WE’LL SEE NOW JUST WHERE WE DO STAND

LEO CULLEN believes tomorrow’s clash with the European champions is the acid test of how far Leinster have risen.

The Blues are a different organisation to the one Johnny Sexton fretted about on his return from France, when he admitted a winning culture had to be rebuilt after the glory years of three Heineken Cups in four years.

Getting to the Champions Cup semi last April was a big step in that rebuilding process.

But after winning six out of six in the pool – the first time the province has achieved that in 13 years – Leinster can count themselves unlucky that they have treble-chasing Saracens in the last eight.

Head coach Cullen (above) admits that he was surprised to learn that Leinster are favourites to win, given Sarries’ pedigree.

“I would’ve thought Saracens were the favourites because they’ve won the tournament the past two years,” he said.

“What has changed from their end? Not a huge amount. So we have to be very, very good. Nobody’s taking anything for granted here.”

Cullen acknowledges that while the painstaking work has been done to get back on the big stage, Leinster won’t know until 5.30pm tomorrow if they are truly back among the best.

“What Saracens have created is very unique and we’ve a hell of a lot of respect for what they’ve done,” admitted Cullen.

“They’re the team that we aspire to get to – to that level. A huge amount of work has gone into trying to get us back to this stage where we can take these teams on.

“It’s a great test for where we are in the development of our team. We try to prepare for all eventualities, all the scenarios and the unknowns that could happen. So it’s just about giving the players as many tools as possible but my experience tells me that it’s virtually impossible to cover all the bases.”

Mark Mccall’s Premiership machine love to soak up pressure and wear teams down. It’s a tactic they used so well against Munster in the semi-finals at the Lansdowne Road venue last season.

Cullen stresses that his side – minus Sean O’brien, who was close to making it, and Jack Conan – haven’t played together as a unit since the last round of European pool games in January.

However, the province should get a bounce from the core group of Grand Slam winners only a fortnight ago – 14 of the 23 in tomorrow’s matchday squad played in Twickenham in the Six Nations finale.

“The players are unbelievably ambitious, especially coming off the back of where they’ve been over the last couple of months,” Cullen said.

Meanwhile, the Blues’ 35-year-old skipper Isa Nacewa (left) also sees a pep in the step of the young Ireland stars. He said: “They’ve been great. There’s good energy and a good buzz around the place from everyone involved in the Grand Slam.

“It was a great success and some outstanding individual performances. It does bring back another level of energy to the club – it’s good to have them all back firing.”