To Dan Leavy, going to the gym for a weights session with James Ryan on his week off makes all the sense in the world.
On Saturday, March 17, Leavy helped Ireland to only their third ever Grand Slam. That night, Sunday and Monday came the celebrations. Tuesday was time to reflect, and recover. By Wednesday morning, he was keen to get going again.
Johnny Sexton told The Left Wing a nice little story that reflected the different parts of the path he, Leavy and Ryan are on. The Leinster and Ireland outhalf had brought his children to a health and fitness facility for a swim when he spotted his teammates coming out after a gym session.
Reminded of the meeting, on Monday, Leavy commented:
“Yeah, myself and Cheese (ryan), we’re very good mates but we’re also pretty similar types of people. We’re both very driven and we both try to be as competitive as we can be.
“We had a week off and you’re kind of sitting around the house for one or two days, which is nice but you kind of get an itch to go again and get better.”
The Grand Slam did not satisfy that need. The PRO14 and Champions Cup are still there to be won.
Leavy was a week shy of his 18th birthday when Leinster won their third Heineken Cup final. It was third time lucky in four seasons but the European Cup has eluded them ever since.
Dan Leavy is eager to add Leinster success to his Grand Slam-winning season pic.twitter.com/XIPLDwXEKE
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 19, 2018
Leavy is hopeful that Leinster’s mix of experience, quality imports and young guns will mesh well over the coming weeks to claim the remaining two trophies on offer. If Leinster can go two steps future in league and cup, this season, it will make for a much better summer than 2017.
The flanker toured Japan and America with Ireland but admits the hurt from two lost semis and the rousing words of captain Isa Nacewa stuck with him. Following their PRO12 semi-final loss to Scarlets, Nacewa declared:
“I know the younger guys will learn from the last month we’ve had because it hurts and it is going to hurt all summer. And you have to take learnings from it and it has to hurt if we want to get better.”
Almost 12 months on, those last four losses still rankle with Leavy. He keenly recalls Nacewa’s parting comments as Leinster broke up for the summer of 2017. Leavy said:
“There was a bit of a sour taste at the end of the season, after so much good rugby and so many young players coming onto the scene and putting their hand up.
“It was bitter after that loss to Clermont. As a squad, we were that little bit fragmented and I don’t think we really bounced back as we should have come the Scarlets game. So we had to learn from that and try build so, this year, we could go one better and kick on.”
Such are the levels of performances and expectations around Leinster and Ireland’s newest generation of rugby pros that finishing the season with a Grand Slam but no provincial success would mean another bitter summer.
One suspects Leinster will not finish empty-handed again this season but Leavy and his teammates are taking nothing for granted.
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