Western Mail

The Scarlets will look to become only the second side to win back-to-back Championsh­ip titles when they take on familiar foes Leinster in today’s Guinness PRO14 final in Dublin. Wayne Pivac’s side will arrive at the Aviva Stadium with last month’s 38-16 C

- Wayne, you are back in Dublin to take on Leinster, what have you learned from that semi-final defeat in the Champions Cup? Wayne Pivac: Leo, I’d imagine your template will be the same as the semi-final, getting that fast start? Leo Cullen: Wayne, Johnny S

“We know only too well that Leinster are such a good side that if we don’t bring our best game then it will be a long day as it was in the semi-final.

“We’ve just got to make sure that we bring the physicalit­y that was lacking in that semi-final and make sure we are in the contest for longer periods than we were.

“We have to fire some shots it’s as simple as that. We have to try and win the race to the gain-line and win some collisions.

“We have to be a lot more physical than we were across the board. There’s not hiding from that fact.

“They beat us across the park last time round.

“They were very direct last time off nine, but it didn’t take 80 minutes to work that out. We worked that out pretty early in the piece.

“But it’s one thing to know what they are doing it’s another thing to be able to stop them. They were very good in the contact.

“The speed of ball was fantastic when they were on the front foot and then they’ve got a guy like Johnny Sexton who is controllin­g the show.

“He’s world -class, so we’ve got to make sure we don’t give them that go-forward as often as they had.” “Definitely. I thought the guys were clinical that day in terms of taking chances when they came along.

A fast start is huge in finals, it’s massive.

“You have to make sure you manage the start of games well, so you’re not trying to play catch up. “Scarlets are very good at that and they taught us a lesson in the PRO12 semifinal last year. In the final against Munster they were incredibly clinical. “We’ve seen it time and time again this season, they come out of the blocks very quickly and they’re a very hard team to play catch-up against. “How we manage to start the game will be hugely important.”

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 ??  ?? > Scarlets head coach Wayne Pivac and Leinster’s Leo Cullen, inset below, will look for one more big performanc­e from their sides in this evening’s final
> Scarlets head coach Wayne Pivac and Leinster’s Leo Cullen, inset below, will look for one more big performanc­e from their sides in this evening’s final

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