Thank God it's Friday for Leinster

Gerry Thornley on how Donnybrook has become the place to be and blue the colour to wear since Matt Williams' side have taken to winning with panache

It's funny to hear Leinster players and supporters extolling the virtues of the Donnybrook Experience, to see how much it's become part of the social fabric on a Friday night, and to behold all the replica jerseys bearing the harp, and to check the three-year unbeaten home run in Europe.

Leinster have lost only one of their last 20 competitive games at the venue. In the 10 Donnybrook games before that, they lost seven, and two of those three wins were narrow victories over Connacht. Donnybrook wasn't so much a help as a hindrance. The comparative few that turned up were much more demanding, and could just as easily get on the backs of the home players as root for them. Privately, Leinster players approached games with dread as much as excitement.

Few are better qualified to comment on the change than Eric Elwood, who has been coming to Dublin with Connacht for 14 years. "Friday night in Donnybrook now is a great occasion. It always looks full, there's always a good atmosphere and you have a winning Leinster side playing great rugby.

"But a few years ago you'd go there and if you put Leinster under pressure and they started to make a few mistakes, you knew the crowd would turn against them, and they'd end up favouring you. But Donnybrook has become a fortress," says Elwood, ironic given he recently helped guide Connacht to a first-ever win there.

"That's why we value our win there this season so much. It's never been harder to win there."

On his very first day in Ireland, November 5th 1999, Leinster coach Matt Williams attended the Leinster-Munster game at Donnybrook. Admittedly it was the day before the World Cup started. "Munster took 'em apart (30-13) and there was about 1,000 people there. It was awful. When you compare that to today, different universe. Different universe," he repeats, stressing every syllable.

Irish crowds tend to be more reactive than pro-active, though a Thomond Park crowd will generally try to lift their side in times of difficulty, or at any rate respond quicker to any hint of good play, be it collective or individual.

Talking about playing for Ireland A once in Thomond Park, Victor Costello was struck by the way even a rolling maul or a short forward drive would have a seismic impact around the ground. Leinster's support is becoming more like that, though there's still a sense of them waiting for something big to happen.

"What happened against Connacht was a great example. There is a Donnybrook factor there and it adds to your confidence but ultimately you've got to make it happen," says Williams.

"There's a whole lot of reasons why it didn't happen, but the best thing about it was that it gave everybody a good kick up the backside.

"The 'Donnybrook Experience', the passion, the energy, the buzz, the crowd and the support - all of a sudden there was row after row of blue Leinster jerseys. That was just non-existent even 12 months ago. And the guys were mentioning it after last Friday's game, that there were so many blue jerseys at the game. They (the players) made that happen, by their performances, by what they did. So therefore what comes first, the chicken or the egg? But either way it becomes self-perpetuating," says Williams.

An over-the-top public address master of ceremonies and the dancing girls have been and gone. But where before you might be lucky to get a "sarnie" from the petrol station across the way, now there's a large screen inside the ground as well as music, concessions, a club store for merchandising, on-site spread betting, food and drink outlets in addition to Old Wesley and Bective Rangers who, bizarrely, ran out of beer by 10 p.m. after the Connacht match last month.

Gerry Grant, of Kielys pub, says they'd have 700 people in on the Friday nights of Donnybrook games, when "our take would be up 40 per cent. It's certainly changed the profile of a Friday night in the area."

Soon the Experience will have outgrown the Venue, and given the size of Dublin, about time too. As Leinster PRO Tom McCormack puts it: "A few years ago we were trying to get them in, now we're trying to control it."

It is believed that planning application for a refurbished, and expanded Donnybrook (from the current 7,500 capacity to about 13,000) will be lodged next week.

The moral of the story? On and off the pitch, you reap what you sow. "You enjoy the fruits of your labour," as Williams puts it. "I wasn't here but to me the work ethic, the dedication, the attention to detail, the training, the lifestyle off the pitch meant we didn't deserve to win. Last Friday we deserved to win.

"There was nothing flukey about it. Against Connacht we deserved to lose. And in life you tend to get what you deserve."

Lest we forget, it needed the magnificent run to the Twickenham final three years ago to unleash the Munster phenomenon and the Red Army that is their fans.

The blue hordes don't have a song to call their own yet, and even the chants of "Leinster, Leinster" at last season's Celtic League final have yet to be aired this season. But Leinster doesn't have the history of famous wins over the All Blacks or other touring sides. There's no telling what would happen if they had a run to a European Cup final and it's worth recalling that 2,000 Leinster supporters travelled to Welford Road for last season's quarter-final, assuredly the biggest travelling support the province has ever had for an away fixture.

Here comes the Blue Army? Out of little acorns . . .