It would be a fool's errand for Leinster to think they can "stop" Toulouse scrum-half Antoine Dupont this week.
But Ian Keatley and Bernard Jackman think Leo Cullen's side can limit the French star's influence in Saturday's Heineken Champions Cup semi-final (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player) by targeting those around him.
Dupont has scored two tries and provided an incredible 11 assists in six games, continuing the form that saw him named Six Nations Player of the Championship earlier this year.
If Toulouse are to upset Leinster in Dublin on Saturday, their win is almost certain to be covered in Dupont's fingerprints.
The 26-year-old has cemented his place as one of the very best, if not the best scrum-half of all-time, and how Leinster deal with him will go a long way towards deciding the outcome.
However, former Ireland out-half Keatley says rather than trying to take on Dupont directly, the four-time champions need to make life difficult for those around him at the Aviva Stadium.
"I don't think you can 'stop' Dupont," he told the RTÉ Rugby podcast.
"You need to take away their quick forward ball, you need to stop offloads, slow down their breakdown so he's not able to [break]. Once they make a little bit of gainline, he picks and goes. You need to nullify the things that happen before Dupont can do that.
"With the size of Toulouse's mountains they have, they will get over the gainline, they will get quick ball every now and again, and Dupont will have a go. If he does, you just have to try corral him, defend in numbers and just work hard. You can't stop him, you just have to nullify the threats around him."
Leinster and Toulouse set for game of the season
Bernard Jackman joined Keatley on the podcast, and while he agreed that Leinster have to make the game messy in order to throw Dupont off his rhythm, they have to be wary of how dangerous the French captain also is in broken play.
"Ironically, some of his best moments have come from teams who have counter-rucked Toulouse's breakdown, and the ball pops out, and because those people are quite close to the ruck, he's exploited it," Jackman said.
"It's a dangerous game, over-committing and attacking rucks to try and disrupt him. He has this fend - off both hands - and speed off the mark to basically cause damage.
"His support lines are high profile, he's generally the person who gets the second touch after a linebreak, he kicks off both feet really well, and is deceptively powerful.
"I've seen him manhandle big front-five forwards. You're not going to be able to stop him, you just have to make sure than any time he has the ball, all defenders around the ball are very much focused on him stepping or breaking the first tackle."
Despite Leinster winning last season's semi-final meeting between the pair 40-17, it was Dupont who briefly gave Toulouse and early lead with a try on seven minutes.
"What I love about him is his cool demeaner," Keatley added. "You never see him angry, or raising his voice, he just has this steel about him. You never see him getting animated, which is what I love about him.
"You can't defend him. He's not erratic, but he just sees space and is able to exploit it and is so good at getting on these inside balls, connecting play. He sees a tiny gap and is able to go for that gap, but then someone might step in, and he's able to step around it."
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Listen to live commentary of Scotland v Ireland (Saturday, 7.30pm) in the TikTok Women's Six Nations on RTÉ Radio 1, or watch England v France (1pm) and Italy v Wales (3.30pm) on RTÉ Player.
Watch Leinster v Toulouse in the Heineken Champions Cup semi-final live on Saturday from 2.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on the RTÉ News app or RTÉ.ie/Sport and listen to live commentary on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.
