At the end of last year, huddled next to a radiator in the ornate but draped Great Hall, I sat down with Johnny Sexton to talk about his playing days, retirement and how rugby lured him back into coaching. Sexton was there as, 100 meters away, the Laya Arena opened to guests and press for the first time. The hall, known for years to sports fans as RDS, was nearing the end of a two-year renovation. Leinster, his old club, would return there for the 2026-27 season.
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“It’s been a long time, because Leinster have a world-class pitch,” commented Sexton. “It will be very much like that, but it still retains that intimate feel of the RDS, in terms of how close the crowd is to the pitch.”
Refurbishing the Royal Dublin Society Arena has been high on Leinster’s agenda since they moved there, from Donnybrook, in 2005. Up until that point the RDS had been synonymous with show jumping, the Dublin Horse Show and the six-season residency of Shamrock Rovers back in the 1990s. Michael Cheika and Malcolm O’Kelly posed for pictures at the stadium ahead of the game against Cardiff – pointing at things and having things pointed at them. The pictures are 21 years old, but look like they could be from the 1980s. Practically sepia.
The capacity of the field for rugby games was then 13,500. The new stand was ready in time for the 2007-08 season, but came without a roof. Leinster fans were lucky that it only rained for one of their 10 matches there that season. RDS, like Rome, was certainly not built in a day.
In July 2014, Mick Dawson, then Leinster chief executive, was front and center as the province announced plans to develop the arena into a “world-class 25,000 capacity stadium”. Work was due to begin in April 2016. Two years later, however, Dawson will say The Irish Times“The reason it hasn’t happened is we don’t have the money. Simple.”
Planning permission has expired for that ambitious 25,000-seat upgrade. By that stage, Leinster were taking a more sober, sensible approach. 20,600 was the new capacity figure, just over two thousand more than what had previously been available. There would be renovation of stands, facilities and business premises. Shane Nolan, who took over from Dawson as chief executive, said The Sunday Times Leinster hope to replicate the model perfected by La Rochelle – modest stadium capacity, improved fan experience, higher demand for season tickets, constant sell-outs. “They have an incredible atmosphere there (at the Stade Marcel-Deflandré),” Nolan said. “In terms of the fan experience, we stole a lot of ideas from there.”
For Leinster, the Laya Arena is our home. This is a place where we want to make teams hate to come and play. You want to make it as difficult and uncomfortable as possible.
Regardless of the stadium seats, sights and extras, the RDS Arena has been an extremely happy hunting ground for Leinster. During 20 seasons at the stadium, they won 189 of their 210 matches (rounding off a perfect 90% win rate), with two draws and just 19 defeats. There, they achieved 100 percent records in two seasons, 2013-14 and 2019-20.
Leinster moved to the Aviva Stadium for the 2025-26 season and, with the development of the RDS completed, remained there last season. “Guys playing at the Aviva all year round, for Leinster, I don’t think it was ideal,” admitted Sexton. “They would have to answer that themselves. For the opposition, going to the Aviva is a big day for them too. But for Leinster, the Laya Arena is our home. This is a place where we want to make teams hate having to come and play. You want to make it as difficult and uncomfortable as possible. When there were big European games here, the atmosphere was incredibly special.”
This Saturday, just a kilometer away from the Aviva Stadium, Leinster are back. A home with lots of fresh colors and a new sponsored name. Once again, Cardiff come to Dublin for a ribbon cutting. For Leinster whore, Dan Sheehan, it’s “extremely exciting” to return to an old haunt. “When we first heard we were going to be moving out, we were probably told it would only be a season, and now it’s been two full seasons. Obviously everyone has a lot of great memories here, so there’s a lot of excitement to make sure we get going and recreate that home-fortress feel.”
Sheehan made his debut at an empty RDS, in October 2020, as rugby worked out how to organize matches during the Covid pandemic. He marked that occasion with two tries against Zebre, and an unforgettable spot for Man of the Match on TV. “I remember the interview afterwards,” he says. “I was effing blinded because I was very untrained!”
“It’s a real club pitch, sharp and not perfect, which is what a home pitch should look like,” adds Sheehan. “Sometimes you go to these big stadiums and everything is too decorated, but this is a club ground.”
Leinster have announced their Champions Cup pool fixtures against Sale Sharks and Pau both will take place at Laya Arena. Their only match at the Aviva Stadium will be at the URC on October 24 against Munster. Sheehan said playing more European games on their actual home ground was “something that was talked about in the dressing room”.
“We didn’t want to play in a half-full Avava. We’d rather play in a full Laya Arena, which is definitely a lot more exciting. It’s a closer, more intimate feeling and I think we all look back on the good European days here. Hopefully we can do it again.”
Jimmy O’Brien picked up the last Man of the Match award to be handed out on the field, after scoring two tries in the win over Connacht. He was another to make his senior debut there, coming on for Conor O’Brien in the 52-7 rout of Ospreys. “I went to a few Christmas Inter-Pros at the RDS with my family growing up, but most of my memories of the place come from playing there,” he says. “The European games were always big, and I remember James Lowe supporting me with some nice words when I was coming up on my debut. Those days are always special and surreal, but they really stand out when they’re at home and you have family and friends there.”
Emmet Farrell has been with Leinster throughout their time in Ballsbridge. Farrell played for the province in the 90s and now switches between performance analyst duties and skills and kicking coach with the senior team. Asked for a standout memory at RDS, he offers Champions Cup wins Toulouse when the home fans were “electric”.
Caspar was really good. Soon it gets a lot of hype and you can see why. When you train with him, he’s just incredibly talented.
“Then,” he adds, “when we won the league final against Ulster in 2013. The final was supposed to be at the Kingspan Stadium and they had to move it back to the RDS (as the Ulster Ravenhill ground was being rebuilt). There was a huge crowd from Ulster more and more, the atmosphere was electric. Both groups of fans had a really good time throughout the game and it was a real tough war on the pitch.”
Leinster go into Saturday’s game at 13th position, while Cardiff is second after the Sharks. The current league champions have lost their first two games since Lions and the Sharks, but at least he came home from South Africa with three bonus points and the positive performance of his junior corps. O’Brien singled out fly-half Caspar Gabriel and back-row Josh Ericson for praise after they started both games. “Kaspar was really good. He got a lot of praise in the coming period and you can see why. When you train with him, he’s just incredibly talented…the same with Josh. He came in last year and had a few opportunities, but you could see that in training. He’s a bit of a freak athlete; one of the fastest in the squall, he was probably the fastest in the squall. and he’s so big.”
Farrell is preparing the players for the Cardiff outfit, who he says are “definitely the strongest Welsh team”. “They beat us twice last year,” he points out, “so they’d be very confident. They’ve had a really strong start to the season, with an away win (over Scarlets) in the Welsh derby and a nice, comfortable win on Friday night against Zebra.”
“They have really good half-backs,” he adds. “From my point of view, Callum Sheedy is playing very well. Their tactical striking is strong so we will have to be very confident at the back. Their aerial game is very strong. They did a bit of work on us in Cardiff where they won a lot of aerial contests so we have to make sure we turn that trend around.”