Leinster back-rower Kevin McLaughlin knows the importance of victory in Saturday's Heineken Cup tie with the Scarlets in Dublin.
After back-to-back defeats to Clermont, Leinster must beat the Welsh region - and potentially with a bonus point - to stay in contention for a spot in the quarter-finals..
Those losses to Clermont mean Leinster are trailing the French side by eight points on the Pool Five table.
But what makes the three-times champions' task even more difficult is that Exeter, who they face away from home next weekend in the final group match, are just a point behind them in third place in the standings.
McLaughlin admits that there is plenty of pressure on them to avoid failing to qualify for the play-offs for the first time since the 2007/08 tournament.
"There's an element of the season almost starting now or almost ending now," he told the ERC website.
"As a team we don't like the thought of being out of Europe in January - we kind of look at January as the make-or-break month for the team.
"Obviously, the PRO12 is starting to pick up now. But we're a team that has been at the top of Europe for the last few years and we want to stay there.
"We've put ourselves in this position now, so it's going to be very much a case that, hopefully, our season is starting. We desperately don't want it to end.
"But I don't think we've ever been in this tight a situation in my time in Leinster.
"There is definitely an element of extra pressure there, but I think our attack has definitely sharpened up a little bit. With the internationals back, I think we are functioning better.
"We are playing with more confidence and there's no reason why we can't score a few tries at the weekend."
Comments
paddy91317 says...
Yeah i agree few decent second rows and a clean run of games with no injuries... leo cant hold our second row together forever how old is he? What ever happened to that young ulster bloke cauldwell? We need an evil b@#$@#d in the second row not friendly likable guys like toner.
Posted 11:42 11th January 2013
leinster_goy says...
don't really understand the headline. on the home page, it says "Leinster under huge pressure", this one says "under pressure", while Lockers's actual quote is ultimately a lot less dramatic: "there's definitely an element of extra pressure there, but..." pure sensationalism
also, given the fact that we've won three Heinos in four years, i don't really see any pressure at all. our success has been so amazing that we've absolutely nothing to prove to anybody. we might not win it this year but that's the nature of the game: you win some, you lose some. all we need to do is bring another second row in and we'll be right back in the mix next year
Posted 08:41 11th January 2013
melkdave says...
Leinster badly need a bonus point win ,and the Scarlets badly need a morale lifing victory,after being hammered by Ulster,Hopefully it will be a hard tight game,and good to watch..Will be interesting to see if the returning Leinster players are match fit ,and ready for the fray.Have some doughts on that tbh,given the lack of matches so far theve had,but we will see.
Posted 15:32 10th January 2013
papachinzo says...
The old guard has returned in the form of O'Driscoll, The Kearney's, Fitzgerald, Nacewa, O'Malley and Strauss and Leinster will be out for blood... and a bonus point win...
Posted 14:22 10th January 2013