There was a very different feel when Leinster last came to Bilbao for a Champions Cup final. In 2018 it was wet, grey and could have passed for Ballsbridge in March. Not so this time with temperatures in the mid-30s and another baking afternoon in store for their rendezvous with the warm – in every sense – favourites, Bordeaux-Bègles.
When Leinster’s fair-skinned head coach, Leo Cullen, walked out for the captain’s run it was reminiscent of a David Attenborough documentary featuring a lone polar bear on a fast-melting iceberg. There will be no hiding place for heavy tight forwards, a factor exacerbated by the game kicking off in mid-afternoon. Apparently, an evening slot was impossible for French TV because of a clash with – wait for it – the closing ceremony of the Cannes film festival.
