardens eight seasons ago springing to mind – to beat Harlequins 6-5. Leinster didn’t just develop this “character” overnight.

Yet the contrast with the 41-35 quarter-final win away to Toulouse three seasons ago – Cheika’s first in charge – could hardly have been more stark. Cheika, in his coaching and playing recruitment and as a head coach cum figurehead, has helped instil stability, improved strength in depth and squad spirit in what was once a divided squad, a harder edge up front and a meaner defence. In 24 games last season Leinster conceded 38 tries; in 26 games this season they’ve conceded 23 tries.

Even so, that quarter-final win in Harlequins was a little too un-Leinster, lacking the all-round game for them to go on and reach their Holy Grail. Just like their performances away to Edinburgh and Wasps, Leinster kicked possession away when ’Quins were reduced to 14 men.

For much of the middle chunk of the season, Leinster had wasted plenty of good approach work by coming too flat onto the ball, or becoming over-elaborate, especially when butchering chances in the opposition 22.

Something happened in the build-up to the Munster semi-final which helped Leinster rediscover themselves. Alan Gaffney and Cheika focused hard on Leinster’s running game, uncluttering the midfield areas where forwards had a tendancy to get in the way, and getting rid of the needlessly over-elaborate moves. “Riff and Checks made it a bit more clear-cut, a lot more simple, and suddenly it just seemed to free everyone up a little,” reveals one insider.

Of, course it helped that O’Driscoll and Fitzgerald were back, but in any event they worked a couple of superb moves to first release Rocky Elsom and then Isa Nacewa for Gordon D’Arcy’s try. Look at the Fitzgerald try again, and though each of the frontrow forwards carried effectively, for the final move Nacewa steps in as first receiver and puts width on the ball for O’Driscoll and Shane Horgan to draw their men and give Fitzgerald his lethal run at Paul Warwick. It was simple, effective backplay.

For that middle chunk of the season such simplicity, depth and width had largely been beyond Leinster.

In hindsight, and in private, even Cheika might confess now that the experiment of starting Nacewa at outhalf didn’t work especially well, and he has only started there once since those three tryless games in a row – the 27-16 Magners League defeat in Edinburgh.

Not that Nacewa, with his many talents, can’t do a job at outhalf, but orchestrating fairly unstructured rugby from there for the Auckland Blues on the mostly dry tracks of Super 14 rugby is altogether different from running games at 10 in the Northern Hemisphere.

While Felipe Contepomi’s reinstatement helped bring an improvement, a huge dollop of credit has to go to Jonathan Sexton as well. Sexton started four of Leinster’s first five games at outhalf, in which time they scored only one try while he was on the pitch, and they also drew a blank when he started there away to Glasgow in October. He then started the back-to-back games against Castres, before being kept in reserve until as recently as the league game at home to the Scarlets two weeks ago.

However, it was noticeable how well he played and moved the line when coming on as a half-time replacement at home to Wasps, Leinster scoring four of their six tries in the second half. His influence has been even more pronounced lately when coming on for the last 30 minutes at home to Glasgow and in the Heineken Cup semi-final. Add in his full outing against Llanelli, and in those three games Leinster have scored 14 of their 15 tries while Sexton has been on the pitch.

His snappy array of passing has put pace and width onto the ball. The two-week ban for kicking Lifeimi Mafi in the Thomond Park league match, and his verbal volley at Ronan O’Gara after D’Arcy’s try show the youthful exuberance remains, and there remains doubts about his temperament when starting with all the additional pressure that comes with that. But Sexton has clearly matured this season and now looks ready for the responsibility of wearing the number-10 jersey next Saturday at Murrayfield.

So do Leinster. They look perfectly primed, but then again they’ll need to be.

gthornley@gmail.com

“As with the 13 years getting there, from European lightweights (which all the provinces were) to two-time Celtic champions and much improved brand name to Heineken Cup finalists, it’s been a rollercoaster of a ride.