With Leinster set to face Northampton in a historic Champions Cup clash at Croke Park tomorrow afternoon, their players have been getting familiar with their new surroundings ahead of the fixture.
Leinster will enter the game as big favourites. Not only have they been perhaps the form team in European competition this season, but they will also have the added advantage of playing the match in Dublin.
Of course, with the Aviva Stadium out of commission due to the upcoming Europa League final, Croke Park is now set to host its first club rugby game in 15 years. On that occasion, Leinster would overcome Munster to book their place in the final. They will no doubt be hoping for a similar result this time around.
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Leinster stars show off GAA skills at Croke Park
While no members of the current Leinster squad would have played rugby at Croke Park before, they were given the chance to acclimatise themselves at Jones' Road during their captain's run earlier today.
They went through all the usual pre-match festivities, although there was an added activity that paid homage to the venue of this particular fixture.
The Leinster players would also play a bit of Gaelic football during the captain's run.
Leinster warm up at Croke Park ahead of captain's run before #ChampionsCup semi-final at Croke Park #RTERugby #LEIvNOR pic.twitter.com/oLMyR7aPrj
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) May 3, 2024
A few lads in there that would be handy to have sweeping up ball in the middle of the field.
A number of the Leinster players seemed to enjoy the change of pace that came with the unfamiliar shape of ball.
3 May 2024; Caelan Doris with a gaelic football during a Leinster Rugby captain's run at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
3 May 2024; James Lowe kicks a gaelic football during a Leinster Rugby captain's run at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Speaking to the media soon after that, stand-in Leinster captain Caelan Doris said that he was looking forward playing at what is an 'iconic stadium':
I have been in the stands plenty of times for some good days as well as plenty of bad ones.
It's class, it is an iconic stadium for Irish culture. We feel very fortunate as a group to have a crack there tomorrow.
We have Declan Darcy (Leinster performance coach & former Leitrim and Dublin footballer) in with us, who has been with us for the last couple of years.
His message to us was [Croke Park] magnifies your performance, whether it is a good one or a bad one.
Our plan, our prep over the last two weeks has been about getting our best performance and hopefully that will get the crowd involved, build an atmosphere and make it a special days for us.
It’s been a good couple of weeks prep and we are excited for tomorrow.
With a sellout crowd of over 82,000 people expected to show up for the game, it should make for a fantastic occasion.
Here's hoping that Leinster can cap it off with a victory.
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