It’s hard to see this one being about Bath tackling gallantly while the visitors’ all-star back-line comes up with its next flash move. Instead, it will be about the Leinster forwards’ attempts at standing toe-to-toe with one of the meanest packs in the Premiership. Only if they can produce the sort of intensity they showed three weeks ago against Munster — and then some — do they stand a chance of winning and qualifying.
You suspect Michael Cheika is a little weary of hearing about his forwards and their supposed lack of beef and biff — it was after the corresponding fixture last year that Bath’s director of rugby John Connolly suggested they had “a soft underbelly”. Yet he’s willing to admit it’s an issue he and Mike Brewer have been addressing.
“I know people are suggesting they’re going to put the sword into us in the pack but we’ve been doing a lot of hard work on the pack and we’re building a bit of belief,” says Cheika. “I play that type of style where I like the pack to be tough and hard. It doesn’t happen overnight.
“We have to play with that edge, not just for the press or the public but for ourselves. It’s really important. We don’t hide from that. You look at the national selection — all our backs have been picked and only a few of our forwards. You don’t have to be a genius to work it out. I want to improve that.
“It’s a little goal of mine, I suppose, as a former forward. I think if you want to be tough you have to learn how to take a beating and get back up from it and then apply the torch yourself. That’s something we’re involved in growing.”
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Bath may lurk in the nether regions of the Premiership but judging by last week’s performance in Bourgoin, the return of Brian Ashton as coach appears to have had an immediate positive effect. Not content with matching the French for physicality, they scored two quality tries in the second half where backs and forwards hugged the touchline.
Leinster can take encouragement from the availability of Will Green, whose rib injury has healed, and from the team Ashton has selected.
While he stressed the importance of winning a home quarter-final, Ashton’s confident enough to allow wing David Bory to return to France on business, while also giving number eight Zac Feaunati a week off. Duncan Bell, his brute of a tight-head, has been benched. That said, Lion Matt Stevens replaces him. That they have five forwards on the bench says something about their approach to the game.
If Leinster need guidance, they could look to Leeds, who beat Bath a few weeks back by wrecking their famed lineout. This would be quite a turnaround from last year, but then Leinster have a different lineout — only Malcolm O’Kelly remains.
Were they to emulate the Tykes, we could say Leinster have turned a corner — and we could book flights for a quarter-final, probably in the south of France. They just don’t seem to be quite there yet.
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Bath: M Stephenson; A Higgins, T Cheeseman, S Finau, F Welsh; O Barkley, N Walshe; D Flatman, L Mears, M Stevens, S Borthwick, D Grewcock, A Beattie, M Lipman, G Delve.
Replacements: P Dixon, D Bell, P Short, J Scaysbrook, J Hudson, A Willliams, C Malone.
Leinster: G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy, D Hickie; F Contepomi, G Easterby; R Corrigan, B Blaney, W Green, B Williams, M O’Kelly, C Jowitt, K Gleeson, J Heaslip.
Replacements: D Blaney, E Byrne, A Byrnes, E Miller, B O’Riordan, K Lewis, R Kearney.