Robbie Henshaw insists Leinster are putting pressure on themselves to reach the Champions Cup summit again.
The Blues kick-off their latest attempt to win that fifth star on the jersey against Bath at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday afternoon, followed by a tough encounter in Montpelier the following Friday.
When they returned to the top of European club rugby's tree in 2018, another period of dominance looked a possibility.
But a lot has changed in the meantime. The emergence of Covid, for one. And Leinster are yet to replicate those joyous scenes from Bilbao when they beat Racing to win the competition for a fourth time.
"I know, it's crazy when you look back and see the highlights of the game, how different things are now," reflected Henshaw.
The Athlone man says that if he has kids down the line, when he tells them about these days he will advise them to "make the most out of your life because you don't know what's going to happen."
He is certainly making the most of his playing days, having really come into his own over the past 12 months and delivered on that rich promise he showed as a young player.
That much was confirmed by his peers on Friday, who voted him the Zurich Players' Player of the Year for 2021.
Leinster had 12 starters in the Ireland team that beat the All Blacks last month and so will feel confident about their chances in the Champions Cup.
But eventually they will roll up against one of Europe's powerhouses again.
Having lost to Saracens twice and La Rochelle at the business end of the tournament over the last three years, the Blues are eager to show they have adapted to what's required.
"It's probably at the top of our goals, to get back to that Heineken Champions Cup and win it, to get that fifth star is huge for us," said Henshaw.
"The last few seasons we've learned a lot about coming up against the big, physical teams, the Saracens and the La Rochelles, so that's what we're going to have to come up against again.
"I suppose we just have to learn and to be able to deal with them. We won't have them yet but the Champions Cup is full of them.
"Bath are definitely a dangerous team if they get front foot ball and get some space.
"Montpelier are playing really well and are a tough team to break down.
"One, our discipline needs to be good, and two, our set piece and breakdown – we need to be top of the bus.
"We are definitely looking at ourselves and putting ourselves under that pressure that we really want to get back to having that success from before.
"In Bilbao, beating Racing was an incredible feeling and I think we want to get back there. We're doing our best to do it this year."
Henshaw is hopeful that the Covid situation as it stands will not further disrupt clubs over the next few weeks.
"Hopefully this new variant is not going to be too detrimental to our sport and we can still get the fans in and still keep playing away games," he said.
"But when you see the likes of Munster, that's definitely a tough situation to be going into.
"Hopefully, the league doesn't suffer as a result.
"That's probably our concern as well - what's going to happen to the South African teams now? Are they going to be based up here, or what's going to happen there?".
