Pat Spillane hated comparisons between Mayo and ‘pampered’ Leinster

He was not at all pleased.

After yet another under-par performance in a Champions Cup knockout game on the weekend, Leinster, their players, and management were rightly questioned.

Given their numerous advantages, including population, number of private schools, and central contracts from the IRFU, they have been serial under achievers since they last won the Champions Cup in 2018.

Naturally, comparisons were drawn with the Mayo Gaelic football team, who have not won the All-Ireland since 1951, and have lost 10 finals since 1996.

However, Kerry legend Pat Spillane utterly disagreed with these opinions, citing what he perceives as favourable treatment to the Leinster team in the media, and the fact that they are professional athletes.

Speaking on the Indo GAA podcast, he said: "I have great affection for Mayo. Mayo as a people. Mayo as a county, and Mayo footballers down through the years. They're warriors, they die with their boots on.

"And I was looking at all the jokes last weekend, 'ah, Leinster are the Mayo of rugby'. That's unfair.

"The most highly-paid professional team in the British Isles, added with two world class players in Snyman and Jordie Barrett, and they fail yet again. And they're professionals.

"They're paid to do a job, and when they get defeated they deserve to be criticised.

"But I look at the analysis of rugby and it's a cosy little setup because it's an old-boys network, it's a school network. They're all palsy-wally with each other, there's no critical or serious analysis.

"And I look at the Irish team, there's only eight top rugby teams in the world. Eight countries that are top, and Ireland haven't got the last eight ever in the World Cup, and that's the number one competition.

"And yet we sort of glorify failure, they're moral victories, and we blame a referee.

"And I see the same with Leinster last week. I didn't see the criticism because it is all ex-players and I don't see the criticism of Leinster, which they deserve, because they're highly paid to do a job and yet they failed yet again.

"And I feel it's so wrong to compare them with Mayo, these Leinster players.

"Because they're the darlings of the media, they're the darlings of corporate Ireland. Life goes on, they get paid, they get increased contracts, they get more sponsorship.

"Mayo lads were back in work on Monday morning. And they're doing it for the love of the county, for the green and red, and I just felt, to compare them with Leinster rugby is wrong."