Friday 11 May 2018 19:13, UK
Leinster playmaker Johnny Sexton has admitted his mind has wandered to what might be in their Champions Cup final against Racing 92, but says such thoughts must be quashed if they are to win on Saturday.
The 32-year-old has won three European Cup titles with his home province in 2009, 2011 and 2012, and Leinster will equal Toulouse's record of four triumphs should they get past Sexton's former side Racing in Bilbao.
Leinster have not won silverware in any competition since the PRO12 title in 2014, losing four semi-finals and one final in that time. While the temptation to dream is very real, Sexton says he and his team-mates must resist such feelings.
"Your mind wanders during the week, it can take you different places," Sexton said at Friday's press conference. "Why do you want to win the game? Is it for Isa [Nacewa] in his last European game? For the injured players? But none of that really matters. It's about performing.
"You can get to dreaming and thinking about things you shouldn't. You've got to use it as motivation a little bit but then park them.
"If you think about the last time we won the trophy and how long it's been, that's a distraction. You have to go out there and play. We have to top our quarter-final, semi-final performances because we know we're going to have to go to another level to win the game tomorrow.
"Ultimately, if you want to feel fulfilled at the end of the game you have to play well as an individual, as a team and you have to win. And it's in that order of importance: take care of your own job, do your best for the team and hopefully the result will follow.
"I get nervous the week of a final. You wake up the week of a big game and you feel different. Sleep can be a struggle, nerves can be a struggle, but you've just got to try focus your attention on getting what's important right. On putting all your energy into that and leaving all the distractions and hype to one side.
"The older you get the nerves get worse but the way you deal with them is probably a bit better."
To get to this point, Leinster have beaten the current leaders of the Top 14 (Montpellier), the Premiership (Exeter Chiefs), PRO14 Conference A (Glasgow Warriors), the double reigning European champions (Saracens) and the reigning PRO12/14 champions (Scarlets).
Even still, their performance must improve if they are to lift the trophy, according to Sexton.
"We can't go out and play like we did against Scarlets, we need to change it up a bit but still keep the fundamentals of our game the same," he said.
"That's the big challenge. Can you beat a Scarlets-type team and then beat a team like Racing, who are very different.
"That's what champion teams do and we'll find out tomorrow if we can do that."
Ahead of the final, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen has made two changes to their XV from the side that beat Scarlets in the semi-final in Dublin, as Luke McGrath comes in at scrum-half and Jordan Larmour replaces the injured Fergus McFadden on the right wing.
Jamison Gibson-Park's presence among the replacements means wing James Lowe cannot feature once again.
"There's a lot of factors [behind selection]," said Cullen. "I thought Jamison did very well in the semi-final against Scarlets and in many ways he's unlucky not to start the game.
"Scott [Fardy] has come in and been a really good addition to the forwards, he's a good leader in the group. It was not an easy decision. Many times during the course of the season it's been a complication, but we feel those two lads will go well for us tomorrow.
"It's not just James [Lowe], there's a whole host of players we had difficult conversations with this week. We've used 37 players in the eight games so far, in our domestic competition we've used 55, so it takes a huge amount to get to this stage.
"The players have fought hard for each other this year but with that competitive environment, there are always going to be people who miss out. There are lads here today who travelled with the squad who won't get to play tomorrow."
For Cullen, who will bid with Racing coach Laurent Travers to become the first individual in history to win the European Cup as a player and coach, the final has paired two teams contrasting in style and culture.
"They have a lot of very powerful players," he said. "They have very dangerous broken field runners. We know Nakarawa from his time at Glasgow in the PRO12, and his ability to suck in defenders and get the ball away and have players able to play through the line, he's a clear threat.
"When you've got Dan Carter on the bench, it says it all really as for what Racing have built over the last seven or eight years and what they've assembled in terms of an expensive bunch of players. We have to do things slightly differently in Leinster where we produce guys from within mainly and bring in a couple of key signings from overseas.
"It's a clash of styles over how you assemble a squad. We're under no illusions it's a very formidable bunch of players we will be up against tomorrow.
"It's one of the great challenges that we face as a club going forward. You look at some of the French teams and the resources they have available, the calibre of players they've been signing over the last number of years. It's a great challenge for us.
"We didn't have a game last weekend which meant we were able to manage the group and try and keep people as fresh as possible. That's the big thing. We're physically and mentally ready for what the players are going to face.
"What an immense challenge it will be, but that's why everyone in the club has worked so hard over the last number of seasons. It's been tough sometimes watching these semis and finals and not being in them.
"Now it's about doing the things that have worked to get us here in the first place and hopefully the players can execute it on the day."
