IF IT AIN’T CROKE..
Darcy warns Blues against hyping up the switch to GAA headquarters
DECLAN DARCY has warned Leinster not to over-hype their big move to Croke Park.
Darcy is the province’s ace in the hole this week, having previously played a central role in another team in blue’s unprecedented success at GAA HQ.
The ex-leitrim and Dublin footballer was on the coaching tickets of Dublin bosses Jim Gavin and Dessie Farrell as he helped the county to the historic six in a row.
Gavin brought him on board in 2013 to work on the team’s defence and, by the time he left the set-up in 2022, he had become performance coach.
He has held that role for Leinster ever since.
The province should be driven on in Saturday’s semi against Northampton
Saints by having the massive majority of the 82,300 sell-out crowd on their side.
But Darcy has told the players and coaches they can’t allow this occasion – rugby’s return to the hallowed Jones’ Road venue after 14 years – to take over.
“Declan’s got experience of Croke Park and he’s warned it’s a double-edged sword,” said assistant coach Robin Mcbryde.
“You can’t allow it to become something bigger than what it is. But if you play well out there it gives you more energy – that’s true for whichever team is playing well on the day.
“So we’ve got to make sure that we start well and feed off that energy. The La Rochelle quarter-final, because of the history between the two clubs, it was nice to get over the line.
“But it’s just another game and only gets us to somewhere we’ve been before and come away empty handed, so we’ve got to make sure that we go one step further. It’s going to be a pressurised environment obviously.”
Hugo Keenan trained yesterday but is not expected to recover from a hip injury in time as Leinster aim to make it three Champions Cup finals on the spin.
However, they do have neck injury victim Jimmy O’brien (inset) available for the first time since the pool clash with Sale in December.
Garry Ringrose could also return after a shoulder injury but his co-captain James Ryan isn’t yet ready after bicep surgery. While Saints have got on with the business of staying top of the Premiership, Leinster lost their place at the URC summit by keeping their frontliners at home rather than send them to South Africa.
“The result will dictate where we got it right or not,” said Mcbryde.
“Everyone understands the reasons why we chose to do what we did. It’s a fine line between being battlehardened and battle-weary.
“Those guys had a lot of minutes in the Six Nations but the level of detail retention is second to none. I’ve never worked with a group of players like them.”