D-Day for Leinster as they prepare for trench warfare with Exeter
The 2018 European champions meet last year’s Champions Cup winners in the European quarter-finals tonight.
Garry Doyle
By Garry Doyle
Friday 9 Apr 2021, 7:00 AM
18 hours ago
415 Views
0 Comments
Lowe and Henshaw are key players tonight
Image: Billy Stickland/INPHO
Image: Billy Stickland/INPHO
IT IS ALWAYS a grind in Exeter, trench warfare transferred from the Somme to Sandy Park. Every inch of territory is streaked with sweat, every point gained the equivalent of a dozen collected from a Friday night bashing over a Dragons or a Zebre.
Leo Cullen could do with a win there. He wouldn’t mind a few tries, wouldn’t say no to a dazzling display of back play, either. But you get the sense he won’t be greedy, jokily referring to ‘the 9-6 classic’ when these teams first met nearly a decade ago, at a time when Leinster were European champions and Exeter were unknown, unloved and unheralded.