There's 'absolutely no way' Bulls are hungrier than Leinster
SPOTLIGHT: Leinster star Dan Sheehan says the motivation levels inside his camp are through the roof ahead of Saturday’s United Rugby Championship Final against the Bulls.
It’s so high, he believes that his team is “hungrier” than Jake White’s side for silverware.
There is still considerable frustration in Dublin over Leinster’s failure in the Champions Cup again, following their loss to Northampton Saints in the semifinal stage.
It has just extended their trophy drought, but it could all change at Croke Park on Saturday.
With all the resources available to them, fans believe that Leinster should be winning trophies regularly, and that’s why Sheehan is adamant that there isn’t a team hungrier than his own.
“Absolutely no way,” Sheehan told RTÉ Sport.
“We’ve had six weeks or however long it is to focus on the URC and we’ve been trophyless the last however many years and I think the hunger is there for sure in the group.
“There’s absolutely no way that a team will be hungrier than us.
“You can feel the buzz, people are excited, another Final to look forward to.
“We are happy with how we dealt with Glasgow on Saturday but the first conversation was we need to up it a level. Finals are different.
“It’s an exciting, hungry Bulls team, who also have come up short the last few years like ourselves are coming to town so there’s a big battle ahead of us.”
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“The job is not done.” 😤
A special behind the scenes look at our @URCOfficial semi-final win over Glasgow. 🎥 🔥#LEIvGLA #NeverLessThanEverything pic.twitter.com/CzfDcBilWJ
— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) June 9, 2025
Leinster will want to right the wrongs against the Bulls after their previous meetings in knockout matches.
In 2022, Leinster suffered a shock 26-27 defeat to White’s side in a home semifinal and last year, the Irish giants went down 20-25 in Pretoria.
In their most recent meeting, the Bulls snatched a 21-20 victory at Loftus Versfeld in Round 13.
“We’ve taken our lessons from it over the years. I’m sure we’ll refer back to it during the week if there are poignant messages we need to take from it again, to remind ourselves,” Sheehan added.
“But we are focussing on the here and now, the present squad.
“That might be fuel for the fire, that the Bulls have got the better of us over the last couple of years for sure.
“They are a dangerous team, and we need to make sure we turn up.
“We didn’t play the worst against them over the last couple of years and they still got the better of us, we need to make sure we are all guns blazing.”
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