WHILE IT WAS a tough one for him and his provincial team-mates to take, Robbie Henshaw has stressed that the Leinster squad are keen to move on from last month’s Champions Cup final defeat to Toulouse at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

An ever-present throughout the pool stages of the competition as well as the earlier knockout rounds, Henshaw also played every minute of their extra-time reversal to the Top 14 outfit in north London on 25 May. He had been hoping to add to the Champions Cup crown he secured back in 2018, but the Westmeath native ultimately suffered a fourth European showpiece loss in the Leinster colours – and the third in as many seasons with the Blues.

Instead of making a swift return to action against his former side Connacht at the RDS last Friday, Henshaw was part of a group that did an extensive review of their 31-22 loss at the hands of Toulouse. This consequently helped to put him and the rest of his idle colleagues in the right frame of mind heading into the business end of the United Rugby Championship.

“I think everyone is keen to just push on and move on from what happened in London. I think we did a great review as a small group on the Friday of the Connacht game. We had some good learnings from that, but I think we’ve all moved on now and we’ve all parked it,” Henshaw remarked at a Leinster media briefing in UCD on Monday.

“It’s always tough looking back. There were definitely a lot of opportunities that we missed [against Toulouse], particularly in that first half when we were on their line a few times. Had good entries into their ‘22’ and didn’t convert. Big chances there that we left and that probably came back to bite us in the end.”

When you consider it was on 18 June of last year that Ireland head coach Andy Farrell first brought his summer training squad together for the first block of pre-season training in preparation for the Rugby World Cup in France – and the warm-up games that preceded it – Henshaw and the majority of his international compatriots in the Leinster squad already have a long season of rugby under their belts.

Yet as he gets ready to face Ulster in an United Rugby Championship quarter-final at the Aviva Stadium this Saturday (kick-off 5pm), Henshaw insisted that maintaining sharpness in the closing stages of 2023/24 will be as much of a mental challenge as a physical one.

“I think players and management are well aware it has been a long season. We are not chasing anything down in training. There are a lot of miles on the clock. A lot of games in the bank already. When you come to that last few games, it’s more about being fresh, about being mentally sharp.

“You carry knocks throughout the season, in a long season particularly. I think we are into a year since we started prep for the World Cup. We got together in June. Players are aware that there have been a lot of games played.”

This weekend in Irish Rugby HQ, Leinster will come face-to-face with an Ulster side that are seeking a third win against their interprovincial rivals in the current edition of the URC. Henshaw was playing when Leo Cullen’s men lost out to the northern province on New Year’s Day at the RDS, but their upcoming opponents have undergone significant change since then.

Less than two months on from that victory, Dan McFarland stepped down as Ulster head coach with Richie Murphy subsequently stepping into the hot seat following the conclusion of Ireland’s U20 Six Nations campaign.

Initially drafted into the set-up on an interim basis, the Wicklow man has since been appointed as a permanent replacement for McFarland and guided Ulster to a sixth-place finish in the URC regular season standings. Having worked with Murphy during his time as skills and kicking coach in the Ireland senior set-up, Henshaw is expecting Ulster to be a tough proposition for Leinster on Saturday.

“He’s a good coach and you can see his work is paying off there. They’re getting better and better under him. I think he knows a lot about how we play as well. He has coached us for a number of years in the Irish set-up, so he’ll have I suppose good intel on us coming into this week,” Henshaw added.

“We’ll need to be ready to go against him and I think he’ll have a few trick plays up his sleeve as well. I think they will be a challenge for us this week in the Aviva. We’ll be keen to go out strong and play our best rugby against them, because they have had two wins against us this season.”

Daire Walsh