Cullen aims to avoid chasing Pro12 wins

Leo Cullen’s bitter disappointment at Leinster’s failure to make the Pro12 play-offs last season has made the new head coach determined not to lose focus on the league campaign as the Champions Cup pool phase looms large.

Leinster play host to current leaders Scarlets at the RDS tonight before switching attention to European rugby and a pool of death featuring fellow tournament champions Bath, Toulon and Wasps. Yet before concentrating on the visit of Wasps to Dublin a week tomorrow, Cullen wants to avoid the prospect of chasing Pro12 results later in the season.

Matt O’Connor’s side fought a campaign on two fronts last spring as the province reached the Champions Cup semi-final but paid the price with a poor run of post-Christmas league form that left them in fifth place at the end of the regular season, their first absence from the top four since 2003-04.