Back to the drawing board for Leo Cullen and Leinster

Leinster 16 Toulon 20: The economy is on the up again and a sparkling Aviva Stadium was nine-tenths full, but this had the feel of distant greyer days when the country’s economy was in the toilet and Lansdowne Road was still very much a celebration of concrete.

How many times did an Irish rugby team spring from the traps in the old place only to be reeled inevitably in by bigger and better forces? This was the original of that species: The wince-inducing game of two halves with a quick start followed by a slow and inexorable death.

To be fair, there was more to Leinster than the up-the-jumper stuff we associated for so long with Ireland back in the day. They played with verve, skill, and intelligence in that first 40. The 16-5 lead they claimed through a penalty try and 11 points from Jonathan Sexton was well earned.

What followed was humbling. Leinster wouldn’t score again and they found themselves besieged in their own half, deprived of possession and squeezed by the behemoths of Toulon to such an extent that they would concede a dozen penalties and 15 points in that second stanza.

Smothered, was Leo Cullen’s word for it. He wasn’t wrong. It was defeat by blunt force trauma.

By the end, Toulon were deprived of the try bonus point only because the TMO ruled out Mamuka Gorgodze’s touch down after Juan Smith, a penalty try and Anthony Etrillard five-pointers had made up for the inaccuracies of Eric Escande and Tom Taylor with the boot.

That all three tries emanated from the forwards was hardly a coincidence.

Previous losses to Wasps, Bath and Toulon had already killed Leinster’s ambitions of extending their European campaign beyond January, but this was more definitive and depressing, regardless of the final four-point margin.

That Leinster played so well for so long only added to the gloom. The previous weekend’s loss in Toulon was peppered with ‘what ifs?’ None ate away at them this time. Sexton was considerably better, so too their skills and, until the second-half onslaught, their discipline.

This was something akin to a best shot and it still wasn’t enough.

Four times this pair of three-time European champions have met and Toulon have won every one. Three of those have contributed to Leinster’s run of five straight Euro losses. The transition of power from Dublin to the Med has been astonishingly quick and ruthless.

And the hand-wringing is gathering pace.

Few players or coaches possess an appetite for deep public introspection when the embers are still burning, but Cullen found himself quizzed for a good 20 minutes on issues far more complicated than tackle counts or refereeing decisions.

“It’s getting more and more difficult for us to compete,” he said at one point. Leinster nurture young Irishmen through their academy, Toulon “buy 16 foreigners”, all of them hard-bitten Test veterans. There is, he said, a need for Leinster to reassess. What might he mean?

His predecessor, Matt O’Connor, fell foul of Joe Schmidt and the IRFU by labouring on the constraints of the player management system. Cullen neglected to delve too deeply into such deep-rooted issues of state. Wisely, probably.

He spoke of style issues as well as recruitment. Leinster have wrestled continental beef before, but Toulon are a different beast and the provincial coach returned time and again to the question of the French side’s power, particularly off the bench.

“They just wore us down with power, that’s the reality,” he claimed, though there was a very definite air of annoyance from the amiable head coach when it was suggested that Toulon hadn’t exactly reinvented the wheel by leaning on muscle.

There was talk, too, of “small margins” on Saturday night, but this is bigger than that. Joe Schmidt talks about how his Irish side needs to do almost everything right to live with sides that are bigger and badder than them and the same applies for the provinces.

The provinces may or may not be afforded the extra euro to attract a Brad Thorn or a Doug Howlett again down the line, but the supply line will remain an academy system which, in Leinster’s case, is still operating at close to peak power. Their future starts now. Sexton is nursing a tight quad, Ben Te’o came off with a concussion and Mike Ross seems a medium-term doubt after tearing or straining a hamstring. Maybe now we’ll see more of the Tadhg Furlongs and Garry Ringroses. Two dead rubbers, against Bath and Wasps, next month, seem tailor-made for that.

“You can’t throw a load of young guys in and make them lambs to the slaughter, you have to do what is right for their development,” said Cullen. “They need to be managed and get positive experiences, the balance is crucial.

“You’re always thinking a couple of weeks ahead.”

LEINSTER:

R Kearney; D Kearney, B Te’o, L Fitzgerald; J Sexton, E Reddan; J McGrath, R Strauss, M Ross; D Toner, M McCarthy; R Ruddock, J van der Flier, J Heaslip.

Replacements:

M Moore for Ross (25); I Madigan for Te’o (39); C Healy for McGrath and S Cronin for Strauss (both 46); T Denton for McCarthy (57); Z Kirchner for Sexton (67); J Murphy for Heaslip (70); N McCarthy for Reddan (77).

TOULON:

D Armitage; B Habana, M Bastareaud, M Nonu, D Mitchell; M Giteau, E Escande; F Fresia, G Guirado, M Stevens; J Suta, R Taofifenua; J Smith, S Armitage, D Vermeulen.

Replacements:

K Mikautadze for Taofifenua (13-20 and 51); X Chiocci for Fresia, A Etrillard for Guirado and L Chilachava for Stevens (all 46); T Taylor for D Armitage (47); JM Fernandez Lobbe for Smith (57); M Gorgodze for Suta (67).

Referee:

W Barnes (England).