La Rochelle's Leyds expects early Leinster shots

Played two, won two, and a man of the match award in last year's final.

Dillyn Leyds has a decent record against Leinster.

"I just had initiative to play a bit more and I didn’t want to get into my shell. I think once I managed to get my hands on the ball quite early and get a good number of touches it gave me a bit of confidence to do that throughout the match," the 30-year-old South African winger said when asked about his starring role in the 24-21 win in Marseille.

"It was a good day for me but I also think it was a good day for the team.

"Hopefully, from this weekend the same thing can happen, as a collective take the initiative and play a bit more rugby even though it is a final.

"We don’t want to go into our shells. We want to play the way we have been playing throughout the season."

Leinster will not only be smarting from last season’s loss but also have the baggage of Saturday’s 16-15 defeat to dearest rivals Munster in their system.

Former Stormers man Leyds, who has scored four tries in 14 Champions Cup games, expects Leo Cullen’s side to come out fighting.

"Like any team when you get beaten at home, especially in a knockout game, you take a bit of a hit," says the Springboks back, who won one of his ten caps against Ireland in 2017.

"You want to come back firing shots early. You want to show maybe it was just a tough day as a team.

"We had similar situations this season in the Top 14 where we lost at home and the week leading up to the next game is all about training a bit of pride.

"They are a bunch of quality international players and they know how to react after a loss like that. I don’t think that with the final in a couple of days they will be focusing too much on what happened but how they can fix and react to