Leo Cullen: 'We had more chances but they took theirs better so plenty for us to work on"

Cullen during the Ulster contest at RDS Arena.

We’ve long since stopped reading much into Leinster wins this early in the season. Sweeping aside all-comers in mid-term has not equated to silverware come the spring this last two seasons after all, so what does defeat here tell us?

How much should we read into it?

Leo Cullen didn’t look or sound like a man despondent after a one-point loss that could just as easily have been another imperfect win. Instead, it’s a home defeat to a local rival and one that threw up some issues old and new.

Leinster were chasing a tenth consecutive win here but a lack of ruthlessness in the opposing 22 has been a theme this last few months and it hurt them against Ulster with three tries scored a disappointing return for so much territory and possession.

Snapshots stand out. Jamison Gibson-Park floating a needlessly long pass on the Ulster line that was intercepted by Luke Marshall as the hosts chased the go-ahead score late on is probably the most obvious and unnecessary of them.

“We need to be better there,” said Cullen. “We were down on their try line there with about ten minutes to go and we were just a bit impatient. We knew it was going to be hard to get down there again so hugely frustrating but huge credit to Ulster. They were more clinical. We had more chances than them but they took theirs better so plenty for us to work on.” Ulster claimed three tries of their own, all of them coming in the first-half and thanks in no small part to the sublime kicking from the hand of out-half Billy Burns who targeted and punished space out wide in the face of Leinster’s blitz defence.

Jacques Nienaber’s influence in this regard has been obvious in the short time he has spent in Dublin and maybe it's inevitable that there will be growing pains, especially with the churn of personnel adopted by the province at this time of year.

“They did create some space for sure but I thought we had a lot of pressure on them at different stages,” said Cullen. “What was disappointing was the way that we started the game. We just need to be a bit sharper in terms of seeing some of those pictures as well.

“Again we have plenty to work on and we have chopped and changed our team a lot as well and you are trying to build that cohesion part and I will take responsibility for that too. Unfortunately, we weren’t quite good enough today.

“I thought we would be good enough and I thought we had chances to win it but didn’t take them.” Cullen played down the losses before kick-off of James Ryan and Jimmy O’Brien as minor niggles similar to the one that sidelined Gibson-Park in Limerick last week while there were slivers of updates on the absent Ross Byrne and James Lowe.

Lowe is said to be back running and it seems he may play some part in the upcoming Champions Cup window having been out of sight since the World Cup. Byrne’s return may be a bit further down the line.