Harlequins coach Danny Wilson summed up his team’s afternoon at Croke Park in the same way and with the same words that many of the fans that travelled over would have used for Leinster’s 62-0 win.
“Today we were completely blown away,” said Wilson.
Sounding frustrated and dismayed at the one-way traffic of the scoring and that Harlequins failed to get even one point on the board, Wilson then fell into sermon mode with Leinster and their Dublin set-up coming in for most of the praise.
A history of Leinster and Harlequins' 'bloody' rivalry
“I have experienced playing against them and having tough days and they are a very good outfit,” added Wilson. “What do they have, 21 in the Ireland squad? You go through that team today and if it’s not an Irish international it’s RG Snyman, Jordie Barrett on the bench, a Test match All Black. It’s phenomenal.
“What they have created here is the consistency of a lot of good players and a system that brings through player after player. It is the envy of other people and it is going to finals and winning them that is the cherry on the cake for them to finish off.”
Leo Cullen was already looking towards Friday when his side will face last year’s URC champions Glasgow at the Aviva Stadium. The Scottish team beat Leicester Tigers 43-19 at Scotstoun on Saturday night to set up a quarter-final between two sides that are bursting with international players.
“Glasgow are obviously URC champions and going really well under Franco Smith,” said Cullen. “They have so much experience from Scottish internationals littered throughout their squad and dynamic in the way they play.
“They are a very good mauling team once they get you in their 22, usually their hooker will score a lot of tries off the back of mauls. They have a very big backline that can cause a lot of trouble, a lot of pace.
“You saw particularly away from home last season, winning away in Thomond in the semi-final, and then they won away in Loftus in the final so they are pretty comfortable being on the road. They have a hell of a lot of threats across the board.”
Cullen hopes to go into the match with hooker Rónan Kelleher available to him. Kelleher missed out on the try fest against Harlequins but was running around the pitch at Croke Park during Leinster’s warm-up routine. Kelleher is expected to be fit for Friday’s quarter-final.
“That was the big thing, just trying to get him through a full week, but he should be good to go now,” said Cullen.
Man of the match Josh van der Flier hit flying form again after a quiet Six Nations and felt that a week off after it had finished refreshed appetite and energy and helped him and some of the other Ireland players flush the disappointment of finishing third out of the system.
“I actually found it easy enough,” said the Irish openside flanker. “Sometimes it can be tricky without much of a turnaround. With the way the games fell we got given the week off after the Six Nations, so it was weird having that time in the middle of the season.
“You feel like you should be playing rugby or training but that was good, just freshen up and forget about rugby for a while. Once we got back in then the week after we were ready to go and excited. We had a great first day back down in Wicklow. Lads came in hungry and trained really hard last week and this week just gone. Worked well.”
