Isaac Boss has urged Leinster fans to make their presence felt at the Aviva Stadium next Saturday to help the European champions bounce back against Clermont Auvergne.
Joe Schmidt’s men lost their round 3 clash 15-12 in France last Sunday, meaning they are now in desperate need of a win in the return match to keep their Heineken Cup chances alive.
Isaac Boss, who was at his hard-hitting best for the visitors, was impressed by the backing Clermont received at the weekend.
Now the scrum half hopes that the Leinster support will be just as vocal when the two sides meet again in Dublin.
“The atmosphere was unbelievable,” said the 32-year-old. “They’re great supporters and really got behind them. That’s one thing they have in common with our fans.
“Hopefully our fans can get the place rocking next week. We had a few there on Sunday and you could hear (them). Next week, hopefully it’s going to be a cauldron for us.”
Leinster have won both of their most recent home games against Clermont – a dramatic 29-28 quarter-final victory in April 2010 and a much more comfortable pool stage success six months later.
Despite the added pressure on the team this time around, Boss feels they can once again produce a big performance when required.
“We’re mentally confident. We’re physically battered and bruised but next weekend can’t come quickly enough. That always happens when you lose – you want to get out at them again.
“Putting everything into a game and losing, it’s a really empty feeling… We came here to get four points at least and we truly believed that we could.
“We’ve got to move on quickly. We can’t dwell on it too much because there’s a job to be done next Saturday.”
Clermont stretched their unbeaten home run to 51 games last Sunday and Leinster now trail Vern Cotter’s side by five points in Pool 5.
But Boss believes that by earning a losing bonus point in France, his team have the platform they need to fight their way back into contention to top the group.
“We’re disappointed we didn’t come away with a win but we could have easily come away with nothing, especially towards the end there. Something’s better than nothing. Now we really need to get the four next week.
“But it definitely feels like a missed opportunity. We had more chances. We made a few errors. From 1-15 we probably all did something a little off, myself included.
“We’ll have the same approach next week, maybe try to come at them a bit harder. We’ll worry about our own job really. We’re happy with the way we defended.
“We just need to be a bit more accurate on attack, take it an extra phase or two and capitalise on the opportunities that we create,” he added.
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