No 'magic pill' but Nienaber influence key for Leinster

There is no "magic pill" for Leinster to get over the line today but Jacques Nienaber has added significantly to their armoury for the latest shot at Champions Cup success, according to James Ryan.

The former Springboks coach joined the back-to-back beaten finalists last December with the brief of building a case for the defence.

He gave himself 14 weeks to get the new system in place and that timeline brought him up to the quarter-final of the competition where they let back-to-back winners La Rochelle have both barrells in a 40-13 win.

There was more evidence that the team had fully bought into the plan when they held out Northampton Saints until the 58th minute of their 20-17 semi-final win, in which, admittedly, they allowed the visitors back into the game with two late tries.

But Nienaber's plan doesn't include not letting in any tries, it's inflicting as much damage as possible through beligerance and agressive linespeed so that the attack can put enough points on the board to make opposition scores mere consolations.

It happened against the Saints, while Sale and Tigers both scored three tries in their losses to Leinster.

Toulouse are the tournament's top scorers with 46 tries (Leinster have 30), scoring 6.6 per game on average. There's no Leinster game plan that involves a shut-out today.

But defence as a form of attack is key.

Club co-captain Ryan starts on the bench for the 2.45pm kick-off, ready to replace Jason Jenkins or Joe McCarthy after returning from an injury lay-off in last weekend's URC loss to Ulster.

Nienaber's 2023 World Cup team won each of their knock-out games, against France, England and New Zealand, by a single point and Ryan was asked what the 51-year-old coach has brought to the party.

"He's had a