By rights, it should really be regarded as Leinster’s second biggest game of the season, superseded only by the Champions Cup final against Bordeaux Bègles in Bilbao. As demonstrated by Leinster’s four-year attempt to finally win a competition they used to routinely hoover up, the URC has never been harder to win. The arrival of the four South African franchises has, of course, had quite a bearing on that.It may not have the history of the Premiership in England and certainly not of the French Championship, but the URC is unquestionably a tougher competition to win than the former.on Friday at Croke Park, Leinster defend their URC title in a repeat of last season’s final at the same venue against the mighty Bulls from Pretoria. Leinster are Irish and European rugby royalty. The same can be said for the Bulls in South African and southern hemisphere rugby.Leinster have won four Champions Cups and a record nine versions of what is now the URC. The Bulls have won three Super Rugby titles and nine Currie Cups. Leinster have undoubtedly been weakened by injuries, notably of late to Andrew Porter, but they will still field a side largely comprised of Irish internationals as well as Rieko Ioane.The Bulls are seeking to atone for three previous final losses, having also come up short against the Stormers and Glasgow at home in 2022 and 2024. Behind a hard-nosed, uber-physical pack, their backs are sprinkled with two-time World Cup winners in Handré Pollard and Willie le Roux and the stardust of Canan Moodie and Kurt-Lee Arendse. To have such a thunderous final in our capital should be a source of celebration. Ticket prices start at €20 for adults and €10 for children. Yet, as of Monday, sales are seemingly between 25,000 and 30,000. It remains to be seen how interest levels are piqued between now and Friday, and how the weather pans out. But despite an extra week since the semi-finals compared to last season, it looks likely that the attendance will fall short of the 46,127 for Leinster’s commanding 32-7 win 12 months ago. The combined attendances for the province’s home quarter-final and home semi-final, of 24,839, is also down on last season’s total of 32,641. Three seasons ago, the figure was 41,257 for the same two ties. Even more alarming has been the significant decline in attendances for Leinster’s Champions Cup knockout ties. In each of the last four campaigns, Leinster have earned (note “earned”) home ties in the round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals. In 2022-23, the aggregate attendance for the three games was 125,323. This increased in 2023-24 to 173,140. However, last season that figure dropped to 120,234 and this season their three ties drew 78,885 – less than half the total of 2023-24. Of course, there were many mitigating factors for the reduced interest. Two seasons ago Leinster hosted Leicester and La Rochelle in fairly plum ties which attracted 40,000 and 50,000 crowds and the novelty factor of a Croke Park semi-final drew a capacity 82,300.By contrast, this season they drew Edinburgh – familiar URC opponents whom they’d beaten with a second-string team five weeks previously – at teatime on an Easter Sunday. This was followed by Sale Sharks and Toulon, less glamorous opponents than some of their Premiership and Top 14 opponents who brought small amounts of travelling fans.Ticket supply far outweighed demand for Leinster's URC semi-final victory against Stormers at the Aviva Stadium on June 6th. Photograph: Henry Simpson/Inpho