As sporting Saturday’s go, this ought to be a cracker. Just as the footballing showpiece is getting underway in Kiev with the best of British taking on the best in Europe, the PRO14 showdown at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium will be drawing to a close.
In the red corner Llanelli’s Scarlets, last year’s PRO12 winners, were the last of the British teams to be eliminated from the European Champions Cup when they were beaten in the semi-final by today’s opponents who were on their way to matching the Toulouse record of winning the biggest trophy available to any provincial or club side in the Continent.
All very different to this time last year, of course, when the Welsh province were preparing for a final that they would win in some style in the same city as today’s final, having previously eased past Leinster, in doing so conferring on them an unwanted place in history as the first home team to lose a PRO12 semi-final.
It was an embarrassing defeat which was referenced by Johnny Sexton, Leinster’s on-field general, after his side had gained revenge in full in the Champions Cup semi-final last month when he observed that he and his colleagues had learned from that experience and it was perhaps telling too that when that more recent match was played at the Aviva Stadium rather than the more compact RDS, a team packed with players who are used to big occasions, rose to it in some style.
That Leinster now seem to have an answer for pretty much everything their opponents can throw at them even seemed reinforced when the teams for this encounter were named yesterday and Scarlets recalled a talismanic figure in British & Irish Lion Leigh Halfpenny, only for their opponents to trump that by bringing back two Lions in Sexton and Rob Kearney, as well as this season’s Grand Slam winning team-mate Dan Leavy.
It speaks to the depth of both squads, too, that they managed to negotiate exceedingly difficult semi-finals with such important players missing, Scarlets overcoming the potentially calamitous loss of Scotland skipper John Barclay in the early stages to once again do so away from home when demonstrating to Glasgow Warriors the difference between regular season PRO14 matches and the knockout stages of this competition, while Leinster edged out neighbours and fiercest rivals Munster just days after their hard earned Champions Cup triumph.
While the Scarlets seek to match their opponents by becoming only the second team to win back-to-back titles in the competition that has evolved from inter-Celtic competition, it is Leinster who are looking for another first in bidding to become the first team to win the Champions Cup and the Celtic League/PRO12/PRO14 title in the same season.
Aware that his defending champions are, all things considered, very much the outsiders then, Scarlets coach Wayne Pivac yesterday recognised that his team must reach a new level to hang on to their title.
“They’re a very good side. We only have to look back to our semi final where we were completely outplayed,” he acknowledged.“They’ve gone on to win the big prize and be crowned Euro champions and deservedly so. To back that up against a good Munster team, not an easy task a week later after celebrations and the euphoria of winning it, was to me a testament to how strong that squad is.
“They’ll be better this weekend with some guys freshened up. We’re expecting a massive game. It’s a massive challenge for us but I think it’s a great game, last year’s PRO12 champions up against this year’s European champions. If you want to win it you want to do so against the best.”
With the match also marking the end of captain Isa Nacewa’s decade-long association with Leinster, everything would appear to be stacked against Pivac’s side since their opponents are surely far too experienced to ensure that the emotion of the occasion and the opportunity that presents itself will do anything other than energise them.
Either way, it promises to be a very special day in Dublin which, for sports lovers who prefer ovoids to spheres, can be considered well worthy of comparison of that Real Madrid – Liverpool clash in the Champions League final.
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