In an uncanny twist of fate, were the knock-out stages to continue going to form and in line with the seedings, in addition to facing Leicester Tigers in a repeat of last season’s quarterfinals of the Heineken Champions Cup next Friday, Leinster could also meet Toulouse again in the semi-final and then La Rochelle in a repeat of last May’s final in Marseilles.
A key difference is that Leinster will host Leicester at the Aviva Stadium next Friday (kick-off 8pm), having beaten the Tigers 23-14 at Welford Road last year thanks to a dominant first-half performance.
Leo Cullen is hopeful of having both Caelan Doris and Garry Ringrose fit again for Friday’s showdown. However, Josh van der Flier looks a major doubt due to the ankle injury which forced him off in the 55th minute of their 30-15 Round of 16 win over Ulster on Saturday night, which extended Leinster’s unbeaten record this season to 21 games.
Whereas that game was a 51,700 sell-out, Leinster will restrict the capacity for next Friday’s quarter-final to 27,000 by dint of keeping the Aviva Stadium’s upper tiers closed, unless demand exceeds that target.
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Leinster’s second leg Round of 16 tie against Connacht last season also fell on Good Friday and drew an attendance of 32,604 but, like last Saturday’s game, that fixture had been known for months, whereas the province have only five days to sell tickets for the tie against Leicester.
As is usually the case in this competition, pedigree counted over the weekend. Although there were some entertaining and highly contested matches, all eight Round of 16 ties went with the seedings, form and home advantage. This has left a heavyweight last eight line-up featuring six former winners – including each of the last five winners – who have 16 Champions Cup titles between them, as well as two of the South African newcomers, URC champions the Stormers and a Sharks’ side who are studded with Springboks’ and who overpowered Munster 50-35 in Durban on Saturday.
Toulouse beat the Bulls by 33-9 yesterday to earn a home quarter-final against the Sharks next Saturday (kick-off 4pm local time/3pm Irish). Were Leinster and Toulouse to win next weekend, they would meet in the semi-finals at the Aviva Stadium for the second season in a row at the end of April. Leinster produced their best performance of last season when beating the five-time champions 40-17 in that semi-final.
In the other half of the draw Exeter progressed to a home tie against the Stormers next Saturday (kick-off 5.30pm) on try countback after earning a 33-all draw with 14-man Montpellier with the last play of extra time. Saracens eventually subdued the challenge of the Ospreys after the Welsh side roared into an early 14-3 lead, the English side prevailing 35-20 and so earning a quarter-final against La Rochelle next Sunday (kick-off 4pm local time/3pm Irish time).
Cullen, of course, had a productive and rewarding two-year sojourn with Leicester, which serves to heighten his respect for the two-time winners.
“They’re a club that are based on sound fundamentals, so they go about their work and go about things a certain way, they respect the competitions that they’re in and yeah, you can see the support base that they have week on week.
“I had an amazing time there, I learned so much in the couple of years that I was there. Great people, I have to say.
“And yeah, they’ll come here and with that strong tradition they’ll fancy their chances here, they won’t be intimidated by coming here.
“They’ll have strong attention to detail around the fundamentals of the game, it will be a similar type of game to what we faced [against Ulster], which is strong set pieces, good kicking game, aerial threat, aggressive around the ruck, strong carries, strong contacts.
“So we need to make sure we prepare well for that this week.
Following the quarterfinals, Leinster face a two-week trek to South Africa for their final two regular season URC games against the Lions and the Bulls secure in the knowledge that they have wrapped up first place and a top seeding for the play-offs.
Conceivably therefore, Leinster could have up to six more knock-out games in the Aviva, which will also make selling tickets more difficult.
Cullen admitted it would be a challenge for the organisation but stressed the importance of their home support.
“We have to try to get a big crowd next week. If you think back to the pool stages and you’re trying to do everything you can so you have that home field advantage, there’s different challenges with travel and all the rest of it, particularly with the South African teams involved in the Champions Cup now.
“So, it’s trying to keep control of certain things. Big credit to everybody for all the effort that went on early on in the season. That’s again the unusual dynamic of the competition, that’s players and staff, a huge effort went in there.
“Now hopefully we can get that support base that’s there, that we’re very, very lucky that we have built up through the years. If we get anywhere close (to a full house) it will be amazing, but it will be a big ask.”
QUARTER-FINALS
(Pool stage rankings in brackets/All kick-offs local times)
Friday 7 April
QF 1: Leinster Rugby (A1) v Leicester Tigers (B4), Aviva Stadium (20.00)
RTÉ/BT Sport/beIN SPORTS/SuperSport/FloRugby
Saturday 8 April
QF 2: Stade Toulousain (B2) v Cell C Sharks (A3), Stade Ernest Wallon (16.00)
beIN SPORTS/France TV/SuperSport/BT Sport/Flo Rugby
QF 3: Exeter Chiefs (A2) v DHL Stormers (B3), Sandy Park (17.30)
BT Sport/SuperSport/beIN SPORTS/FloRugby
Sunday 9 April
QF 4: Stade Rochelais (B1) v Saracens (A4), Stade Marcel Deflandre (16.00)
France TV/beIN SPORTS/BT Sport/ITV/SuperSport/FloRugby
Semi-finals – 28/29/30 April
SF 1: Winner QF 1 v Winner QF 2
SF 2: Winner QF 3 v Winner QF 4
NB The matches will be played in Europe and the highest-ranked clubs from the pool stage will have home country advantage
2023 Heineken Champions Cup final: Saturday 20 May; Aviva Stadium, Dublin (16.45)
