“We’re going to cop a lot of shite for this in the coming week, I’m guessing, but we have to be prepared to handle that and take learnings and go forward.”
May 19th 2017 and Isa Nacewa sat in front of a packed room on one of his toughest evenings as Leinster captain.
An underdog Scarlets team had come to The RDS and blown Leinster off the park. The Blues had reached two semi finals but fell to Clermont and Scarlets in the space of a few weeks.
Nacewa was livid and he did not even bother to hide it.
“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.
“And I’m 100% confident in the group we have, going forward, that we’ll take learnings from these tough days.”
A couple of months shy of 11 months later and Leinster are back in another semi final. Scarlets await and that should be an absolute humdinger but the Irish side look better set than last year, when the double was left slip away.
Those young men that Nacewa mentioned – guys like James Ryan, Dan Leavy, Andrew Porter, Joey Carbery, Garry Ringrose, Luke McGrath, Rory O’Loughlin and more – were all in the matchday squad as a fearsome Saracens side were disposed of, 30-19.
Following the Saracens game, Nacewa spoke of the impact those young men had on Leinster’s European resurgence. He said:
“They are absolutely [the ones stepping up]. We take those learnings seriously. Look at guys like James Tracy, Dan Leavy, those guys went through those times. A lot of those younger lads have now won a Grand Slam.
“James Ryan, in particular, and those guys… they come back and the hunger is huge. It’s up to learning from those places where you fell down. It’s about getting up and going again. A lot of those young guys add a huge level of enthusiasm to the squad, at the moment.”
Enthusiasm, vigour, thrust and no end of talent.
Leinster were good but not good enough in 2017.
In 2018, they look good enough to go the distance.
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