The days of stopping Leinster by stopping Johnny Sexton are over, according to Leicester scrum-half Ben Youngs.
The sides, who have six Heineken Champions Cups between them, face off at Mattioli Woods Welford Park on Saturday at 5.30pm.
The 36-year-old out-half has been central to Ireland and Leinster's success over the last 13 years and previously the belief was that nullifying his treat would go halfway to beating the four-time winners.
"That’s not something I believe," said Tigers and England scrum-half Ben Youngs when the proposition was put to him.
"I just think that as a half back if you get front-foot ball then your job becomes easier.
"From our point of view, it is not necessarily about stopping Johnny, even though he is very important to them.
"It is about minimising the amount of times he has front-foot ball, minimising the amount of times he and Jamison Gibson-Park have quick ball because they will punish us. It is never about stopping an individual.
"It is about stopping them from being at their best. One way for a half-back is trying to win collisions and slow down the speed of ball because they are a massive possession-based team. We have got a bit of a job on our hands to stop that."
Youngs and Sexton were half-back partners on the 2013 Lions tour of Australia and England’s most capped player says he is a big admirer of Sexton’s resilience.
"It comes from within, his ability to still produce and perform comes from his ability to still strive and constantly want more," said the 32-year-old.
"He’s achieved pretty much everything from a personal point of view, World player of the year, Grand Slams, Six Nations titles, European Cups, domestic leagues, so he’s done a huge amount.
"He still has a huge amount of self-drive. I applaud that and massively respect.
"The more experience you have and the more things you essentially do the more people want to move you aside and let the next guys in and he’s never dropped his performance, he’s always got better.
"He’s still an absolute key cog for Ireland let alone Leinster. He’s someone I fully respect."
Leinster were Leicester's opponents the last time the Tigers, winners in 2001 and 2002, reached the final.
That was back in 2009 when Leinster, under head coach Michael Cheika, broke their European duck with a 19-16 win in Murrayfield.
"I was a travelling reserve so I did the warm-up and was able to experience the atmosphere and watch from the stands," said Youngs, whose side sit atop of the Premiership and have won all six of their European games this season, including a double over Connacht.
"I remember bits of it, Alesano Tuilagi and the Leinster winger [Shane Horgan] had a bit of a [tussle].
"Sexton’s drop-goal and certain bits. It was pretty close and we came up short.
"Leinster are steeped in the history of Europe. Leo Cullen [Leinster head coach] played in Leicester so he knows what to expect and he can feed that to the players but a lot of those guys have played international rugby, they’ve got vast experience.
"It’s going to be a monumental effort. It’s great to be back and part of a team that’s got big game like this.
"It’s going to be a great challenge for us.
"We get to see where we are at against the best team, certainly in Europe, if not the best club team in the world so it’s everything we want to do.
"We’ve come on loads this season but let’s see how far we really have come and Saturday’s an opportunity to see that."
Leinster centre Robbie Henshaw looks ahead to the @ChampionsCup quarter-final #LEIvLEI #RTERugby #RTESport pic.twitter.com/BMg86xcjga
— RTÉ Rugby (@RTErugby) May 2, 2022
Follow Munster v Toulouse (Saturday 3pm) and Leicester v Leinster (5.30pm) via our live blogs on rte.ie/sport and on the RTÉ News App. Listen to Munster v Toulouse on RTÉ Radio 1.
