Leinster welcome Scarlets to the Aviva this afternoon looking to get one step closer to their fourth European title.
Unbeaten to this point, Leo Cullen’s men come into today Champions Cup semi-final (3.30pm) as 1/5 favourites and while some warn that price is askew, the paper-trail argument is convincing.
They topped Pool 3 on 27 points beating Montpellier (Top 14 leaders), Glasgow (best of the Pro14 teams) and Exeter (top of the Premiership) home and away.
The prize for that feat was a home tie against the back-to-back winners Saracens, it couldn’t have been much tougher.
However, Leinster maintained their high standards and were worthy 11-point winners at Lansdowne Road over the powerhouse English outfit.
Amazingly, that means that the Blues have beaten the current Top 14, Pro14, Premiership league leaders and Champions Cup holders to date.
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All of this was achieved without Sean O’Brien, whose season is over, and a lot of it without Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw and Josh van der Flier, who missed out at various stages through injury.
All questions asked have been answered emphatically.
Twelve of the starting XV are Grand Slam winners and there are five more on the bench.
There’s more.
Leinster’s average of 3.6 tries per game is the highest of any of the four remaining teams and they have the best disciplinary record of all, conceding just 7.6 penalties per match.
Of the seven times they have met the Scarlets in Europe, they’ve won five.
You can't read anything into their recent Pro14 meetings which came in the middle of the Six Nations but Leinster won at home (20-13) and a 10-10 draw in Wales.
This will be the home side's tenth semi-final appearance, while the Scarlets have been in three, each time failing to progress.
How Leinster must wish rugby was played on paper.
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On the other side it would have been hard to envisage Scarlets getting this far after the round three.
By then they had been beaten by Toulon away and Bath at home. They scraped past Treviso at home in the next round at Parc y Scarlets.
So far, so what? One might have thought.
But as impressive as Leinster were in beating all comers, Scarlets last two games have been stirring wins over Toulon and La Rochelle.
However, both those games were at home and if they hadn’t beaten both Leinster and Munster in Dublin last season more emphasis would have been placed on the travelling issue.
They are, of course, slightly sore that the designated neutral venue is Lansdowne Road – a place that Johnny Sexton, for example, has played at and won at seven times this season for club and country.
In contrast he has started just twice at the RDS for the Blues.
That complaint is upheld.
Luckily coach Wayne Pivac (above) has provided this little nugget to ensure that the home support, as it was against Saracens, is on point.
The Kiwi said: "The location of the stadium as a neutral venue? Look there will be plenty of support for the locals I am sure, they won’t have too far to travel, but I know one Scarlets supporter probably makes up for 10 of the opposition."
In team news the main loss for Leinster is scrum-half Luke McGrath, who has not recovered from an ankle injury in time.
The knock-on effect is that Jamison Gibson-Park comes in and James Lowe become the odd Kiwi out due to the rules of the competition.
The hosts are boosted by the return, sooner than expected, of Robbie Henshaw, who starts at first centre, Isa Nacewa drifting out to the wing.
Scarlets have named Wales full-back Leigh Halfpenny and Tom Prydie on the wings, outside of Rhys Patchell at 15 with Dan Jones standing in at out-half.
Many eyes will focus on ex-Leinster man Tadhg Beirne, a player of the season nominee, who has won five more turnovers (16) than any other player this season.
The second row revelled in the Aviva final against Munster, the team he will join soon, last season and would love a repeat showing.
Scarlets' lack of fear makes them extremely dangerous but if Leinster can put what the Welsh can do out of their mind then they will be better set to win.
Sure, Scarlets have impressed, sure they’re not afraid, but they are still not at the level Leinster have reached this year.
The win over Saracens was meant as a statement – Leinster can beat the best team in Europe for the last two years by playing their own game.
That’s what Cullen will have been hammering into the team all week: stick to the plan, it’s Scarlets who have to beat us, let them try.
"(A final) is everything that we’ve built towards," said Sexton.
"From the start of the season what we’ve talked about. We reviewed those games [semi-final defeats against Scarlets and Clermont], even in the summer, with the coaches and we learned a lot of lessons in them.
"We learned a lot of hard truths.
"Maybe if we succeed this year we’ll look back at those two games and think that was the moment that we won something this year."
But don’t us Irish love to be underdogs? Isn’t that our thing?
Dealing with favouritism has been a problem with Irish teams over the years. In fact, as we recapped on earlier this week, the Welsh just love upsetting the applecart.
That’s mostly been in versions of what is now the Guinness Pro14 but it still shows that if Leinster don’t get up to the pitch of the game early, then there’s plenty of danger afoot.
However, all things being equal, Leinster are a better team, all they have to do is prove it.
Leinster: Rob Kearney; Fergus McFadden, Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, Isa Nacewa; Johnny Sexton, Jamison Gibson-Park; Cian Healy, Seán Cronin, Tadhg Furlong; Devin Toner, James Ryan; Scott Fardy, Dan Leavy, Jordi Murphy.
Replacements: James Tracy, Jack McGrath, Andrew Porter, Ross Molony, Jack Conan, Nick McCarthy, Joey Carbery, Jordan Larmour.
Scarlets: Rhys Patchell; Leigh Halfpenny, Scott Williams, Hadleigh Parkes, Steff Evans; Dan Jones, Gareth Davies; Rob Evans, Ken Owens; Samson Lee, Tadhg Beirne, David Bulbring; Aaron Shingler, James Davies, John Barclay.
Replacements: Ryan Elias, Dylan Evans, Werner Kruger, Lewis Rawlins, Steve Cummins, Aled Davies, Steff Hughes, Will Boyde.
Referee: Romain Poite (Fra)
Follow Leinster v Scarlets via our live blog on RTÉ.ie and the News Now App (kick-off 3.30pm), or hear live updates on RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport. Follow Racing 92 v Munster (kick-off 3.15pm) via our live blog or listen to live and exclusive radio commentary on RTÉ Radio 1's Sunday Sport.
