Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson brings his side to Dublin on Saturday with a genuine belief that the Saints can march on, even if it is Leinster that stand in their way.
Twelve months ago the English side came within a sucker punch of upsetting a full house at Croke Park with Leinster hanging on for a 20-17 Investec Champions Cup semi-final victory.
The hosts had established a seemingly comfortable 17-point lead with just over 20 minutes to play but two late tries meant Leinster had to endure a nervy finale, with a big defensive play securing passage to the final where they would go on to lose to Toulouse after extra time.
In contrast to Leinster's facile last-16 and quarter-final wins over Harlequins (62-0) and Glasgow (52-0), Northampton didn’t crumble when Leinster gained the upper hand and that ability to stay in the contest makes them a dangerous opponent.
Their history in and attitude towards the competition also goes in their favour as they attempt to overturn an 18-point underdog status at Aviva Stadium.
They beat Munster in the 2000 decider and Dowson himself was part of the 2011 Saints side that blew a 22-6 half-time lead to Leinster in the final, Johnny Sexton leading a stunning comeback as the Irish side claimed a second title.
"I think you can see how we have applied ourselves in it and gone after it in the last two seasons, how much it means," said Dowson.
"The club has a relatively good history in it, the fact that we won in 2000 with Pat Lam and Paul Grayson et al.
"We got to the final in 2011 and had some good cup runs in that period of time.
"I think it’s special because every year you play the same sides in the league more or less, you go to The Rec, Saracens, you go to Kingston Park whereas we don’t often get the opportunity to go to Pretoria for example – there are lads who had never flown outside of Europe, playing against the Bulls.
"We hadn’t played Stade [Francais] for years and years, to go and challenge ourselves against a French side in Paris and experience Paris together.
"So I think that uniqueness, playing against some of the biggest and best sides in world rugby is a great challenge, and it’s something that as a playing group we want to pit ourselves against some of those groups.
"That’s why it has that certain magic really."
The Premiership champions are currently in seventh in the English table, with Dowson admitting that with three games to play they "have left it too late" to make the play-offs.
But it was their early season inconsistency that cost them, while recent wins, big knockout victories over Clermont (46-24) and Castres (51-16) in Europe, and domestic success over Newcastle and Bristol, suggest they have found their form at the right time to cause concern for Leo Cullen’s side and set up a return to the final where Bordeaux or Toulouse await.
"I think the run of form comes with a run of consistent selection, the ability to pick players week after week and get some momentum going," said the 43-year-old former England back row.
"After the Leicester game [in March] where we were very poor, [lost] 33-0 at home, that was a bit of a watershed moment for us where we had to have a real good look at ourselves: coaching group, playing group, et cetera.
"We went to Sale, we lost, but we actually did a lot of good things. We showed a lot of improvement and from then on in Europe, and in the Prem, we've had a good run of four games.
"We have left it too late and we haven't managed to get consistent performance. We've also not necessarily managed to have consistent selection either, so I think those two things go hand in hand."
Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson believes Leinster will prove a tough challenge when the sides meet in Dublin on Saturday for a place in this year's Champions Cup final. #rterugby pic.twitter.com/SVmqQ82CR7
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Leinster are unbeaten in Europe this season but on Saturday fell to just a second URC loss when Scarlets outplayed a largely second-string outfit.
Dowson says his side won’t spend too much time focussing on that match with Cullen likely to make a huge number of changes to his selection.
"You look at [Leinster’s] system in the Scarlets game, you look at things from a technical point of view, what they’re looking at," he said.
"But they are not going to show much that’s going to be relevant from a launch point of view for our game.
"The personnel, I think, will be wholly different but you can always see different elements of the game that are always worth watching to see what you can pick up
"But fundamentally, those [European] games against La Rochelle, Bristol away, Glasgow, Quins, Bath are the games that we’ve focussed on."
Meanwhile, Dowson confirmed that captain George Furbank will miss the game through injury.
The England full-back marked his return from the broken arm he suffered in December with a try as Saints powered past Castres,
But Furbank is still feeling the effects of having metal plates inserted into his arm and will miss this weekend’s clash.
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Watch the Champions Cup semi-final, Leinster v Northampton Saints, on Saturday from 4.45pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.
