WEST BROM fan Rónan Kelleher is hoping for a double celebration in London later this month.
Kelleher helped Leinster qualify for their third Champions Cup final in a row with a nervy win over Northampton Saints at Croke Park on Saturday.
Having lost the last two deciders to La Rochelle, there will be no shortage of motivation when the province face Toulouse at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday May 25.
But the hooker might be tempted to skip the homecoming the following day when the Baggies could be involved in a Championship play-off final.
West Brom face Southampton on Sunday and again on Friday and will hope to set up a Wembley date against either Leeds United or Norwich City.
Kelleher said: “I am a football fan, yeah, Tottenham Stadium looks incredible.
“I’m sure lots of people will have seen the All or Nothing documentary that they did and it looks unbelievable, a great stadium to play in.
“I support West Brom. Quality team, what are you saying!? Mikey Johnston is some player.
“It came from my dad. Why he supported them I don’t know. I think it was when they were strong, John Giles and all that.
“I’ve been to the Hawthorns a couple of times. It’s a different world over there, class. I haven’t been over there in years though.”
If the Championship play-offs are known for the drama they tend to produce, Leinster provided their fair share at the weekend.
At 15-0 and 20-3 up, they looked home and hosed but two converted tries moved the Premiership leaders to within three points with five minutes still to play.
Kelleher said: “It was a really tough game. It was very difficult to defend against them, particularly in that last 20 minutes, but I’m just happy we got over the line in the end.
“We were happy to get over the line, nervy ending, but I suppose we kind of parked it and enjoyed the occasion because we hadn’t really been able to soak much of it in.
“You’re playing at Croke Park, it’s obviously a massive occasion for so much of this group, who would have grown up playing Gaelic football.
“I’m sure there’s loads we could have done better. Off the top of my head, I suppose just defensively, getting those dead-stops is the big one, setting in our defensive line and getting ready to go again.
“You try to buy a bit of time in the tackle and then hopefully get your defensive line set but what they are really good at is shifting the point of contact, and keeping the ball alive with offloads or whatever.
“But it’s great for us now that happened. Loads of learnings are going to come from that game. I look forward to getting back to work on Monday and trying to fix a lot of the wrongs.”
Especially as Leinster do not want to find themselves on the losing side of a decider for the third successive year.
Kelleher said: “It is just making sure that we put our best foot forward in the final, leave no stone unturned and give ourselves the best opportunity of winning that final.
“Those experiences have really stood to us.
“We learned a lot of lessons and you probably saw some of them in that La Rochelle game in the quarters and just for us as a group that experience has been really good.
“As tough as it was to go through it has really stood to us now.”
FINAL FLURRY
Jordan Larmour is also convinced that Leinster’s lessons will stand to them with the winger keen to ensure they do not leave the field in London with any regrets.
He said: “You have that feeling of losing and you just don’t want to feel it again. It drives you on a bit.
“But it doesn’t really come into your thinking, for me anyway, ‘what happens if we lose?’ It’s more just focusing on the job at hand.
“The worst thing you can do is go out into a final and not fire any shots and go into your shell a little bit.
“That’s something we’ve talked about as a group, not going into our shell, backing what we’ve done, the prep during the week, how hard we train, the detail the coaches give us. If you focus on all that stuff, then the result takes care of itself.
“We’ve learned a lot about ourselves over the last few finals. Just about being in the moment when things aren’t going to plan.
“You can get a bit frantic and we’ve learned to use that, to try and get back to neutral, to try and get on the same page again.
“Talk about what’s going on – I think that’s something we’ve really grown as a group in doing.
“Handling the chaos, coming in a circle and realising what’s happening, saying it out loud so that we can get back on the same page. If we need to fix something up, we can do that.
“Anyone can say, ‘Come on, let’s go here.’ I think that becomes white noise fairly quickly.
“I think it’s more, what actions do we need to take? We need directions here.
“It’s going to be our third final in a row. We haven’t won one in a while. SO we’re going to do everything we can to do it.”