WON’T GIVE DYN

REGAINING European dominance is within Leinster’s grasp but will require total commitment.

That’s the claim of Stuart Lancaster, the Blues’ senior coach who yesterday referenced ‘The Dynasty’ in his review of the La Rochelle defeat with the Leinster players.

The squad have been together since returning from France and that Champions Cup semi-final reversal and Lancaster offered a different perspective on the disappointment.

‘The Dynasty’ is a recently published book (inset) that chronicles the New England Patriots’ historic Superbowl success between 2002 and 2018-19.

“I thought it was relevant to the group,” Lancaster said. “It’s about the most successful sports team in America, which is what Sports Illustrated said in 2019.

“They won the Super Bowl first in 2002, then won again in 2003. They won it six times, so that means in 12 seasons they lost in a play-off game, a final, a semi-final, a one-pointer.

“Even some of the games they won, they won in overtime and there was a great clip of Tom Brady that was on the Tom vs Time documentary series and he summed it up and I showed it to the players as well.

“It is so hard to win the Champions Cup. I’m saying to the younger players, ‘don’t just sit there and think that this is something that’s easy to do’.

“You need everything, everything you need to commit everything to it and everything to go your way, and when you’re playing against the teams that the French teams can pull together with a new TV deal and their pulling power.

“It’s not just the overseas players that have improved the French teams, I think there’s the quality of the coaching and credit to Jono (Gibbes) and ROG (Ronan O’gara) and what they’ve done there.

“Can Leinster do it? Can Munster do it? Can an Irish province do it? Absolutely, I think we can.

“It’s not going to be easy but I think the model in Ireland is still the right model. The reason we’ve all committed to staying is because we all believe in the quality of the players that we’ve got.”

Lancaster points to Leinster’s record in Europe in the five years he’s been at the club.

“On this day we didn’t do it,” he said. “But when you look at the age profile, the players missing, the players that I know will benefit from this experience, there’s absolutely no reason why we can’t be at the top table of Europe.

“But it’s very tough and when you’re playing against these powerful teams you need to nail your moments and you need to play a game that plays to our strengths.

“We need to be better and more accurate, but it’s doable. For sure.”