Josh van der Flier says Leinster don't believe it’s "now or never" in this generation’s bid to add another Investec Champions Cup title to their name.
Speaking on RTÉ Sport’s coverage of Leinster’s last-16 win over Leicester, former Ireland and Leinster number 8 Jamie Heaslip suggested another season without a European Cup wouldn’t be reflective of the team’s quality.
"It’s now or never for this group, for Leo [Cullen] and his team," he said (below).
"Because there has been a bit of a drought of trophies, particularly European trophies, given the success of the national side and so many players from Leinster play for that side.
"They need to deliver."
However, back row Van der Flier reckons the team are more focused on Saturday’s clash with 2022 and 2023 conquerors La Rochelle, who come to the Aviva Stadium 11 months since beating Leinster in a classic final.
"We’ve played very well for a few years now and there hasn’t been the success in Europe that every team wants," the 30-year-old former World Rugby player of the year told RTÉ Sport.
"One thing we’ve talked about, I suppose it’s obvious enough, in knock-out rugby is not like a league where whoever plays the best, and wins the most games, gets the most points is just the winner overall.
"You’ve got to earn it through knock-out.
"No-one goes in with the trophy in their grasp and then loses it. You have to go and attack it.
"You start the knockouts with the same chance that everyone else has so no matter how you play leading into it or what form you have you still have to go and earn it.
"I don’t think there’s any sort of panic or feeling it’s now or never, we just take each challenge as it comes and it’s certainly a big challenge this week and that’s the mindset.
"We’ve a lot of respect for La Rochelle, they are a brilliant side, really well coached with really good individual players so it’s hard to say whether they are our biggest rivals or not.
"We know it will be a big challenge. We’ll have to be at our best."
Although beaten in their last three knock-out games by Ronan O’Gara’s side, Leinster managed to defeat La Rochelle 16-9 in the pool stages earlier this season.
It was a game in which Van der Flier, a front-liner over the last few seasons, started on the bench, with Will Connors preferred, and he revealed the reasons he was given for the demotion.
"It was pretty much that Leo felt Will was going to be very effective and he said to me that I’d get a good bit of time in the second half, which ended up happening," said the Wicklow native.
"He liked the idea of having the two of us kind of playing each half of the game pretty much and being as energetic as we could, that was the reasoning I was given anyway.
"For me any time I’m in those sort of selection meetings with coaches, just try and find out what the thinking is behind them and once you have that conversation it helps you understand where their heads at.
"Like, if there’s something you’ve done wrong, to find that out, or something you are doing well that they think you need to keep doing."
Meanwhile, senior coach Jacques Nienaber says he totally understands O'Gara’s decision to arrive in Ireland six days ahead of the match.
The French outfit flew into Cork yesterday after beating Stormers in Cape Town on Saturday.
"It's probably logistics for him," said the two-time World Cup-winning coach.
"It probably takes up travel time. From a coaches point of view it’s probably why you would maybe not go home.
"For a big week like this it’s nice to get your team into Cork. I don’t think there will be as much pressure on them from a media point of view as there would be back home.
"And he obviously has his team together. It’s always nice to be together if you want a quick meeting after dinner. Everybody is in the hotel and you can have a quick 15-minute connection.
"Tomorrow morning you can have a quick 20-minute lineout walk-through if you want because it’s not like everyone has to come in."
English referee Karl Dickson will take charge of Saturday's game, it was announced yesterday.
Watch Leinster v La Rochelle in the Investec Champions Cup quarter-finals on Saturday from 5pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to updates on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
