Senior coach Jacques Nienaber revealed how grateful he is for Leinster’s flawless season so far and insists the team must work hard to maintain their run.
Leinster have a clean record in all competitions with an impressive nine wins from nine games as the Irish giants look to end a trophy drought dating back to 2021.
It certainly isn’t for a lack of trying and ironically their performances which allowed them to go deep into both the United Rugby Championship (URC) and Champions Cup play-offs have worked against them when it counted most.
Still, in typical Leinster fashion the team are constantly striving for perfection which they have showcased at the Aviva Stadium and Croke Park this season with the RDS under construction.
What a season so far
Ex-Springboks boss Nienaber acknowledged that it has been an incredible season so far from playing performance to the support of their fans.
“This is a season like no other,” he said.
“It’s such a privilege that we have.
“Some of our players would never have the opportunity to play at Croke Park against Munster. It would have been a dream of theirs.
“The same with our players getting the opportunity of playing at the Aviva. It’s such a sacred ground, such an unbelievable ground.
“So we are so privileged that this year we have got, like I said, this season like no other.
“Even for me, as a coach, you normally only play there for Test matches.
“I believe there is going to be a good crowd this weekend, probably even a bigger crowd than we had against Clermont.
“That just shows how seriously our supporters take this interprovincial derby and we are taking it very seriously too.”
Inter-pro derby
It is derby time across the board in the URC and Leinster’s challenge this weekend is an intriguing inter-pro derby against Connacht who Nienaber sees as a serious threat.
“It’s going to be a massive game for us and it’s going to be a tight game,” he said.
“If you look at Connacht, they really had two stirring performances in Europe and they will come in with a lot of confidence. They will be ready to go.
“So it’s going to be a tough game for us. We are preparing for a big one, a big night.
“It’s not going to be ‘Lets pitch up and accumulate the points’.
“It’s going to be a grind that I know.
“It’s been small margins against them in previous games, so I don’t take them for granted.
“Our preparation for Connacht won’t be any different to our preparation for Clermont, for Bristol or for Toulouse in the Champions Cup final last season.
“Our programme will be the same, there will be the same amount of respect shown to any team. There is no different approach from us in terms of the amount of preparation we will put on.”
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/it-is-such-a-privilege-jacques-nienaber-is-loving-leinsters-season-like-no-other
