Champions Cup quarter final: Leinster v Sale Sharks, Saturday, 5.30pm, Aviva Stadium – Live on Premier Sports 1
Leinster are looking for a statement performance to continue their upward curve entering the business end of the season, as well as safe passage through to a sixth Champions Cup semi-final in succession. But they are acutely wary of a big-hitting Sale Sharks with that dangerous concoction of having little to lose and history to make.
Cast adrift of the Premiership playoffs in an injury-ravaged season, this is Sale’s biggest game yet of the season as it offers the prize of reaching a first-ever semi-final in the competition. Leinster are also a highly prized scalp.
Sale’s director of rugby Alex Sanderson, who was the Saracens’ forwards coach when they won three Champions Cups, has been bullish about their intentions ever since they recorded the Round of 16’s only away win last weekend against Harlequins.
“We’ll need to be at our best because there is no bigger challenge in club rugby,” he said. “We’re well aware of that but we’re not the type of team to back down from a challenge.
“We’re not going there to be part of their party and to make up numbers. We’re taking Manchester on the road and we’re going to have a proper dig at them.
“This is a team that rises to challenges and finds the best of itself when their backs are against the wall. We understand that we’re going there as underdogs but we’re going to go after them and do it for 80 minutes.”
For their part, Leinster produced some of their best attacking rugby against Edinburgh, albeit some of their most careless. But if they were to concede three intercept tries in the knockout stages, then doing so in the first half against Edinburgh was probably the opportune time.
[ Dan Sheehan to captain Leinster against Sale with Caelan Doris missing outOpens in new window ]
“If we could throw less intercepts and score 49 points again, we’d be pretty happy with that,” noted Leo Cullen, sardonically. “But it’s a totally different challenge. It’s a new game. You just have to adapt to the game.
Director of Sale Sharks rugby Alex Sanderson talks to the squad before the Champions Cup match against Harlequins. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Getty Images
“We’d love to go out like we did last week and score two tries in the first 12 minutes. I’d prefer not to concede four in the next 28 minutes, but if you went out with that mentality every game and start well and try and build a score, that’s what we’d love to see. But Sale are a proper team now,” said Cullen, whose mixture of respect and wariness of Sale’s threat is palpable.
“When we played them last time, I’m looking at the clock 25 minutes in, we’re 13-6 down and under the pump,” recalled Cullen of Leinster’s 37-27 pool win at the RDS in December 2022. “We managed to score some tries either side of half time to take the game away. But they were in the game all the way to the end and scored a couple of tries late in the game as well. And that’s when they were missing players as well.
“They’re a top team in England, they’ve been in big games, they know what they’re doing, they’ve a strong coaching group, well resourced. They’re a serious outfit and we just need to make sure we’re on our stuff, both sides of the ball, and show what we can do is the big thing. Show what we can do.”
Leinster have lost experience in the absent Andrew Porter and Caelan Doris, while gaining some in Garry Ringrose and James Ryan, with the latter’s return meaning Ryan Baird can shift to number six and Jack Conan to eight.
In Porter’s absence, the 20-year-old Clontarf academy prop Alex Usanov makes his first Champions start in his seventh senior appearance and he will be backed up by Jerry Cahir.
Sale have an all-academy frontrow after losing loosehead prop Bevan Rodd and hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie to injury as well as replacement hooker Nathan Jibulu to suspension. Even so, Usanov will be up against the powerful 21-year-old Sale tighthead Asher Opoku-Fordjour, capped six times by England already, while their hard-carrying midfield has been strengthened by the return of Rob du Preez.
Leinster’s Alex Usanov is tackled by Liam McConnell of Edinburgh. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho
Pedigree generally counts in the Champions Cup and this will be Leinster’s 10th consecutive quarter-final since the inglorious pool exit in 2015-2016, and their 21st overall. It will be Sale’s fourth in total. What’s more, Leinster are seeking to reach a 17th semi-final.
A six-day turnaround is a tricky sell during the Easter holidays, but Leinster are hopeful of another crowd in the low 20,000s and with the same level of engagement as a week ago.
Sale have scored the least number of tries, 15, of the eight quarter-finalists, while Leinster’s haul of 23 in five games is three more than at the same juncture last season, even if behind the French duo of Bordeaux-Bègles (36) and Toulouse (33) and the English pair of Bath and Northampton (30 apiece).
Leinster simply should have more attacking variety and more of a cutting edge.
LEINSTER: Hugo Keenan; Tommy O’Brien, Garry Ringrose, Jamie Osborne, Rieko Ioane; Harry Byrne, Jamison Gibson-Park; Alex Usanov, Dan Sheehan (capt), Tadhg Furlong, Joe McCarthy, James Ryan, Ryan Baird, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan. Replacements: Rónan Kelleher, Jerry Cahir, Thomas Clarkson, Max Deegan, Scott Penny, Luke McGrath, Ciarán Frawley, Robbie Henshaw.
SALE SHARKS: Joe Carpenter; Tom Roebuck, Rob du Preez, Rekeiti Ma’asi-White, Tom O’Flaherty; George Ford, Gus Warr; Si McIntyre, Ethan Caine, Asher Opoku-Fordjour, Ernst van Rhyn (capt), Ben Bamber, Jacques Vermeulen, Sam Dugdale, Dan du Preez. Replacements: Alfie Longstaff, Ralph McEachran, James Harper, Reuben Logan, Jos Gilmore, Dom Hanson, Marius Louw, Alex Wills.
Referee: Pierre Brousset (FRA).
Previous meetings: (2003-04) Leinster 22 Sale 23; Sale 16 Leinster 23; (2023) Leinster 37 Sale 37
Betting: 1/50 Leinster, 50/1 Draw, 13/1 Sale. Handicap odds (Sale + 23pts) 10/11 Leinster, 22/1 Draw, 10/11 Sale
Forecast: Leinster to win.