Leinster head coach Leo Cullen admits the pressure is on his side to deliver in tomorrow's Heineken Champions Cup final against La Rochelle (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player), but says it's a challenge they're more that willing to accept.
The sides meet in a repeat of last year's decider in Marseille, which Ronan O'Gara's La Rochelle won 24-21, scoring a late try to become European champions for the first time.
Leinster ended last season trophyless, and their hopes of a URC and European double were ended by Munster last week, but the pain of that defeat will soon be forgotten if they can win a fifth Champions Cup trophy in front of their home crowd in Dublin.
"Pressure is a funny thing, isn't it?," said Cullen after this afternoon's captain's run at the Aviva Stadium.
"Everyone is nervous because they want to do their best. It's such an amazing tournament, isn't it? There's a real privilege to be here.
"As I said, it's about the preparations during the course of the week, and that adds to it. I can't wait to see them play and deliver something close to their best. That's all we can do.
"Pressure is a good thing, that's what we want, we want to be here. If you offered us this opportunity after the final last year, knowing there was a final in Dublin, and we're here now."
The Leinster coach has made 12 changes from last week's agonising defeat to Munster in the URC semi-final, with just Robbie Henshaw, Jimmy O'Brien and Jack Conan retaining their places in the starting team, 13 of whom also started the 2022 final in Marseille.
And with such a heavily-rotated squad, Cullen believes the frustrations of their URC exit have been flushed from the system.
"There were a number of players in the stand last weekend and I suppose most of their attention was on this game, on this week. So yeah, it's been a good week, an enjoyable week. So much work goes into getting to this point and here we are.
"If you'd have offered us at this stage of the tournament last year when we lost the final to La Rochelle and we get the opportunity to come to Dublin and you're in the Aviva in the final again, yeah, a lot of work has gone in to get to this point, it's exciting, all the talk and all the noise and all the rest but it's two teams going at it and doing what they can for their respective clubs, it's great.
"So many great battles have taken place to get to this point so for our guys it's really about delivering now. So no, there's no major hangover from last week," he added.
Much of the preview for this year's final has centered around how Leinster attack the game, with calls for them to be more aggressive in search of tries, having scored all of their points off the tee in the decider a year ago.
With Johnny Sexton out injured, James Ryan (below) will captain the side in his fourth final appearance. And the Ireland lock was non-committal when asked if they're planning to take more risks in the early stage of tomorrow's final.
"I don't know yet, to be honest. It's not that easy," he said, adding that there are a number of factors to consider when deciding whether of not to go for the posts off penalties in the opposition half.
"A big part of it is feel, trusting your gut and instinct. We'll see how the game has gone, see how our set piece is doing, how our lineout drive is doing and the way of all these things. It won't just be my decision, it'll be a decision I made alongside Garry [Ringrose], Ross Byrne, Ross Molony.
"Feel is a big part of it, being out there and trusting your gut. We'll see how we're doing.
"It's going to be another close final I think, the big thing is we don't know how it's going to go tomorrow, but the big thing for us is we prepared really well all week, we're in a great space and we're excited to play in a home final."
Saturday will mark Leinster's seventh appearance in the Champions Cup final, with the four-time champions having lost their most recent appearances in the showpiece in 2022 and 2019.
And Cullen says their motivations will be weighted towards delivering a performance in their home city, rather than gaining "revenge" for last year's defeat.
"We've been knocking on the door in a few different finals, it hasn't quite gone our way but it just goes back to preparing the team as best we possibly can.
"Now, it's just about delivering on the big day and committing to the plan, nice and calm composed in everything we do."
"Revenge is a sort of funny word isn't it. I just think it's being at home, in your home city and it’s just delivering a performance in front of your own fans," he added.
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Watch the Heineken Champions Cup final, Leinster v La Rochelle, on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player on Saturday from 4pm, follow a live blog on the RTÉ News app or RTÉ.ie/Sport or listen to live commentary on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
