Cullen wary of unusual Saracens threats

QUICK feet, great pace out wide, good kicking. And that’s just the hooker.

Saracens, says Leinster captain Leo Cullen, will offer his Heineken Cup hopefuls a strong and varied challenge at Wembley Stadium this evening (5.45pm).

After an inconsistent start to their season under new head coach Joe Schmidt, Leinster finally clicked into gear at the RDS last Saturday to get their pool two campaign up and running with a 38-22 win over French side Racing Metro.

Now comes English opposition with a South African tinge on the wide expanses of the Wembley veldt and Cullen, newly rehabilitated from a shoulder injury and figuring in a match-day squad for the first time this season, is a big admirer of the work done by Saracens under director of rugby Brendan Venter.

“What they seem to have built, as have a lot of teams in England, is a real sense of unity about what they do and it seems to stem from Brendan Venter,” Cullen said. “He’s done a remarkable job in 18 months from where they were at to where they are now. Any team coached by him is going to be a threat because his enthusiasm seems to be pretty contagious. They mix it up, they have a really high work-rate.”

That could be a way to describe Saracens’ former Springbok Schalk Brits, the hooker who to Cullen appears to defy type.

“He seems to have free realm to do what he wants. For example, if we have a lineout on our line he’ll generally be the one who drops back, who takes the kicks, so he’s almost like an extra back three player the way he plays on attacks for them.

“He seems to have electric feet the way he can step off you and he’s a real threat. He’s got a lot of pace and in general phase he seems to be in the wider channels quite a lot, as is (Ernst) Joubert, their number eight, who spends a lot of time in their wider channels as well. They’re serious threats, definitely.”

And then there is fellow lock Steve Borthwick, the former England captain who will offer a lineout battle to Leinster’s starting second row of Devin Toner and Nathan Hines.

“He’s very good, very experienced. He’d be highly respected in England in the way he runs the team and runs the lineout in particular, so the three of us – Hinesy, myself and Dev – have done quite a bit of work analysing his lineout, and he’s a good operator.”

Getting some game time off the bench would be a major leap forward for Cullen, who said he was delighted to be involved for the first time since suffering a shoulder injury against Edinburgh on May 9 that required surgery.

“I’m excited to be back in the squad, even just training fully back with the team makes a big difference,” he said.