A fired-up Saracens will present a formidable test in Dublin but they may be the least of the Irish province’s problems
Success in rugby is generally mined from the painful depths of failure. Look at the most recent European champions and a glint of silverware has been the product of years of toil. Saracens, champions for three of the past four seasons, endured a three-year period when they regularly finished second in big knockout games. Leinster, currently seen as firm Champions Cup favourites, finished rock bottom of their qualifying pool only four years ago.
It is almost as if all high-achieving club sides require a lengthy incubation period, with the exception of big-spending Toulon who remain one of only two teams – with Wasps in 2004 – to have won the competition having been in the Challenge Cup the previous season. More often than not, with the perennial exception of Clermont Auvergne, the nearly men get there in the end.
Related: Stuart Lancaster steels Leinster for 'far from broken' Saracens backlash
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