Leinster's James Ryan has echoed Leo Cullen’s rallying cries for supporters to turn out in force for Saturday's s BKT United Rugby Championship semi-final against Glasgow Warriors and admits the team feel a trophy is well overdue.
Head coach Cullen issued an impassioned plea to fans following last weekend’s quarter-final success over Scarlets in front of a crowd of just 12,879 at Aviva Stadium.
The bank holiday weekend and work on the DART route serving Lansdowne Road were mentioned as mitigation for the low turnout but second row Ryan says they need the support for what will be their last game of the season at Aviva; the decider will be held in Croke Park if Leinster qualify for a first final since 2021.
"Hopefully we see as many of our supporters there as possible this weekend," the 28-year-old told RTÉ Sport.
"We really do feed off that energy and it’s extremely important, so we look forward to seeing as many as we can."
Asked if, after the disappointments in Europe for the last four seasons, and going four years without silverware meant the team felt they owed their supporters a trophy, he said: "Em, yeah there’s a sense that we owe our supporters and the club a trophy but we’re not going to win a trophy this weekend.
"We’re going to have to focus on Glasgow and what happens after that we can deal with on Monday."
Cullen also admitted that, along with fans, players and staff had been guilty of getting ahead of themselves prior to their Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Saints.
The arrival of the defending URC champions, who have lost twice in the last eight weeks in Dublin, but beat both Munster and Bulls away to claim the title last season, will serve to focus minds, according to Ryan.
"The team that came to the Aviva a couple of weeks ago [a 13-5 win for Leinster] was a completely different team," he said.
"For me that was like Test match standard, in terms of the ruck, in terms of the physical parts of the game.
"They had another impressive win against the Stormers, beat them comfortably at home so 100% they’ll be a different team.
"They like going away from home.
"They went to Limerick and then they went over to South Africa and beat the Bulls away, so they’ll have no fear coming to Dublin."
Leinster have failed to convince in their last two games, against Glasgow and Scarlet, "winning ugly", and have come in for criticism from numerous former players for their out of sorts showings.
Ryan (above), who has 72 Ireland caps and will go on his first Lions tour this summer, says they try to shut out the outside noise.
"We try to ignore it. Everyone has an opinion now and that’s just the way it is," he said.
"It comes back to ourselves.
"What matters most is what we think as players and as coaches in terms of how the game has gone.
"We’ve got some of the best coaches in the world at this club so ultimately, we are our own harshest critics.
"We’ve said over the last few weeks, we’ve put our hands up, our performance wasn’t good enough against Northampton, but we have to move on.
"We’re into knockout rugby. It’s just about getting excited about this week.
"If you told us last July, August that we would have had a home semi we would have bitten your hand off for it."
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