Tough few weeks await Leinster’s tyros, says captain Cullen

They may be the kings of Europe but Leinster captain Leo Cullen believes his back-to-back Heineken Cup winners have a tough few weeks ahead of them at the start of the RaboDirect Pro12 campaign.

While they have conquered all in the continent’s premier cup competition, the league has been something of a sore subject for Cullen and his colleagues having lost the last two finals, to Munster in 2011 and Ospreys last May. Both came a week after Cullen lifted the Heineken Cup and for the veteran second row, those defeats took more than a little shine off their European successes, not least this summer as the season came to a close with a dramatic charge to victory from Ospreys’ Dan Biggar, whose last-minute conversion of Shane Williams’ second try gave the Welshmen a 31-30 victory at the RDS.

Cullen confided that the defeat had left “mental scars” during the summer for those players that did not tour to New Zealand with Ireland. And it will be a little while again before Leinster get to utilise those internationals, who will be kept out of the fray by the IRFU’s player welfare programme until at least week four of the campaign.

That means head coach Joe Schmidt will be relying his wider squad to see them through difficult early season games starting on September 1 with a trip to Scarlets, the Welsh region led by new head coach Simon Easterby, brother of Leinster manager Guy Easterby, who will also provide stiff Heineken Cup pool opposition this season.

The size of the task in front of Leinster was brought into sharp focus last weekend when Cullen led a young second string out against a near full-strength Northampton Saints team and came out on the wrong end of a 46-0 thumping at Franklin’s Gardens, while Scarlets will have their contingent of Welsh Six Nations winners including George North and Rhys Priestland available from day one.

“There’s certainly a lot of challenges at the start of the season for us. I think it was highlighted there at the weekend in that game against Northampton,” Cullen said.

“A lot of those guys that played at the weekend will benefit in the long run. It’s good to give them the opportunity to play because they’re the guys Leinster are going to need as the season goes on.

“So it’s going to be challenging at the start of the year but it’s a bit of a slog to get yourself into position for the end of the season and we know we’ve got to go through this process.

“A lot of the teams have new coaches in place which brings new ideas and can rejuvenate a lot of teams with that first-season syndrome where everybody’s trying to push on and trying to impress. So there’s going to be some really strong challenges.

“I think all the teams are getting stronger so unless you’re improving quite dramatically yourself, you’re going to stand still, both on and off the field. So it’s an exciting year and I’m looking forward to the challenges.

“It’s difficult for us, starting off but that’s what makes it exciting as well.”