Leo Cullen turns his sights to Northampton Saints

Following his side’s impressive bonus point victory over Newport Gwent Dragons in the Guinness PRO12 on Saturday evening, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen was quick to focus minds on Friday’s crunch Champions Cup encounter with Northampton.

After moving up to second place in the table, the Blues face a short turnaround for their trip to Franklin’s Garden - and Cullen is eager for his players to make amends for last season’s disappointing European campaign.

“It’s a challenge, because it is a short week. We play on Friday, so we only get really two decent sessions with the team. There is a big onus on the players this week in terms of getting up to speed. It is a big challenge but an exciting one. This next block of seven games is significant. It’s fair to say we were disappointed with how Europe went last season, so it is a huge focus for us.”