Champions Cup: Leicester Tigers v Leinster, Welford Road (8.0, live on Premier Sports)
Frenemies. Perennial foes. Choose the tagline. The clubs have shared many players. Leicester welcomed generations of Irish-born internationals dating back to George Beamish in the 1920s, Tony O’Reilly (1958-60), to the more modern era, where Eric Miller, Geordan Murphy, Shane Jennings and Leinster’s head coach Leo Cullen earned their stripes at Welford Road.
It’s a storied rivalry spread over 15 meetings in the Champions Cup and its previous iterations. Leinster prevailed on 10 occasions, including the 2009 Heineken Cup final at Murrayfield, and bearded the Tigers in three of six clashes in Leicester, the most recent at the east Midlands venue in January 2024.
A quick scoot around the numbers: the English club have seven survivors from that game in the run-on team for tonight’s game, their visitors, nine. The two met again in the round of 16 in Dublin that April with the Irish province again emerging victorious.
Cullen’s prematch briefing began on a sombre note. He asked where possible that the media publish a link to a fundraising appeal for his former team-mate at the Tigers, the former Lions and England flanker Lewis Moody who was recently diagnosed with motor neuron disease. (www.gofundme.com/f/lewis-moody-fundraising-appeal).
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Leinster’s team boasted a sufficiency of headline-worthy material. Harry Byrne is named at outhalf, All Black Rieko Ioane starts his first match in his second appearance alongside a fit again Robbie Henshaw in midfield, Rónan Kelleher and Tadhg Furlong are promoted to the frontrow and secondrow James Ryan is back after suspension. James Lowe has recovered from a calf issue that saw him miss the ‘Quins match.
It translates as seven changes to the run-on team from the victory over Harlequins. Garry Ringrose and RG Snyman have failed to recover from injury while the luckless Jordan Larmour, who scored two tries in a man-of-the-match display last weekend, has undergone a surgical procedure that will keep him sidelined for a couple of months.
Rotation tends to be a vexatious word for players and supporters alike. Sam Prendergast, Dan Sheehan and Thomas Clarkson swap starting for bench roles this week. Cullen explained: “So, it’s not someone’s in and someone’s out, it’s just someone’s role is slightly different. They’re all still in.
“Those two players you’re talking about, Dan [Sheehan] and Sam [Prendergast], it’s just a slightly different role for them. So, it’s important that people understand that in the modern game.”
Cullen paid tribute to Byrne’s attitude and aptitude since returning from a six-month loan spell at Bristol last season. The 26-year-old outhalf has consistently impressed in URC opportunities and last week off the bench. He played a pivotal role as the starting outhalf in that 2024 victory over the Tigers at Welford Road.
“He’s [Byrne] experienced the atmosphere over there before and he knows what to expect. Harry has been great since he’s come back in. He was good off the bench last week and it’s just about making sure that we’re getting the right balance over the 80 minutes of the game.
“Sam [Prendergast] will have his moment at some point as well in the game, and it’s just making sure that those two guys were working well together; both have been excellent. Pat Lam runs a very good program in Bristol.
“It’s another way of approaching the game, and that has given Harry something different to bring back to the group here, which is valuable, so, he’s utilised his time there well. I [must] applaud Harry because he’s been great since he’s come back in. There’s good strong competition amongst the group and that’s what you want.”
Cullen touched on the physical robustness of a Leinster midfield containing Henshaw and Ioane, before outlining a wishlist for the New Zealander. “You’re just hoping he gets on the ball and produces in terms of what he’s able to do. [If we get him] the ball in space, he’s going to be incredibly dangerous because he’s an incredible athlete.
“Everyone else on the team will have to do a lot of work to make that happen. The forwards need to make sure you do their piece first in terms of how our halfbacks control the game.”
Leicester head coach Geoff Parling, who previously spent a week in the inner sanctum at Leinster in a watching capacity, has made six changes to the team that lost 39-20 in La Rochelle. They are missing a handful of players through injury too.
England players, fullback Freddie Steward, hooker Jamie Blamire and tighthead prop Joe Heyes – he once briefly flirted with the idea of joining Leinster having travelled to Dublin at the behest of his Irish-born mum – and Welsh internationals prop Nicky Smith and flanker Tommy Reffell return as does the explosive Tongan centre Solomon Kata. Steward is an aerial threat, Reffell a poacher par excellence.
Leicester’s rugby virtues don’t deviate much from their traditional strengths, a strong kicking game, and a focus on set piece, maul and breakdown. They’ve got serious pace on the outside with Adam Radwan (clocked at 10.72 seconds for 100 metres) and Ollie Hassell-Collins. Cullen smiled: “We expect that aerial bombardment coming our way so make sure we deal with that.”
If Leinster are to win, and that is the expectation, they’ll have to smooth out the performance kinks, be smoother in timing onto the ball, less clunky and inaccurate in passing, and bring a hard-nosed aggression in contact. Lineout and scrum will have to be top-notch. They should manage enough of those tasks to prevail.
Leicester Tigers: F Steward; A Radwan, W Wand, S Kata, O Hassell-Collins; B Searle, T Whiteley; N Smith, J Blamire, J Heyes; C Henderson, H Wells; J Thompson, T Reffell (capt), J Moro. Replacements: F Theobold Thomas, A van der Flier, W Hurd, T Manz, S Williams, O Allan, O Bailey, J Woodward.
Leinster: J O’Brien; T O’Brien, R Ioane, R Henshaw, J Lowe; H Byrne, J Gibson-Park; P McCarthy, R Kelleher, T Furlong; J McCarthy, J Ryan; J Conan, J van der Flier, C Doris (capt). Replacements: D Sheehan, J Boyle, T Clarkson, D Mangan, M Deegan, L McGrath, S Prendergast, C Frawley.
Referee: P Brousset (France).
