‘It will basically be Test match intensity’ – Rónan Kelleher admits Leinster have unfinished business against Bulls

Leo Cullen’s men host Leicester Tigers in the Champions Cup on Saturday week for a place in the last eight but up first is a URC clash with the Bulls. Having lost back-to-back Champions Cup finals to Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle, as well successive URC semi-finals, Kelleher insists that heartbreak is in the rear-view mirror as he targets silverware.

“A lot of us haven’t won in Europe and it has been obviously a few years now since we won the URC. We know there’s a lot of unfinished business here, so everyone is chomping at the bit to get back in,” said Kelleher, speaking ahead of tomorrow night’s clash with the Bulls at the RDS.

“That (last two URC semi-finals) is deep in the background, but we definitely pull upon things like that at different stages throughout the year, to go back to our learnings from those games.

“I think because we haven’t won in the last two years, there’s just that extra bit of motivation, maybe. Where we know we came up short last year, we know we didn’t put in our best performances in those semi-finals, but it’s just about making sure we’re there or thereabouts in the run-in of the season.

“This weekend is massive for that because the Bulls are sitting four points behind us with a load of home games to come. We know this is a massive opportunity. It could be a big eight to 10-point swing in the table. It’s really important.”

Having won four successive Pro14 titles before suffering semi-final defeats in the last two seasons, Kelleher says that the high expectations around the province can only drive them on.

“It’s a credit to what the teams before us have built and the expectation. It’s only a good thing, really. It’s only a positive thing that that’s where the expectation is for a Leinster team. It’s just about us trying to live up to that.”

Despite Leinster being the bulk supplier to Andy Farrell’s side, as the dust settles on another Six Nations triumph, the hooker has no worries about the ability of his Irish team-mates to switch their focus to provincial matters, both physically and mentally.

“It’s pretty separate in the lads’ minds. With the Six Nations over, that’s parked and now it’s onto the next thing,” said the 26-yer-old, who featured off the bench in all of Ireland’s Six Nations games. “Lads feel fresh and fit after the Six Nations. It’s just about implementing it going forward and trying to make sure we’re there on the big days.”

The Bulls come to Dublin off the back of six successive wins, with Cullen’s men aiming for revenge after their one-point URC semi-final defeat to the South African side in June 2022.

“It will be just as intense as a European or international game when you come up against those big South African teams. They’ve a stack of internationals as well. It will be incredibly intense – I think it will basically be Test match intensity.”