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How seriously are Irish giants Leinster taking the URC?
Leinster have put more importance on their appearances in the Champions Cup, which has harmed their showings in the URC.
Leinster players try to chase down Stedman Gans of the Bulls during a URC match at Loftus last month. Picture: Lee Warren/Gallo Images
Are Irish side Leinster taking the United Rugby Championship (URC) seriously enough, after they were unable to reach the tournament final for the second consecutive year?
Obviously anything can happen in knockout rugby and both of their semi-final losses over the past two seasons were by tiny margins, but they are considered to be arguably the best club (franchise) side in the world, so it is a strange occurrence.
In the inaugural URC season Leinster finished top of the log by six points over the Stormers in second, having won 13 and lost five of their 18 pool matches, with most of those losses attributed to their ‘B’ side that they regularly played throughout the campaign.
URC semis
Having been dumped out of last season’s Champions Cup competition at the semi-final stage, Leinster then named a relatively full strength team for their URC semi against the Bulls, but were stunned 27-26 at home by the South African visitors, to end the season with no silverware.
This season was even more emphatic in the pool phase as Leinster finished top by 11 points from second placed Ulster, with 16 wins against one draw and one loss.
This again secured home ground advantage for the knockouts, but that didn’t amount to much as they were beaten 16-15 by Munster in the semi-finals last weekend.
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Leinster on this occasion, however, fielded a weakened team, with their focus probably on their Champions Cup final appearance against La Rochelle this weekend.
The Champions Cup is the biggest franchise competition in Europe and with Leinster hosting the final against the defending champs, they obviously put a premium on it.
URC suffers
But that is to the detriment of the URC, and they now have the very real possibility of another season without any silverware, as La Rochelle could defend their title on Saturday.
With the fantastic squad that Leinster has they should be able to challenge on both fronts, but it seems that they have put more importance on their appearances in the Champions Cup, which has harmed their showings in the URC, and this should be a massive disappointment to their fans.
