McGrath pumped up for tilt at double
JACK McGRATH has been l acing up his boots long enough to know that weeks like t hese don’t c ome around too often. In the space of whirlwind seven days, Leinster backed up winning a first Champions Cup title in six years by seeing off old f oes Munster in the RDS, teeing up a Pro14 final date with a wounded Scarlets side that are hungry for revenge following their European semi-final meeting in April.
It is the final hurdle in what has been a magnificent season for Leinster, with the motivation now to go one step further than the great European Cup- winning Leinster teams of 2009, 2011 and 2012 by becoming the first side to complete the double.
‘Obviously it’s in the back of your head, but it’s not the driving factor,’ McGrath admits, ‘because we haven’t won the league since 2014, it’s been a barren old spell.
‘We’ve topped the league and not gotten anything from it... guys are taking it as a different competition, we’re playing for those 55 guys who got us to this point.
‘ It’s j ust a different week’s approach, we’re lucky enough to call it a home final, there’s a lot of excitement and buzz around the place. To get over last weekend was huge for us with the changes that we had, the guys we were missing. Those guys that are comi ng back, t he l i kes of Rob [Kearney], [Dan] Leavy, [Johnny] Sexton, they’re all bringing fresh energy and vigour and they want to get one up on Scarlets, because they’re the current champions.
‘I don’t know if you would call it lucky or unlucky but I am around long enough to remember when we won a Heineken Cup at the time and then going to a final and not being able to get over the line so there is that experience and bit of bitterness. A lot of great guys have walked through that door at Leinster and not done that so that is definitely a driving factor.’
It was Scarlets who ended Leinster’s hopes in the Pro14 last season, the Welsh side deserved winners at the RDS in their league semi- f i nal, a defeat that has informed much of what has helped Leinster lift their levels of performance this season.
Earlier this year, the two teams shadow-boxed their way through two league meetings while all eyes were on the Six Nations, but when they truly reacquainted themselves in last four of the Champions Cup, a ruthless Leinster team had 22 points to spare come fulltime. Even that cushion didn’t tell the full story of their dominance on the day, with former Leinster man Tadhg Beirne one of the few Scarlets players who refused to throw in the towel as he dotted down a late consolation try.
Given Leinster’s exploits in the weeks since, there is a feeling the Blues may struggle to produce a display of the same intensity and ferocity seen in that defeat of Scarlets and the quarter-final win over Saracens.
However, McGrath is comfortable that the province have the necessary tools to mix up their game in order to get the job done, with Stuart Lancaster’s focus on unstructured play contributing to the squad’s ability to find a way through even the most stubborn of opposition.
Against Munster on Saturday, it was McGrath who provided the neat pop pass that saw James Lowe break the Munster line before sending Jack Conan over for the opening try. It was a pass f ew props would be able to produce, but i t’s all part of Leinster’s ambitious approach to the game this season.
‘ The most dangerous thing about something is being unpredictable,’ McGrath continues.
‘We don’t want another team to know what we are going to do at all times because they can just plan it out for their whole week and know exactly what we are going to do.
‘So if we have a few aces up our sleeves throughout the game that teams don’t see coming, it is much harder to defend, it ultimately means we can put them under more pressure.’
Pressure is not a word being used too often around Leinster HQ this week.
Instead, there is a quiet confidence that the squad are well placed to continue their winning streak and end their season on a high at Landsdowne Road.
‘It’s a very exciting week and you can’t take that away from it. If you can’t get up for a week like this where you are going for something historic... it is going to be hard to not get up for any game of this magnitude. The bumps and bruises sort of go out the window when it is finals week and a big game on the line.
‘Any time our backs have been to the wall all season we’ve performed. There is just general excitement and we’re really looking forward to it.’