Maybe we got complacent, admits Leo Cullen

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen believes his team’s poor start to Sunday’s Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Clermont may have been due to the province’s run of 12 games unbeaten.

Leinster had not lost in all of 2017 before coming up against the Top 14 side last Sunday, with the last defeat coming against Munster in Thomond Park on St Stephen’s Day.

Three weeks ago they made easy work of quarter-final opponents Wasps, beating the then Premiership leaders 32-17 at the Aviva Stadium, but they endured a tougher day in Lyon at the weekend, losing 27-22 after being 15-0 down inside a torrid opening quarter.

Cullen will leave no stone unturned as the coaching unit look to explain the side’s poor start — but an early theory is that the side were expecting to automatically turn up in France in the same form that had helped them get there.

“We had that to a certain extent in the PRO12 final last year,” Cullen said of their defeat to Connacht last May.

“Sometimes that comes as well off the back of when you’ve won a number of games.

“Thinking back to the PRO12, we had a really good performance [against Ulster] in the semi-final and because you have that feelgood factor, you think you are just going to carry on where you left off.

“We’ve been on a good run recently, but unfortunately, we just got a bit of a shock at the start. You are always riding that balance of complacency and confidence.”

Cullen said he had ‘100% faith’ his youthful team were capable of lifting the Champions Cup this season, and still had faith in them at half-time when they were trailing 15-3.

But while this group of players have come a long way in a short time, facing a side like Clermont in front of a boisterous French crowd is something they had yet to experience.

“Definitely from our end as coaches maybe we could have done things differently,” said Cullen.

“I think we got a lot of things right. We just didn’t manage certain situations well during the game but it’s very hard to throw people into that.

“It’s very hard to throw people into that atmosphere of 41,000 people. It’s hard to replicate that on the training field; the pressure, the tension, the anxiety that comes with that.

“There were little errors in our game. A lot of the time it is because they want it so badly they’re trying so hard, it forces the errors.”

Leinster looked a different team in the second half, and came close to a famous comeback win only for the French to show their nerves — and experience — in the final minutes.

“When we were behind, it was almost like ‘we’re relaxed now so we know what we have to do — we’ll chase the game’,” said Cullen.

“At the start of the game, sometimes, it can be the hardest. You get that anxiety that builds up and players make uncharacteristic errors because they are forcing things so hard. It was that little bit of composure that we needed.

“I knew it would be tight against Clermont. Them and Sarries have shown they’re the best two teams in Europe over the last couple of seasons and against those teams, particularly away from home, you need to get a lot right and we probably didn’t get enough right.

“The players would love another crack at it. Unfortunately you don’t get that chance, and it’s a bloody long way until you get into another European semi-final again. Hopefully it’s only a year.”