Ringrose knows Leinster will need to be at their best
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Over the past two seasons no two sides have been able to match the quality and skill of Leinster Rugby and Stade Rochelais in EPCR’s elite competition.
The two have contested consecutive finals, with the TOP14 side narrowly prevailing on both occasions to become back-to-back champions.
Now, the two face off once more in arguably the most anticipated match of Round 1 in this year’s Investec Champions Cup pool stage.
While the memory of those two final losses might hurt Leinster Rugby centre Garry Ringrose, he doesn’t shy away from talking about how the Irish province can try to use the defeats to motivate themselves this season.
“We're all determined to try and do well,” he said. “There’s a collective desire to want to go and win, and luckily enough we've been able to win some days.
“We’ve had more losses on the big days unfortunately more recently, but I guess we use them to kind of drive us and motivate us, and try and go again this year.”
Leinster Rugby have had a hard run-up to their opening Pool 4 match at the Stade Marcel Deflandre, with two Irish interprovincial battles against fellow Investec Champions Cup sides Munster Rugby and Connacht Rugby.
The four-time winners of EPCR’s elite competition have come out on top in both clashes and Ringrose believes that level of competition in the build-up to their opening Investec Champions Cup game can work in their favour.
“It’s tough because they're incredibly tough games,” he explained. “But, equally, that kind of prepares you, so you get used to trying to be at your best.
“It's like a catch 22 because it's not an easy run-in, but you almost want that difficult run-in to try and test yourself, and get to the best place possible.”
Having started both finals, Ringrose knows exactly how awkward a challenge Stade Rochelais will be.
“It’s a tough place to go against a quality side... it's straight into it, no messing about,” he said.
“We’ll prepare as best we can and give it everything on the day, but we’ve got to be our best.”
Leinster Rugby against Stade Rochelais will take place at the Stade Marcel Deflandre at 15:15 GMT. It is available to watch on France TV, beIN SPORTS, TNT Sports, FloRugby and SuperSport.
