Leinster coach Robin McBryde embraces challenge of running with Bulls

Speaking via video call from the team’s base in Pretoria, the former Wales international labelled the South Africans as the favourites for the game and said that his team was relishing the idea of winning it the hard way.

After beating Ulster on Saturday, Leinster made their way to South Africa in three separate parties via Dubai and trained at altitude for the first time yesterday.

“We’ve had to do things a little bit differently this season,” McBryde said.

“We had home fixtures the last couple of years but there is a little chink, definitely in my head anyway, where sometimes it is good to do things the hard way around because when you are written off and nobody gives you an opportunity you just have to prove all doubters wrong.

“If you’ve got a chip on your shoulder that will drive you on a fair bit.

“So there’s a part of you that says, ‘yeah, bring it on, make it harder again then’. We’ll still embrace it and still give it our best crack.

“It does spur you on. You’ve got to have that mindset, It’s the same as a team that gets a red card. You see them on the field, it just gels them all together and makes them stronger in a funny sort of way.

“We are doing things a different way this year and hopefully we will be successful but the travel and getting here – nobody has complained. It’s been smooth.

“We are literally a stone’s throw away… I am looking at the stadium we will be playing in on Saturday across the road here, we’ve got a nice hotel, gym around the corner, everything is within walking distance, and we’re just getting with it.

“The weather is a bit better than what it was in Dublin as well, which helps, but it is going to be a Test-level intensity match on Saturday.

“Nobody is under any sort of illusion so that grounds you as well. It focuses the mind, it makes you really focus on the job at hand and take ownership.”

Garry Ringrose has travelled and, once again, Leinster say he’s fit for the game. Jack Conan, who missed the win over Ulster, is also listed as available. Leinster may be six-point favourites in the bookmakers, that hasn’t stopped McBryde from playing the underdog card.

“They have what, 20 internationals in their squad? And they would be world champions if that’s the case,” McBryde said of the Bulls.

“So for us to come here and face them in their own backyard, it is going to be a pretty vociferous and hostile environment, a full house with the home supporters.

“We have had the benefit of having home support and they have been great so it will be good for us to face it in another way.

“Hopefully, being taken out of our comfort zone , we will see a bit of growth again but as a front row, a front five, as a pack of eight forwards, the challenges don’t come much greater than this.

“It’s one to really embrace and look forward to.

“I was talking to a good friend of mine and it was after the Champions Cup final, and he said, ‘listen, you can do all the preparatory work and get all the detail into your game, but when you do walk onto the pitch, it’s like walking into a casino because you can’t control a lot of the things’,” he said.

“And he got my mind thinking, and I was thinking, ‘yeah, you’re probably right there, it’s the referee who holds the cards’.

“We’ve got to make sure that we present good, positive pictures to (referee) Sam Grove-White on Saturday and the tighter exchanges, scrum, maul, that’s what they base their game on. That’s their soul.

“So we’ve got to match that, we’ve got to stand up to that. As a test for us as a pack, it doesn’t get any clearer.