Former Leinster and Ulster coach Matt Williams spoke on Tuesday's OTB AM about Leinster versus Saracens and the difference between English and Irish rugby.

For the second year in a row, Leinster were knocked out of Europe by Saracens after not being able to compete with their physicality on the day.

This has been a reoccurring theme for Irish teams against English opposition, and Williams believes it is because Irish teams are being out-thought.

“England are pretty good, that is hard to say, but England are doing things really smart at the top end of English rugby, not all of English rugby,” Williams said.

“The English national team has completely out-thought Ireland in the last two Six Nations championships.

“They have been outstanding in the way they picked Ireland part from the first day at the Aviva two years ago to Twickenham last year; they’ve literally picked Ireland apart at the seams.

“Saracens have pretty much done the same.”

Leinster errors cost them

Williams lamented the number of errors made by Leinster in their last two outings against Saracens.

Leinster made errors last year which kept Saracens in the game, and this year their errors never allowed them to get into the game.

On Saturday, Williams suggested that Leinster made errors that you would yell at 16-year-olds for, such as running into touch or getting turned over after a good maul five metres out.

Despite the errors, Williams does not believe Leo Cullen's men are that far off beating Saracens, however, he does believe that Ireland have a long way to go to beat England.

“Leinster are making errors against Saracens, it’s true that Saracens are forcing them into it, but [they] aren’t a million miles away,” Williams said.

“They’re not getting ‘hockeyed’ off the park.

“There were things that were wrong, but they’re not far off, whereas the Irish national team, that’s a different kettle of fish.

“They are picked apart, they’re a million miles off it.

“Leinster are the second-best team in Europe. I don’t know that Ireland are the second-best national team in Europe and their certainly not the second-best national team in the world.”

Leinster playing on two fronts

Saracens had gone into the Champions Cup quarter-final with nothing to lose, having spent their entire season building up to that match.

This was because they had already been relegated from the Gallagher Premiership due to a 70-point deduction because they were guilty of breaching the salary cap.

Williams believes that this aided to Leinster’s difficulties on Saturday.

“I know it was at home, I know it was COVID, but they had great opponents who had nothing to focus on but that game for seven or eight months.

“Leinster had been playing on two fronts and it just caught up with them.”

Ireland are not Leinster

Williams thinks that Ireland will be a very different case than that of Leinster.

“When we come out against France next month, let’s just assume they’ll do the business against Italy, against France will be a very telling time for the national side,” Williams said.

“[It will show] how their tactics have evolved and changed, and they must.

“If they don’t when they come up against England again, they will get belted again.”

Williams suggested that Leinster are better-suited to overcoming their English foes than the national side is.

“The way that the national team is playing, it does not have the resources and the thinking to overcome the English, but Leinster do,” Williams said.

“[They just] have to get the errors out of the game that they showed last week.”

They were due a loss

Williams still believes that Leinster are one of the best teams in Europe.

He suggested that they simply forgot what it was like to go up against a team that knows how to beat them.

"Leinster do know that when they front up against Mark McCall's team, there is a team that knows how to beat them," Williams said.

"That is very unusual for Leinster, because Leinster [have won] 25 games straight.

"I don't think that's ever going to be beaten in Irish club rugby, or if it [is beaten] it is going to be by an unbelievably good team.

"But I don't believe that is going to be beaten for many, many years."

Williams thinks that every team's unbeaten run must come to an end at some point.

"They were due for a loss," he said.

"Leinster just made errors. Is it [that they were] spooked? Well, Leinster aren't a bunch of children.

"They are a highly experienced side that have won European Cups and won their domestic competition on multiple occasions.

"But Saracens are a team that are negative, and they play negative really well."

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