Their only previous meeting with Glasgow Warriors in a Grand Final was won easily by Leinster, but since then the Irish team’s respect for today’s opponents has grown and that is due in no small part to who is in charge.

“They’ve played some great rugby,” said their captain Johnny Sexton.

“Obviously we knew that with Dave Rennie as their coach, they’re going to play good rugby. If you look at the teams he’s worked with over the years they’ve really produced and if you look at the games they’ve lost, the only ones they lost in Europe were to Saracens, who obviously showed what a good team they are and they haven’t lost too many games and they’ve played some quality rugby as well. So we know we’re going to be up against it with where it is and how they’re playing, but I hopefully we see the best of us as well because for the first time this year we’ve had a few games in a row together and we don’t get many chances like that in Leinster, because a lot of us go to national camp and whatever way the season is planned, so hopefully you can see the best of us, and hopefully they bring their best and it will be a great occasion, hopefully.”

For their head coach Leo Cullen there is an element of the apprentice taking on the master and while the former Ireland lock has enjoyed a great deal of success of his own since the former Chiefs head coach took him under his wing when he visited New Zealand a decade or so ago, the admiration remained evident as he looked back on a formative trip in his coaching career.

“You see the evolution of their game, there’s lots of Dave Rennie traits there,” he said of Glasgow.

“I was lucky enough to go to the Chiefs for a week and I couldn’t speak highly enough of Dave and how he allowed me into their set-up and he allowed me access to everything really.

“So, it was an amazing experience for me. I was still playing at that stage. I was coming to the end of my playing career with having a position in Leinster coaching-wise and then you get to go away and experience some different environments, but I learned a huge amount. How you actually deal with people coming in even and how I was made feel by Dave and all his coaching team at the time. I learned a huge amount, so I’ve so much respect for him.”

“He had me around to his house for dinner and I’ve tried to stay in contact since. I learned a huge amount about the way they played. I watched a lot of the Chiefs games at the time, and they won back-to-back Super Rugby titles in that period. We played them a couple of weeks ago, so we’ve only them once this season and again you see the evolution in their game. I thought they were very patient last week when they had the ball against Ulster and built pressure and built pressure, and obviously scored seven tries in the game.

“They’ve been very, very efficient this year probably in comparison to what they’ve been before, threats across the board, and very aggressive around the contact area. Again, that’s a very Dave Rennie-team trait. Very aggressive around the contact, so for our guys we need to make sure that we need to be clear in our minds as to what that’s going to feel like out in the field.

“For us, we need to make sure that we’re really switched on the whole time and we’re not being taken out around the ruck so we’re able to get defenders on our feet and we are able to deal with the threats that are in front of us.”

When it comes to playing in major finals, however, it is Leinster who boast men of experience up against Glasgow’s relative novices, however and Sexton said they are determined to show what they have learned from being given a rare lesson when they lost a European final two weeks ago, having won their previous five.

“There are so many learnings from the game we took and like (Ireland v) like South Africa, you would love to play the game again,” he said. “But you don’t get that chance and we do have another final tomorrow. We spoke last week that we could put in the best performance possible so we could get to another final to try and make up for the Saracens game..