Leo Cullen: ‘Player rotation not giving us marked advantage’

By Brendan O’Brien

Leo Cullen has taken issue with the perception that Irish provinces will approach an opening round of Champions Cup fixtures where they face a trio of English Premiership opponents with a marked advantage thanks to a policy of player rotation.

The advantages of the IRFU’s player management system are debated countless times every season but there has been a clear tinge of jealousy from across the Irish Sea at times and that may well be the case this week as European duties come into view.

Ulster, Leinster and Munster faced Anglo opposition nine times last season and won all but one of them. The sight of a fit Jonathan Sexton sitting in the Aviva Stadium stands two days ago as Leinster faced Munster in the Guinness PRO14 will only feed what is a familiar narrative.

The early action in the PRO14 does lend itself to the debate, to be fair. Numerous sides, from various countries, have used second-string sides away from home through the initial rounds, so much so that the home win ratio in the league is far north of those in England or in France.

Cullen believes the issue is more nuanced than that however. “You see it now with the Premiership teams too. They are starting to adopt a model where they start rotating too. Bath didn’t send 12 guys down to Saracens and I’ve seen Wasps, a couple of times this season, load their bench and make seven or eight changes as well. So they are doing something similar themselves.”

Leinster get the defence of their title underway with a visit of Wasps to the RDS on Friday evening and Cullen needs no reminding of the fact that the two-time champions romped to a 33-6 win at the same venue in the opening round of the competition three years ago.

“They’ve got so much pace. The team has changed slightly. I remember George Smith and (Charles) Piutau were in their side at that time. Plus the power of guys like Nathan Hughes and Ashley Johnson. They have Joe Launchbury, who is a quality international second row. (Danny) Cipriani is gone from when we played them here a couple of years ago, but (Lima) Sopoaga has been added. They’ll be a tough challenge again.”