ROBIN McBRYDE has admitted Leinster’s Champions Cup semi-final result will determine whether their twin-track approach worked.
After securing their place in the last four of Europe with a win over back-to-back champions La Rochelle, Leinster sent a shadow squad to South Africa.
Heavy defeats to Lions and Stormers saw Leo Cullen’s side lose top spot in the URC table.
At home, frontline players were training to varying degrees – depending on how much rugby they had under their belts – to prepare for this Saturday’s clash with Northampton Saints.
With the travelling players only arriving back into Dublin yesterday, the province’s coaching staff is convinced they made the right call.
But McBryde conceded that will only be borne out if they overcome the Premiership leaders at Croke Park.
The forwards coach said: “It’s a challenge, I think the result on Saturday will dictate where we got it right or not.
“Who’s to know if we could have done anything differently?
“I think everyone understands the reasons why we chose to do what we did, the players have travelled back from South Africa and we haven’t seen them yet.
“So when you think of the game coming up on Saturday, it’s tough for them to get up to speed for it.
“It’s been a bit of a juggling act but they are experienced internationals, many of them are anyway.
“It’s a fine line between being battle-hardened and battle-weary so a lot of those players didn’t travel to South Africa.
“Those guys have had a lot of minutes in the Six Nations and you have to look at each individual case by itself.
“A lot of players can just turn up alongside on the day anyway.
“I played alongside a lot of players who did next to nothing all week and then on the Saturday, bang, they have so much confidence in their ability and the prep that they do, the way they look after themselves and how professional they are.
“They know taking to the field they are going to be in a good place. The result will dictate whether we got it right or not.
“Northampton are off the back of a great match against Harlequins last Saturday, I enjoyed watching that.
“It has given us a bit more prep time, not so much intense game time, but I would like to think that won’t be so much of a factor in Saturday’s game.
“It’s always in the back of your mind as to whether you got the prep right or not. I’m not going to lie there but I trust them, I trust the players. They just have to trust themselves.
“The level of detail retention is second to none. I’ve never worked with a group of players like them.”
CROKE RETURN
The former Wales hooker was part of his country’s coaching staff when they won at Croke Park in 2008 en route to a Grand Slam and when they lost 27-12 there two years later.
He is relishing the prospect of playing in front of an 82,000 sellout crowd. He said: “It’s brilliant isn’t it?
“You can’t allow it to become something bigger than what it is. But if you play well out there it gives you more energy, that’s true for whichever team is playing well on the day.
“So we’ve got to make sure that we start well and feed off that energy.”
Garry Ringrose (shoulder) and Jimmy O’Brien (neck) have both been declared fit. Hugo Keenan has trained but remains a doubt with a hip problem.