Having endured a deep injury crisis earlier this season, Robin McBryde believes Leinster are now reaping the rewards as they turn into the business end of the campaign.
While the province will have to do without RG Snyman, Ryan Baird and Jack Boyle for this Saturday's Investec Champions Cup final and beyond, the rehab room is getting quieter at just the right time.
James Lowe and Jordan Larmour made their return from long layoffs in last weekend's URC win against Ospreys, while Paddy McCarthy could be available to return from four months out with a foot injury in Bilbao on Saturday. If not, the loosehead is likely to be fit and ready for the URC play-offs.
Leo Cullen’s side had to make do without Hugo Keenan until March after hip surgery and a broken thumb, while Andrew Porter also sat out a lengthy period with an achilles injury, although it was Ireland head coach Andy Farrell who would have felt that absence more during the Six Nations.
Regardless, both players have looked sharp since getting back to fitness, and with fewer miles on the clock than they would normally have at this stage of the campaign, McBryde (below) believes they’re starting to see the silver linings on the clouds that emerged in the winter.
"Obviously, I work closer with Andrew than I do with Hugo, but you see the dedication and the amount of work they put in to get themselves back fit," the Leinster forwards and scrum coach said.
"So, yes, chuffed to bits [with their form] and any player of that quality coming back into the squad just gives it another boost.
"They bring the energy with them as well. And so on the weekend, James Lowe, Jordan Larmour, Alex Usanov, just great."
Porter and Keenan were rested for Saturday’s win against the Ospreys, but the province did give gametime to several of their frontline stars as they looked to build up the intensity for this week’s Investec Champions Cup final.
Joe McCarthy, Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Jamison Gibson-Park, Harry Byrne, Robbie Henshaw Garry Ringrose and Lowe all started, while Tadhg Furlong, and Caelan Doris appeared off the bench, and all of those players appear to have come through unscathed.
That competition for places has brought an "edge" to training, according to the assistant coach. What, then, is McBryde's definition of "an edge"?
"A good, solid shoulder. Not a grab, just a good, healthy shoulder," he replied.
"Just something that will give you a little bit of a rib-tickler.
"Everybody has got to be at the same pitch. Sometimes you get players who are trying to make a point to get into the team and they’ll just overreach a little bit. It’ll be completely out of context and it gets out of hand.
"That little bit of edge is just great, you know? I think the nature of a Champions Cup final week in particular just puts everybody on high alert."
Saturday’s final will bring Leinster back to the scene of their most recent Champions Cup triumph, where they lifted the trophy for a fourth time with a 15-12 win against Racing 92 at San Mames in 2018.
There have been four final defeats and two semi-final defeats since, with Saracens, La Rochelle, Toulouse and most recently Northampton Saints inflicting pain on the four-time champions.
And former Wales hooker, who has been with Leinster for the last seven seasons, admits he didn’t fully appreciate the status the Champions Cup held in Irish rugby until he arrived.
"There's a history, isn't there? There's a history and there's a bit of a legacy with regards to the Champions Cup and Leinster," he added.
"I didn't realise how much it meant to Leinster as a province, but I fully understand now. There's a different feel about it, do you know what I mean?
"There's a different feel about it, so it's a bit bittersweet at the moment when you look back. As great as those journeys were, we didn't win at the end of the day.
"The fact that we've given ourselves another opportunity, another crack at it, it's not something that you take lightly."
As McBryde himself admits, the province have lost those previous finals in every which way, with no single root cause at the heart of if.
"If you lose a final and you don't learn anything than there is something wrong.
"We've taken something different from each final, I would argue, and then we've implemented that into our training.
"The fact that we've given ourselves an opportunity to win more than one final, it shows that we're doing something right. We've given ourselves another opportunity, so we have another crack at it.
"If you were to add all our best moments in the finals, I'm sure somewhere you'd be able to put a final together that we actually win.
"We just need to stack those good moments on top of good moments.
"We've had good starts in the competition in a final. We finished strong in a final. If we can put all that together on the day and just keep on stacking good moments on top of good moments, just live in that moment."
And the Welshman is taking a relaxed approach to the build-up.
"It's the journey. I just enjoy the journey. If I win, it'll be great. I'm not saying I'll be happy about it [if we lose], but from previous experience it may come down to something that's not in your control.
"It's the build-up. This is the part that I enjoy most. It's this week leading up, seeing the excitement in the players' eyes the morning of a game. That, to me as a coach, is all you can do.
"They're confident taking the field. They're excited. They're looking forward with nervous energy. Then it's over to them on the weekend."
