It bears repeating that James Ryan, the Leinster and Ireland lock, is yet to lose a senior first-team match for club or country. It is now 19 and counting for the 21-year-old who began the season with more Ireland caps than Leinster appearances, and may finish it with a grand slam, Pro14 title and a Champions Cup winners medal.
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Ryan is part of the crop of Irish youngsters emerging from age-grade level tailor-made for the big stage. Not all have his impeccable record but they do not experience defeat often and, having swept all before them in the pool stages and overpowered Saracens in the last eight, Leinster face Scarlets in Saturday’s semi-final as the favourites, not least because it takes place at the Aviva Stadium, their second home.
Ryan has dismissed any suggestions he is a lucky charm but considering he attended all three of Leinster’s European Cup final wins – in 2009, 2011 and 2012 – as a supporter, there is a sizeable body of evidence to the contrary. “We’re lucky at Leinster at the moment in that there are a lot of lads coming through, it’s all over the country,” said Ryan. “It’s very positive to have the younger lads coming through to push the older heads. There’s a lot of work being done at the moment on the schools game and the club game, a lot of people put a lot of time into that.”
Much has been made of their “home advantage” – the Scarlets centre Scott Williams described it as “not exactly a neutral venue, it’s basically Leinster’s home ground” – and while Ryan acknowledges it works in his side’s favour, he knows better than to look towards Bilbao and a potential showdown against Munster in what would be a further demonstration of Irish rugby’s current might.
After the two-times defending champions Saracens were knocked out, English involvement is conspicuous by its absence but the flag is flown by Stuart Lancaster, whose renaissance since carrying the can for the 2015 World Cup debacle continues apace. “He’s had a big influence on the squad,” added Ryan. “He likes us to express ourselves and play that ball-in-hand Leinster rugby. He wants us to show people what we can do and what we’ve got. He encourages us to back ourselves and when it’s on to have a go. He tells us to go for it.”
Robbie Henshaw returns for Leinster but the New Zealand wing James Lowe is omitted because of restrictions on non-European players. For the Scarlets, Rhys Patchell lines up at full-back with Leigh Halfpenny on the wing and Dan Jones named at fly-half.
Munster, meanwhile, face Racing 92 in Bordeaux after both teams emerged from the same pool, each winning their home matches against the other. Munster, who were beaten in the semi-finals last year and who last reached the final in 2008, welcome back Keith Earls from a knee injury. Simon Zebo, who joins Racing next season, is on the bench while Dan Carter also has to make do with a place among the replacements for the French side with Pat Lambie preferred at fly-half.