Tyler Bleyendaal doesn’t think it makes a difference. Leinster won their Champions Cup round of 16 game by 10 tries, with Munster emerging victorious from theirs by a single point, but it is not clear which way constitutes better preparation for their quarter-finals this weekend.
Either way, Leinster shredding Harlequins and Munster arm-wrestling La Rochelle will have generated confidence for the weekend in different ways. Leinster will take on Glasgow on Friday night at the Aviva, while Munster travel to face Bordeaux on Saturday.
“I don’t think it matters,” says Bleyendaal. “You can see it both ways. It was a pleasing result [for us].”
How did Munster stun O’Gara’s La Rochelle?
Their 62-0 win was the second biggest margin of victory in this season’s Champion’s Cup. Toulouse beat Leicester 80-12 in round four of the pool phase but the defeat of Harlequins in Croke Park showed people a glimpse of the darker side of Leinster’s personality.
They stood on the Premiership side’s throat, didn’t let them up and played with a ruthless streak that became a try-scoring frenzy, James Lowe’s second of the afternoon arriving only two minutes from the end of the match.
Sam Prendergast, Joe McCarthy and Jamie Osborne scored Leinster’s three tries before half-time. They led by 19 at the break but added a further 43 points in a high-energy finish.
“It was a real grind at the start of the match wasn’t it?” says Bleyendaal. “We did well to push through that. I liked the way we kicked on to the end of the match as well. The game lost a bit of air just before half-time, but we got it done in the second half and then I thought we finished strongly, which is what you want when your bench comes on.
“We didn’t want subs to come on and just fit into the game, I think they added, they lifted the level of intensity.”
With players such as Jordie Barrett among the replacements, that’s not hard to envisage but Bleyendaal knows that URC champions Glasgow will ask harder questions than Harlequins did. They’re sitting second on the URC table behind Leinster.
Leinster will go into the match with Irish hooker Ronan Kelleher available after recovering from a neck issue, but lock James Ryan is sidelined due to a calf injury.
Otherwise there were no new injuries reported, with the weekly update on Prendergast again encouraging. The Leinster outhalf broke the 0-0 seal against Harlequins when Jamison Gibson-Park popped up the ball and he hit it at pace to launch himself over the line.
Prendergast and Jack Crowley continue to be the subjects of a never-ending player watch, which is sure to become more intense the longer Leinster and Munster remain in the competition.
“I think Sam has taken more ownership around his own game in finding where he can impact the guys around him in a positive way,” says Bleyendaal. “He is still so young … he doesn’t come in and think ‘oh I’ve cracked it now and I am where I need to be.‘”
“He is still really inquisitive, and he works hard on his own game and with the team which is great. He’s improving. He still obviously has things to work on … never played the perfect game but we enjoy what he is doing on the pitch.”
Jamie Osborne, the other young player in the team, has also been rewarded for his athletic game and utility. Wing, centre and fullback versatility comes in handy in a rugby era where only three, two or even one back is named in the replacements.
“He’s very versatile and some players, they don’t want to be pigeonholed into a position and he’s played 12, 15, played wing on the weekend and I think what you see is just his talent and ability to see space, and he’s a big athletic body as well,” says Bleyendaal.
“We’ve been really pleased with him. He probably didn’t have to use his kicking game as much as earlier in the season. It was nice to see him in a bit of space with his skill set.”
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Of course, Friday night’s Leinster team may look different from the one from Croke Park last Saturday. Two URC matches in South Africa might have brought some other names into the bigger picture. There are several who would be justified in believing they put their hands up for selection after a 10-7 win over the Sharks in Durban’s Kings Park. Tommy O’Brien would be one.
“I thought our back three in general for those two games in South Africa were really good,” says Bleyendaal. “Jamie [Osborne] obviously played really well, Lowey’s [James] playing well. It’s good competition. It’s good to have healthy bodies to pick from. He [O’Brien] is pushing hard.”
