Leinster hoping decision to rest players pays off against Saints

The Irish giants sent a shadow squad to South Africa for recent games against the Lions and the Stormers.

Leinster suffered heavy defeats in both matches, meaning they have lost top spot in the United Rugby Championship.

But they know it will all be worth it if their fresh first-team players, who have not had any game time since the April 13 Investec Champions Cup quarter-final win against La Rochelle, are able to deliver in the huge semi-final against Saints this weekend.

“It's a challenge, I think the result on Saturday will dictate where we got it right or not," McBryde said.

"Who's to know if we could have done anything differently?

“It’s been a bit of a juggling act but they are experienced internationals, many of them are anyway.

"It’s a fine line between being battle-hardened and battle-weary so a lot of those players didn’t travel to South Africa.

“Those guys have had a lot of minutes in the Six Nations and you have to look at each individual case by itself.

“A lot of players can just turn up alongside on the day anyway.

“I played alongside a lot of players who did next to nothing all week and then on the Saturday, bang, they have so much confidence in their ability and the prep that they do, the way they look after themselves and how professional they are.

“They know taking to the field they are going to be in a good place. The result will dictate whether we got it right or not.

“Northampton are off the back of a great match against Harlequins last Saturday, I enjoyed watching that.

“It has given us a bit more prep time, not so much intense game time, but I would like to think that won’t be so much of a factor in Saturday’s game.

“It’s always in the back of your mind as to whether you got the prep right or not. I’m not going to lie there but I trust them, I trust the players. They just have to trust themselves.

“The level of detail retention is second to none. I’ve never worked with a group of players like them.”

Leinster will be roared on by a capacity crowd of 82,300 people on Saturday.

And McBryde said: "It's brilliant, isn't it?

“You can't allow it to become something bigger than what it is. But if you play well out there it gives you more energy, that's true for whichever team is playing well on the day.

"So we've got to make sure that we start well and feed off that energy.”