Emmanuel Meafou has warned that Toulouse have learned their lessons as they prepare for an Investec Champions Cup rematch with Leinster on Saturday.
The tournament's two most successful teams meet in the Champions Cup final this Saturday, as Leinster once again look to draw level with Toulouse's record of five titles, having been denied in the final by La Rochelle in each of the last two seasons.
Leo Cullen's side made light work of Toulouse in the semi-finals of 2022 and 2023, winning 40-17 and 41-22 at the Aviva Stadium, before coming up short in the decider.
Meafou says they owe the province a performance.
"We're definitely not the same players and same team," the second row says, reflecting on their semi-final defeats at the Aviva Stadium.
Toulouse, Leinster and La Rochelle have played out a fascinating triangle of power in recent seasons. Up until this year, La Rochelle consistently had Leinster's number, while losing multiple finals to Toulouse. Stade Toulousain, meanwhile, have always struggled against the province.
Ugo Mola's side beat Leinster when they met in France in the pool stage in October 2019, but have lost their last four meetings in Dublin, three of which have been European semi-finals.
Their 2022 semi-final hammering was partially blamed on their grueling win over Munster the week previous, with the pair having needed extra-time and a place-kicking competition to separate them. There were no such excuses when the French side returned to the Aviva 12 months later, and again shipped 40 points.
"I'm not sure [what went wrong], there was a bunch of stuff. Reviewing our games now, we've definitely sat down and said 'we haven't had a good game against Leinster'. Leinster's a quality team and we just weren't ready for those games.
"A mixture of things; inexperience, ill-discipline. Last year we played with two yellow cards, and it's hard to win a final when you're down a player. We've grown as a team and in this team, there's a lot of players who have played those past two games," he added.
The 25-year-old knows a repeat of those defeats isn't an option for Toulouse, who have scorched their way to this year's final, scoring 311 points, an average of 44 per game.
The French international, who grew up in Australia, has been on the books of Toulouse since 2018, and says he has come to learn that contending for - and winning - silverware is an expectation for the club, rather than a desire.
"I think when you come here, everyone wants to win, but here it's definitely an expectation. They're historically successful and want to keep it that way.
"When there's a loss or bad game - even if we do win - it's expected to win and win convincingly. That's always the bar, and we set it high. We don't aim for anything lower than a win, and a good win. We know what we're capable of, and the guys aim high.
"As for this weekend, even though our success rate against Leinster hasn't been good, we're a different team than we were three years ago and four years ago, and we keep getting better.
"We like our chances, and we're going to give it our best," Meafou said.
Standing at 6ft 8in and weighing roughly 145kg, Meafou will have a large say in whether or not Toulouse do win this weekend, but all eyes will be on the scrum-halves.
Leinster's Jamison Gibson-Park has emerged as one of the best scrum-halves in the game in recent seasons. On current form, the only scrum-half better then him will be his opposite number this weekend, Toulouse skipper Antoine Dupont.
"I think you guys don't even see half of what he’s capable of," Meafou added, of Dupont.
"He does some unbelievable things in training, but it’s not even a shock anymore, we’re more just left shaking our heads, in disbelief.
"The boys joke around and call him 'The Martian', because they say he’s not from Earth, he’s an alien.
"So he does some stuff at training, where you can’t do anything but shake your head and just wish that you could do that too.
"But I think the stuff he’s done in games is only half of what he’s capable of, he does some things in training where you just don’t understand it. He’s a really humble guy, he’s grown into that leadership spot.
"He’s got all the qualities anyone could need in a rugby player and it shows in his game."
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