Leo Cullen admits he's relishing a pop at the reigning Champions Cup holders Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park tomorrow (5.30pm).
The meeting of Leinster - the 2018 champions - and the current champs is probably the tie of the quarter-finals, with Exeter winning last week and Leinster getting a bye due to the late Covid drama in Dublin regarding Toulon.
Cullen has made one change from the side that he was going to start with last week, with the experienced Scott Fardy brought back into the side in place of young Ryan Baird, but the matchday 23 remains the same as for the cancelled Toulon game.
“It was unusual, the way last week played out in the end," Cullen said: "We had a meeting on the Friday morning about the Toulon game.
“It was difficult. You can feel for Toulon, but the decisions were made very much out of our control.
“For our guys then, they came in that afternoon. It was more just about informing them really as to what was going on. Anyway, we just move onto the next thing.
“We have had a decent week this week in terms of prepping and getting ready for Exeter. We know it's going to be a huge challenge, but this is what it's all about really isn't it?
“You get to this stage of the tournament, playing against the best teams in Europe.
"Exeter being the champions of Europe currently, so yeah, we know this is a massive test for us, but as I said, this is what you want to be involved in – these big days against the best in Europe.
“We got to watch a lot of the other games over the course of the weekend and now we will obviously have to play in one ourselves.
“You can see some great contests over the course of the weekend. We are excited to get going at this point.”
Exeter haven't beaten Leinster in four attempts but Cullen knows that the back to back wins in late 2017 ahead of the Blues' last European triumph were close affairs, and that the Chiefs under Rob Baxter have only improved since then.
“I definitely do believe that the group is as motivated as ever," insisted the Leinster head coach, who must still plan without James Ryan, Caelan Doris, Garry Ringrose and Will Connors.
"It’s such fine margins on the day. Every team in the last eight have a strong desire to go on and win it outright.
"But who has done the work over the course of the season get us to this point? And who is going to deliver on the day? Our form is unusual going into this game because we played that PRO14 final off the back of the Six Nations where we didn’t have players for a long chunk of time.
"So it is a little bit unusual."
Cullen added: “It’s a totally different challenge. We’ll travel over there now and try to give the best account of ourselves because it means a huge amount to the people here. I know there’ll be no supporters in the ground and definitely that is the missing piece of what is an amazing tournament.
“You think back to some of the great days in the tournament, with the colour and the crowds of some of the great teams involved. You can pictures the colours I’m sure yourselves. Blue is the colour that we like! But there’s other colours that would spring to mind I think it’s fair to say as well.
“If you think back to Sandy Park and have a big travelling support of Leinster jerseys going over there as well it would be fantastic to see and two teams trying to represent where they come from.
“That’s an important part of this tournament that I think separates from other tournaments because I think there are so many teams who have a strong identity with the tournament which adds that extra bit of motivation for teams to do well.”
Leinster : H Keenan, J Larmour, R O'Loughlin, R Henshaw, J Lowe, J Sexton, L McGrath; C Healy, R Kelleher, T Furlong, D Toner, S Fardy, R Ruddock, J van der Flier, J Conan.
Replacements : J Tracy, E Byrne, A Porter, R Molony, R Baird, H O'Sullivan, R Byrne, D Kearney.
