Leo Cullen says players need to be managed carefully

Beat Treviso, score four tries and book a home Guinness PRO12 semi-final.

It’s a straightforward proposition for Leinster at the RDS this afternoon, but the journey to this point has been long and complicated for rookie head coach Leo Cullen who has had to learn on the hoof through a World Cup season which all too often weakened his hand.

The toll is apparent in the fact that the number of Irish internationals absent from the 23 for this encounter is just shy of double figures and most of those are injury-related - from Ian Madigan who has a tweaked knee to Mike McCarthy who was stood down with concussion weeks ago.