Despite a comprehensive win over Castres, Leinster boss Matt O’Connor knows his side face an altogether different challenge against Wasps on Saturday.
The sides clash in the final pool game at the Ricoh Arena (1pm) where a win for the visitors would practically assure a home quarter-final.
While Leinster received plaudits for their 50-8 win over the French strugglers, O’Connor has taken into account the effort, or lack thereof, put in by Castres.
He told RTÉ Sport: “We looked at it and it was probably a little bit of its own entity. We didn’t dwell on it too much. There was an end game that we wanted to achieve last week – four tries and a bonus point – and we achieved that, thankfully.
“It has given us really good focus and clarity on what we need to deliver on. From that end, all we’ve got to do is go and win the game but that will be tough because they’re a good side.
“But if we can do enough to get the points we’ll end up at home in a quarter-final and that was the objective at the start of the pool stages so it’s right there in front of us, we’ve got make sure that we do it justice. It’s a very, very different contest this week.”
"All we’ve got to do is go and win the game"
The three-time European champions shaded the first meeting of the sides in October and O’Connor admits that if Wasps hit top gear they will be very difficult to overcome.
“They’ve been very good, their set-piece is strong, incredibly aggressive, talented back row and very, very dangerous wingers,” he said.
“We have to make sure we manage all those moments and ensure that across the board, we are accurate the whole time because if you get it wrong, as Quins found out, Wasps are a very dangerous side.
“[Our squad have] worked very hard to get us into this position, the whole squad. When we were down to bare bones early in round one and two there was a distinct plan to make sure that we were good enough to win those games and give ourselves every chance.
“The confidence has grown the longer the season has gone.
“Those key leaders and decision-makers will be really important when the stakes are high. We’re going to need quality decisions and guys to put us in the right areas and execute on the big plays, and thankfully we’ve got an abundance of those.
“Home quarter-finals is what you want out of the pool stages. If we could bring anyone back here in the quarter-final we’d be pretty confident, in the bodies we’ll have at the time, of doing enough to get a result.”
The returning Cian Healy and Sean O’Brien were both mentioned as possible contenders for a squad place but O’Connor felt that they wouldn’t be up to the level required as they near the end of their recovery periods.
“With a game of this magnitude we probably needed to give them a little bit more time to get some rugby under their belt,” added the Australian.
