When it comes to forward battles Leinster assistant coach Robin McBryde believes challenges don’t come any bigger than the one the Irish province are set to encounter at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria, South Africa, this Saturday (kick-off 3pm Irish time).

Having overcome interprovincial rivals Ulster with 23 points to spare (43-20) at the Aviva Stadium last weekend, Leinster will now take on the Bulls in their own backyard as they bid to leave behind the disappointment of the past two seasons and progress to the final of the United Rugby Championship. Before losing out to eventual winners Munster at the last-four stage of the 2022/23 URC, Leo Cullen’s men were also defeated by their upcoming opponents in a semi-final clash held at the RDS in June 2022.

In addition to having Jake White (South Africa’s World Cup-winning coach in 2007) on board as director of rugby, there are a number of players within the Bulls squad that have picked up caps for the Springboks at senior international level. They include the likes of Wilco Louw, Ruan Nortje, Nizaam Carr and Elrigh Louw – who all started in the pack for their quarter-final success against Benetton in Pretoria last Saturday.

“For us to come here and face them in their own backyard, it is going to be a vociferous and hostile environment with the home supporters. We have had the benefit of having home support. They have been great, so it will be good for us to face it in another way,” McBryde said.

“Hopefully being taken out of our comfort zone we will see a bit of growth again. As a front row, a front five, as a pack of eight forwards, the challenges don’t come much greater than this. It’s one to really embrace and look forward to.”

Leinster stepping out of their comfort zone in South Africa is not just confined to the game itself, however, as there was a considerable effort made to bring their full squad together in the southern hemisphere for the beginning of this week.

Given it wasn’t until the conclusion of the game against Ulster on Saturday that their penultimate round showdown with the Bulls was officially confirmed, it proved quite tricky for Leinster to arrange flights for a sizeable travelling party over to Pretoria at such short notice.

It ultimately proved necessary to make the journey to the South African city in different groups and although there were some connecting flights and layovers along the way, everyone had arrived at the team’s hotel base by Monday evening.

This is a world apart from Leinster finishing out the 2022/23 season with four successive games at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin across the knock-out rounds of both the URC and the European Champions Cup.

Yet either side of squeezing past their arch rivals at the semi-final stage, Munster also secured victories away to Glasgow Warriors and the Stormers to emerge as the top side in the former competition. From a sporting perspective that was close to being the textbook definition of doing things the hard way, and McBryde emphasised the importance of Leinster adopting the right mindset in Pretoria on Saturday.

“We’ve had to do things a little bit differently this season. We had home fixtures the last couple of years, but there is a little trick, definitely in my head anyway, where sometimes it is good to do things the hard way around. Because when you are written off and nobody gives you an opportunity you just have to prove all doubters wrong,” McBryde added.

“If you’ve got a chip on your shoulder that will drive you on a fair bit. There’s a part of you that says ‘bring it on, make it harder again then’. We’ll still embrace it and still give it our best crack. That’s the spirit you want. You’ve got to have that mindset.

“It’s the same as a team that gets a red card. You see them on the field, it just gels them all together and makes them stronger in a funny sort of way. We are doing things a different way this year and hopefully we will be successful, but the travel and getting here, nobody has complained.”

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