Cullen not bitter over Sarries success

Leo Cullen claims he feels no sense of bitterness towards Saracens who thwarted Leinster’s Heineken Champions Cup ambitions in last May’s final at St James’ Park in Newcastle.

The English club has not been accused of breaking any EPCR rules, but they have been docked 35 points and fined over £5m (€5.8m) this week for breaches of the Premiership’s salary cap.

The club has already indicated plans to appeal but, as things stand, Mark McCall’s side have claimed the last two domestic titles by breaking rules and it is hardly a stretch to suggest that doing so aided their continental ambitions too.

“We just want to pit ourselves against the best that’s out there so, how those teams are assembled, that’s for someone else to worry about in terms of what the regulations on those teams are,” said the Leinster head coach.

So much had gone right for Leinster in the first half that day. They went ten 10 points up against a side that lost a man to the bin and their two starting props before the break and still they failed to kill off the Saracens challenge.

He can understand why other English clubs would be sour about the manner in which Saracens went about their business but there is too much happening in the here and now to cry over spilt milk.

First order of business on the pitch is today’s Guinness PRO14 meeting with Connacht at the Sportsground. The hosts are unbeaten inGalway since early January and have a habit of turning Leinster over on their own patch.

Cullen has named six of Joe Schmidt’s Ireland squad for the evening. Most notably, Robbie Henshaw starts at outside-centre and will be playing at the ground for the first time since making the switch from Connacht to Leinster.

Luke McGrath, Cian Healy and Andrew Porter are the other returnees from Japan to be named in the XV. Rhys Ruddock and Rob Kearney will start the game on the bench while Connacht have named Jack Carty at ten 10 with Bundee Aki among thereserves.

That’s eight of the World Cup squad in total. Leinster have another eight to draft in as they look ahead to thefollowing weekend’sEuropean opener at home against Benetton and Cullen knows that it will require some careful consideration.

The manner of Ireland’s exit from the World Cup was painful and rebooting mind and body in the wake of such experiences, as is the case even after successful Lions trips, is not always straightforward.

Cullen has personal experience of this having been a member of the Ireland squad that accounted for Australia at the 2011 tournament only to be turfed out by the Welsh in yet another disappointing quarter-final. Decisions will be made on a “case-by-case” basis, he said.

“It’s going to be a little bit of an anti-climax for guys coming back in. That’s just a fact that we have to deal with. And it depends. Like, some guys have had a major involvement in terms of leadership, experience, age profile etc etc.

Other guys, it’s their first time, they’ve played more of a peripheral role in the tournament so it really is dependent. There’s not exactly one rule for everybody.

Leinster have fared more than okay in their absence. Five wins from five have been banked by a team awash with youth and potential andbackboned by the likes ofScott Fardy, James Lowe and Devin Toner.

As Cullen pointed out, Leinster are in much better shape now than four years ago when he was in his first campaign as boss and the club was still coming to terms with the losses of Jonathan Sexton and Isa Nacewa.

He knows too that Galway is no place for the fainthearted or anyone whose mind may still be stuck on Japanese time. Connacht have won four of the last nine games played between the teams at the venue.

The biggest win in this last decade was the home team’s 47-10 triumph in April of last year. The flip side to that was Leinster’s impressive statement five months later when they returned home with a 20-3 victory.

“In many ways it’s a perfect game for our guys because we know how tough it is down there and we need to embrace the challenge of playing against Connacht in Galway, which hasn’t always been a happy place for us to play.

“There’s a lot of pressure,” said Cullen. “It’s a great place to play because the crowd are into you down there from minute one of the game. The pressure builds on us if we’regetting distracted by all the other variables that are going on down there.”