Dan Leavy reveals how Leinster have moved to the verge of European Champions Cup glory

The flanker has risen up the pecking order and will almost certainly start when Leinster take on Racing 92 in the final

Dan Leavy was speaking ahead of the European Champions Cup final (Getty)

You could not hear it at the time, above the exultant roars of thousands of Leinster supporters, but when Dan Leavy bolted through a gaping hole in Saracens’ defence to score the game-breaking try in this season’s European Champions Cup quarter-finals, there were gasps of astonishment among the English brethren watching in Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. Not many teams take Sarries apart like that.

It confirmed how Leinster’s combination of more than a dozen of Ireland’s 2018 Six Nations Grand Slam team, plus the coaching cohort led by Leo Cullen and a certain Stuart Lancaster, once a pillar of an English parish, has got the province buzzing again.

Fast forward a few weeks, and we find Leavy, arguably the brightest star of a spectacular year to date for the Irish, contemplating the Champions Cup final against Racing 92 in Bilbao this weekend, having helped see off Scarlets in the semi-finals even more comprehensively than Saracens were knocked out in the round before. And Leavy is fully appreciative of Lancaster, working under the title of Leinster’s senior coach.

“Stuart has been fantastic,” says Leavy in an audience with English-based journalists keen for an inside track on the former England head coach. “He came in and revolutionised the way we train and the standards we expect of each other. We train at a very high intensity, so when it comes to games it is manageable. If you’re working really hard, testing yourself mentally and physically non-stop at a really high pace, when it comes to the game you are more conditioned to it, and you feel like you almost have a little bit more time.

“He brings an insight to the Aviva Premiership sides - how they work, how they tick. We’re blessed with the coaches we have here. Leo and Stuart are both really, really good.”

It is a tribute to Lancaster’s recovery from the extremely low ebb of his bruising ejection with England at the pool stage of the 2015 World Cup, and subsequent sacking by the Rugby Football Union. But did he arrive at Leinster fully-formed, in September 2016, less than a year later? “He was very confident, he is sure in his ways,” Leavy confirms. “He came in and told people how we needed to change and evolve as a team. We all have huge faith in him as well. Because he told us what to do and when we do it, we win. We’ve come on leaps and bounds, and really evolved as a team since he’s come in.”

Leavy’s try against Saracens, exchanging snappy passes with fellow tyro James Ryan at the side of a ruck, drew a verdict from Cullen to rub salt gently into the now ex-champions’ wounds. “Dan is clever at spying some of those windows,” said Cullen, “and Saracens have presented that defensive picture a few times this season.”

Last season the picture was not so rosy, as Leinster lost semi-finals in Europe and the PRO14. “We didn’t finish what we needed to do,” says Leavy. “We sat down at the end and said we weren’t happy enough with that. We want to win and we’re going to strive to do that.” The Bilbao final plus the title play-offs in the PRO14, in which Leinster will host Munster in the last four, will determine whether this mission will be accomplished.

Leavy finished the Saracens quarter-final with the classic happy rugby player’s look - a golf-ball-sized shiner over his right eye, accompanied by a broad grin. But he was arguably Ireland’s fourth-choice openside flanker going into the Six Nations Championship in early February, behind Sean O'Brien, Rhys Ruddock and Josh van der Flier.

A batch of injuries to his Leinster colleagues gave the former Ireland Under-20 captain his shot, and Leavy took it with his battering commitment round the fringes, complemented by subtle touches and dazzling foot speed in open play.

Dan Leavy has been in outstanding form (Getty)

Plus there is a brimming confidence and likeable vivacity to the 23-year-old, as seen when he did a somersault diving on top of his Ireland team-mates to celebrate Johnny Sexton's match-winning dropped goal in France, to kick-start the Six Nations success.

So Leavy is respectfully impressed by the photos of Leinster’s three-time Champions Cup winners on the walls of their training base at University College, Dublin.

But he knows as well as anyone the coaching transition from Michael Cheika (in charge for the 2009 win) via Joe Schmidt, who oversaw the 2011 and 2012 victories, and Matt O’Connor to the current regime. Plus, of course, the legion of freshly-minted “boys in blue”: the many players including Leavy, Garry Ringrose, Tadhg Furlong, James Ryan, Jack McGrath, Andrew Porter, Jordan Larmour and Joey Carbery to have made their mark since 2012.

“Although there is a continuation it does feel like this is a new team and we’re starting to put our hand up now,” says Leavy. “We are coming up against another quality side in Racing. It's the same game, just at a higher intensity and I'm looking forward to it.

“Johnny [Sexton] obviously played for Racing as well. Maybe that adds a little bit more spice for him. But everyone wants to win a Champions Cup regardless, no matter who you’re playing against.

“Racing are an incredible team with a lot of big names and big-game experience. They were French champions in 2016 and finalists as well in the Champions Cup [losing to Saracens] that year.

“Their strength in depth is pretty incredible and you know they’re sitting second at the moment in the Top 14 with the best defence in the league. It definitely will need an extra gear to break them.”

Racing will be missing their injured scrum-half and regular goal-kicker, Maxime Machenaud, for the final and Leavy says: “They have incredible strength in depth but he is a loss. He's a leader for them and is a great player. You never celebrate when someone gets injured and I can feel for him as a player. I’ve been in the same position and I wish him the best with his recovery, But we'll take it as it is. We still have a huge test ahead of us.”

Sexton teasingly compared Leavy with Rocky Elsom, the Australian flanker hero of Leinster’s 2009 team, after Leavy missed a training session in the week leading to the semi-final thrashing of Scarlets, but still turned on a brilliant performance.

“It’s actually rich from Johnny, because Johnny never trains - he kind of does what he wants,” Leavy responds with a laugh. “I missed one day’s training that week so I got a lot of heat off the lads but I wouldn’t look into that.”

As for the notion proposed to Leavy that it would be good to win the cup for Sexton against his French former confreres, Leavy chuckles: “I want to win it for myself. And I want to win it for the team.”