Dan Sheehan says there's no common theme across Leinster and Ireland’s big-game defeats this season.
The province provides most of the personnel to Andy Farrell’s national team and while Ireland have delivered exceptional performances against South Africa at the World Cup and France in the Six Nations, and Leinster beat back-to-back European champions La Rochelle home and away, three defeats stand out.
Ireland underperformed against the All Blacks with a World Cup semi-final on the line and failed to play to their usual standards with a potential historic double Grand Slam at stake against England in March.
And ten days ago, Leinster produced a performance way off their best, with numerous handling errors and turnovers costing them against Toulouse in the Champions Cup final.
Speaking after the match, Robbie Henshaw said the team were "not ourselves".
Ireland and Leinster employ performance coaches, Gary Keegan and Declan Darcy, respectively, both highly regarded by players and staff.
"I think everyone’s intent, you see in those games, is right at the top.
"It’s tough when you are playing a team that obviously has a plan to disrupt you and if that plan works, they’ll probably do well.
"I don’t think there’s been one specific theme over the last couple of years but we have definitely taken our lessons from each of those games and hopefully put them into practice when we come into these knockout games.
"Ultimately, it’s going to be the hardest game you play all season, finals are always going to have a different feel to it.
"We review each game and there are always different areas.
"One thing that always comes back is who can master the basics the best.
"You can fall into a trap of trying to do too much or having a plan that’s too intricate and then you forget about the small basics of game plan, territory, breakdown, carries and tackles."
Leinster finished third in the BKT URC table following the last round of games at the weekend.
A 33-7 victory over Connacht, in which Sheehan (above) scored Leinster’s fourth try, sets them up with an Aviva Stadium quarter-final against Ulster on Saturday (kick-off 5pm).
Richie Murphy’s side have already done the double over Leinster in the league this season and Sheehan said playing 'cup rugby’ against the visitors is crucial.
"Those conversations will be had during the week, but I think in knockout rugby it does change a little bit," he said.
"At the end of the day you just need to win so it doesn't need to be as glamourous as your in-season games.
"That will be the discussion this week about whether we go to the corner or take points and how we best apply scoreboard pressure.
"We have multiple options that we prepare during the week that we feel confident if we want to go for the corner or a tap-and-go penalty or something."
Leo Cullen’s side lost control of their own destiny in the URC run-in when going down 23-21 to Ulster at Ravenhill three weeks ago.
Leading by a point with 12 minutes to play, captain James Ryan (below) declined a kick at goal in favour of a lineout maul that was turned over before John Cooney landed a long-range penalty kick.
"We weren’t going to brush over that game," added the 25-year-old Ireland forward.
"You could easily just say ‘forget about that, it’s too ugly to look at’ but we looked at it in good detail last week and learned our lessons.
"We took it into last week. I thought you could see a good change in what we were focusing on.
"Definitely for the next couple of weeks hopefully, and for this Saturday against Ulster, still those points will be relevant, especially around the breakdown, our turnover rate is too high, last week as well against Toulouse."
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
