From Castres to Croker: How Leinster turned it around
No-one could know it then but Jonathan Sexton’s try shortly before half-time, his side’s second that evening, would be their last in Europe for five long months. Until Gordon D’Arcy’s opening touch down on Saturday, to be precise.
It was a painful and bewildering turn of fortunes for a side renowned for its dash and verve, one that had scored 13 tries and tripped the light fantastic in their opening three games against Edinburgh, Wasps and Castres, at the RDS.
Leinster being Leinster, the brickbats weren’t long in coming but, to be fair, they gave their detractors plenty to work with after stuttering displays against Wasps in London and Edinburgh in Dublin.
The more they played the further away they seemed from ultimate glory.
Even the in-the-trenches win at Harlequins in the last eight was probed for faults and few held out hope for them against their southern brethren though they had conceded just three tries in seven European games prior to Saturday.
“Leinster is traditionally a target for a lot of people and I am not too sure what that is about,” said Cullen. “We are just going out every week as a group of players. We were happy with our league last year, disappointed with our European form.
“Our home games were flying but, on the road, we were pretty poor. Europe was what we targeted most this year. We were a bit messy in terms of getting out of our group at times and we had a bit of a scrappy win in the quarter-final.
“We are just trying to give ourselves a chance every week, trying to play to the best of our ability and be a bit more dogged. There is a lot of internal pressure in the group.
“Some guys have been around a while and some of us are running out of chances. You run out of years. We all want to be successful and we are excited about the prospects of being in the final and winning a trophy, for a second year in-a-row.”
Excited isn’t a word that does justice to the Leinster supporters who sang ‘cheerio’ to anyone in red seen leaving their seats at Croke Park before the final whistle, or those that waved a gleeful farewell to the Munster coach as it left the stadium.
After three previous stumbles at the semi-final stage, their team is finally in a European final and the manner of their win against Munster, as much as the victory itself, has left them giddy with delight.
Cullen can probably understand that but he believes the final scoreline does little to reflect the intensity and nip-or-tuck nature of a game which, in that sense, was the mirror image of its predecessor at Lansdowne Road in 2006.
“The scoreline doesn’t really reflect the closeness of the game. When we played Munster (earlier) this season they won by similar scorelines in both the games and I don’t think those scorelines reflected the games either,’’ Cullen said.
“I don’t think we were particularly clinical in taking our opportunities in the two earlier games and that was the big difference this time. We took our opportunities.”
Such diplomacy is admirable but the reality is that, the lineout aside, Leinster dominated in pretty much every department. Tony McGahan and Ronan O’Gara held their hands up afterwards and admitted as much.
“It is always hard to look back when you have been in the heat of battle,” said Cullen.
“They probably edged our lineout. That was the feeling I had throughout the game but the physical work around the breakdown, which is so important when you come up against a team of Munster’s quality, was the thing that would probably please us most about the game.”
It was a stunning performance and one which should finally allow them to emerge from the shadow that the semi-final defeats against Perpignan in 2003 and Munster three years ago had cast over them.
That it came against Munster was all the more pleasing.
Said Cullen: “Munster have been a great team … and still are a great team. They are the most successful team in Europe. You see the ERC rankings and they are way ahead of everyone else. They are a great bunch of players and have a great work ethic. Leinster have always aspired to be as successful as that and, yeah, there has been times when as a group of players we have been in good positions to progress in Europe and not capitalised on them.
“So, sure, it is pleasing but we are very realistic as well. Regardless of who is in the final, it is going to be another massive battle in a couple of weeks’ time.”
That it is and the danger for Leinster is that they treat this victory as the summit and not just an admittedly seminal staging post in their quest to become the third Irish province to wear the European crown.
All too often before Leinster have produced shocking and seismic displays back to back but Cullen’s own disappointments with Leicester in 2007 should go some way to guarding against any repeat.
“I have a Heineken Cup losers’ medal at home already and it is not something you bandy about the place and display with great pride. I am pretty keen not to have a second one.
“I want to go on and win another trophy.”
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