WHILE IT WAS a frustrating end to the spring international window for a large bulk of the squad, Leinster assistant coach Robin McBryde is hopeful the province’s Irish contingent can absorb the lessons from their recent Six Nations campaign as they aim to end the club season on a positive note.

In total, no fewer than 21 Leinster players featured for Ireland over the course of this year’s Championship. A Triple Crown had been wrapped up under interim head coach Simon Easterby just three rounds into the 2025 edition of the tournament, but after suffering a comprehensive defeat to France at the Aviva Stadium on 8 March, the three in-a-row chasing Irish finished third in the final standings.

Yet in addition to emphasising that this year’s Six Nations wasn’t all doom and gloom for Ireland, McBryde believes a recent team bonding excursion in Wicklow with former Cork hurler turned performance coach Ronan Conway has Leinster’s returning internationals in the right mindset for the business end of 2024/25.

“From my perspective, you’ve just won a Triple Crown. Okay, maybe it’s not what you wanted to end up with, but sometimes that’s life. You take on board the lessons learnt from that, do you know what I mean? They’ve had an experience that I haven’t had, that’s the question I asked them,” McBryde remarked at a Leinster media briefing in UCD yesterday.

“What’s the experience you’ve had that formed your views that, if I had had that experience, I’d be seeing the world exactly as you do. It’s about encouraging that flow. When they first came in with us, they’d a day with Ronan Conway who we’ve worked with before. He took them to a retreat to allow the players the space to have a chat and reconnect with each other after a week off.

“It’s important, you can’t be too critical of them. The expectation is up there. I get it because they’re professional athletes, but it’s tough. It’s fine margins sometimes, if you’re a little bit off you get caught out. It’s important that we learn those lessons, whatever they may be, and take them into the rest of the season.”

Although Ireland sealed the Triple Crown courtesy of a 27-18 win over Wales in Cardiff on 22 February, it was a much closer contest that some had anticipated. An Irish pack containing six starters from Leinster came under considerable pressure during the course of this game and it is expected the eastern province’s forwards will face a similar challenge from Harlequins in their Champions Cup Round of 16 clash at Croke Park on Saturday afternoon.

Part of Matt Sherratt’s interim coaching set-up for that showdown with Ireland, former Welsh prop Adam Jones has been working with Harlequins as a scrum and transition coach since 2018. McBryde is both a former team-mate and coach of Jones and with Quins head supremo Danny Wilson having spent a large chunk of his post-playing career in Wales, he has an idea of what awaits Leinster in GAA HQ this weekend.

“They’ve got a strong set-piece. They’re vastly experienced and Adam, deservedly so, was given an opportunity to share some of that experience in the Six Nations. I thought he did a great job with the pack.

“Similar to Danny, I know Danny as well, from his time in Wales. He’s got a good eye for detail. His attention to detail in or around the set-piece, from a lineout point of view as well. It’s going to be tough.”

Whilst head coach Leo Cullen remained in South Africa with an experimental squad for their United Rugby Championship duel with the Sharks in Durban on Saturday, McBryde, senior coach Jacques Nienaber and attack specialist Tyler Bleyendaal were putting another group of players (mostly comprising of those who featured extensively for Ireland in the Six Nations) through their paces at Leinster’s training base in UCD last week.

The cohort in the southern hemisphere did their chances of future selection no harm by helping Leinster to claim a 10-7 victory against the Sharks, but McBryde admitted it may be difficult for those players to feature in this weekend’s knockout bout with Harlequins.

“It’s not ideal from a travel point of view, but if someone is good enough then they’re good enough and they’re professional athletes as well. It is tough, but we’ve got to weigh that,” McBryde added.

“We’re taking it one game at a time, but we know that should we win on Saturday, the game the following week [a potential Champions Cup quarter-final] is on a Friday. So there’s a short turnaround there. Maybe that’s the time to change or whatever, but Harlequins first and foremost is on everyone’s mind.”

Daire Walsh