Leinster's culture of 'rock stars' & ruthless competition

Leinster marched into the United Rugby Championship semi-finals with a 35-5 destruction of Cell C Sharks at the Aviva Stadium last Saturday.

Leo Cullen's men have won their last 11 matches at Lansdowne Rod in all competitions, while this weekend's last-four showdown against an injury-ravaged Munster will be their seventh league semi-final appearance on the bounce.

They are, without doubt, an impressively efficient winning machine.

"Always with Leinster selections, there's a spine of experience in the team and then the bomb squad is on the bench if things get in any way hairy in the last quarter," Eddie O'Sullivan said on Against The Head.

"They're going to get it done. I think the Sharks knew coming they were just making up the numbers.

"We like to build it before the game - this could happen, that could happen, but at the end of the day, inevitably the outcome is Leinster are going to win pulling up."

Darren Cave highlighted a unique culture of quality and ravenous hunger within the squad.

"You have to give so much credit to them," he said.

"When they are sort of full metal jacket, when they have those rock stars out, it's a team that would beat most international teams.

"Underneath that, they have this ruthless fight for contracts and game time."

Elaborating on that point, O'Sullivan added: "We always marvel at these young lads that we don't know a lot about coming into the RDS on a Friday night and lighting it up. You say, 'where did he come out of?'

"You have to remember that's his chance to light it up. If he doesn't light it up on a Friday night, he won't see the inside of the changing room for the next six months.

"They have five or six guys like that that are playing for their careers. They get two or three chances every