Launchbury relishing ‘huge week’

Wasps second-row Joe Launchbury is looking forward to a positive business end to the season, which starts against Leinster in Dublin.

The England international, who was recently beaten at the Aviva Stadium by Ireland, will return to that venue with his club side this Saturday.

He admits he cannot wait for the Champions Cup fixture, revealing that having plenty to play for following the Six Nations is a welcome lift.

“I think in the past, when you’ve been away on England campaigns, coming back here in the last few seasons, when you haven’t got too much to play for because you’re in the middle of the league, it has been difficult,” he told Wasps‘ official website ahead of the European clash.

“But when you come back to a week like the one we have got now, it’s a huge week for us. It has been pretty easy to slot back in and it’s been really nice to be back.

He added: “It’s weird how things work out, I haven’t played at the Aviva Stadium in two or three years and then I’m there twice in two weeks! I’m looking forward to getting back there, it’s a great place to play rugby and it’s actually a pretty cool stadium, so I’m looking forward to it.”

When asked whether this weekend’s game could be similar to the Ireland versus England clash, Launchbury said he expects a different contest.

“I think it’s completely different; we’ve obviously got a few guys who were out there and they have gone through the same, but it’s a different group,” he said.

“It’s obviously fresh in my memory and I can hopefully relay some messages this week about what we can probably expect and I hope that can help the team, but overall it’s a different group of players and set of circumstances.

“We’ve got a whole squad here who have worked extremely hard to get into this position. We’ve got ourselves out of a very tough pool, there were times when we weren’t favourites to get out of it, so we want to do ourselves justice now.

“Leinster have obviously got some key players in their team who were important figures in the Ireland team, so naturally those individuals will shape how they play this weekend. They have quality throughout. You look at a player like Johnny Sexton and the influence he has on a team, that doesn’t disappear when he goes back to his club, so they have a similar style in some ways but obviously in other ways they’ll be different.”

He added: “For us as a team it’s exciting more than anything else; it’s a chance for us to go out there on a big stage and show what we can do. We’ve worked hard to get ourselves here, we’ve had a few big games over the last couple of years that we can draw on as experience and we want to keep having these big games. To go to the Aviva and get a win would be huge for us.”