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.