Leinster are re-assembling their squad from the inaugural European Cup in 1995-96 for Saturday week's return meeting with Toulon at the Aviva Stadium. Back then, they reached the semi-finals thanks to pool wins away to Milan and at home to Pontypridd before losing to Cardiff. Oh, that they had such a route to a home semi-final this season.
As well as a reunion dinner, the squad will be introduced at half-time to the crowd, which Leinster say will eclipse the 38,500 that attended the corresponding game against Harlequins last year, given ticket sales have topped 42,000. But if the class of 1995 are not to be attending a dead rubber, Leinster need to pull off the unlikeliest of all wins in Toulon this Sunday (Paddy Power make them 13/2 and 15-point underdogs).
Two of the class of 1995, Victor Costello and Paul Wallace, admit it's the tallest of asks but Leinster are not entirely without hope.
Belief and tradition
“If they can dig deep into their own tradition and their own belief, they’re good players, I think they can [cause an] upset,” said Costello.
“Toulon are a mercenary side. You can silence the French crowd, they can turn on themselves. It’s a tough ask, but it can be done, but they’ve really got to pull a spirited, passionate, Leinster and Irish performance out of the bag.
”Everything is going against them, but sometimes when everything is going against you, you’ve no choice but to fight. I don’t have anything against Toulon, but they’re not what I would want in our game, which is a bunch of guys with a pension, and they’re winning. But I firmly believe they’re only winning because nobody stood up to them.
"If you put the old Leinster team or the old Munster of old against Toulon, they'd kick them up and down the pitch. They're a side that's put together. Mercenaries, there's no real tradition with any of them there. No loyalty, I don't believe, but they're good. They're skilful, talented, experienced, but if you can get under that, and push them to play with their heart, you might expose them."
Both former Leinster players would like to see more young players given a chance, while Wallace subscribes to the theory that there is “a bit of a World Cup hangover”.
In any event, although Toulon have “an amazing squad of players”, Wallace believes their tight five is revamped, and “their scrum has been shown to come under pressure”. He also questioned the control of their half-backs.
Beatable
“They’re certainly beatable, but it would take an expansive game, and I think they [Leinster] would need a lot of courage to keep the ball in hand, like we’ve seen from Munster in particular through the years, and we’ve seen from Leinster for that matter, the likes of the Toulouse win, when no one gave them a chance. If you hang onto the ball, things start to go well; they’re accurate, Toulon are beatable.”
Speaking at the ground yesterday, where he quipped that "not much has changed", Costello described the early European years as "exciting times" albeit with "naïve amateurism, but building towards professionalism". The smaller backroom staff of those days are also attending, including head coach Ciarán Callan, manager Jim Glennon, backs coach Paul Dean and physio Alan Kelly, aka the "Great AK".
Costello cited "Munster hammering Wasps [49-22] at Thomond Park" as a benchmark moment, and thanks to achieving consistency quicker, said: "Ulster got there first, but Munster really paved the way."
Echoing Wallace in saying that Leo Cullen would need time, Costello also strongly believes there have been too many "distractions" lately, not least in players publicly discussing contract negotiations and prospective moves, such as Ian Madigan and Ben Te'o.
“That’s never good, when there’s uncertainty for players’ futures or the future of the club,” he said.
Distraction
“That type of talk in a dressing room in the lead-up to a Toulon game is just another distraction, of which there’s been many. There should be a time of the season, a window, where it should be done and dusted by then. If not, forget it until next year.”
“It’s a professional game and people are allowed to maximise their earnings but at the end of the day, if you said to me, ‘I’ll give you 100 quid to run through that window’, I’d tell you to eff off. If me mate asked me to run through it, and he really needed it, you’d do it.
“That’s what rugby is all about, you’ve got to trust the guys around you, believe in the guys around you. If you’re starting thinking, ‘I’m going, this isn’t happening for me,’ it just sets a rotten core, I think, particularly for guys that are wondering if X is going to be here next year and what’s his commitment to us. It’s not good for anyone. I’m not saying the players shouldn’t be doing it but particularly not in the weeks and days before a game that was targeted as a big game.”
Costello fears players going to French or English clubs. “That’s the problem with a team not winning.”
Citing their win in the inaugural 2001 Celtic League final at the old Lansdowne Road with 14 men for much of the game against Munster, Costello recalled how Matt Williams told them at half-time that no one gave them a chance.
“Sometimes, you’ve just got to go, ‘feck it, we’ll give it a shot’. Just do our thing, back to basics, and next you see guys standing up in the stand and I couldn’t believe it. That’s where Leinster are at the moment unfortunately. But a win can change everything. If they won this weekend, I know it’s highly unlikely and I know the odds are against them, but if they did they’re all heroes again,” he said.
