Tiger-tamers Leinster purring as season gets serious

The Tigers are coming to town but they face the toughest of tasks in the form of a Leinster side that are specialists in getting the job done at this stage of proceedings.

It's hard to look at the hosts' recent record against Leicester, and indeed the knockout stages of the Investec Champions Cup, and not conclude that taking care of business in this tie with the minimum of fuss is well within their repertoire.

This is the stage where Leinster purr.

They have played 14 play-off games in Europe since their last Champions Cup success in 2018, the victory over Racing 92 in a rainy Bilbao that seems a lifetime ago now.

They've reached the final three times, playing 14 games in total, winning nine and losing five; those painful defeats coming against just two sides: Saracens in 2019 and 2020, and La Rochelle in each of the last three seasons.

Each year, it's supposed to be their year and it's taken the brute strength of Sarries and Stade Rochelais to deny them what they feel is their just deserts: a single European trophy in 12 seasons put them on par with Exeter in terms of silverware.

To get an idea of the expectation on Leicester to earn a first victory over Leinster in 16 years today, you could listen to the BBC and The Times rugby podcasts and it would take up 56 seconds of your day.

The various pundits are, however, gushing over Northampton, who host Munster on Sunday afternoon.

This evening's tie is the teams' second meeting in 12 weeks and their third in the last three years, each time Leo Cullen's side coming up trumps.

Leinster warmed up for the latest match-up by running up a pretty score against a strong Bulls outfit in the URC last weekend.

The four-time European champions ran in seven tries and alongside their 16-9 away