Leo Cullen: We'd love if all of Ireland got behind Leinster, but that's not how it works
Leinster head coach Leo Cullen. Picture: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Truly, this rivalry is the gift that keeps on giving. Go back a week, after Leinster had tamed the Leicester Tigers and La Rochelle weathered the Stormers, and it seemed like we had everything we thought we needed to tee up this blockbuster of an Investec Champions Cup quarter-final.
Then Ronan O’Gara actioned the contingency plan put in place before their visit to South Africa and Stade Rochelais made for Cork rather than the west coast of France. His native city opened its doors and its arms to a son that, as the current mayor informed the players one night, had been given the freedom of the city seven years ago.
From their digs at the Fota Island Resort and the practises held at Temple Hill and Virgin Media Park, to the dinner in Isaacs and the craic and trad sessions enjoyed in The Cork Arms and Sin É, its been a novel and captivating week. And an entertaining adjunct to what was already the preeminent ‘European’ club rivalry.
“Yeah, there seems to be a bit of a Cork bandwagon,” said Leinster head coach Leo Cullen at yesterday’s press conference. “The mafia have jumped onto the bandwagon along with La Rochelle. Yeah, it’s great, isn’t it? That’s what sport needs, doesn’t’ it? And I’m glad that we’re a part of it.”
Cullen went on to talk at great length about the differences in club models. He has done this many, many times, reframing a Leinster side that is the apex predator in an Irish context as a plucky little critter trying to sock it to the big French beasts with their wealthy benefactors and ballooning TV deals.
“For us, we’re the only Irish team in the competition and you’d love if all of Ireland got behind you. That’s not the way it works, as we know, but we’re the last man standing of the Irish provinces. The Bulls and ourselves are the last two teams from the URC in the competition. So, we’re representing the competition that we play in.”
Visting French journalists were taken aback at how much more laidback Cullen was here compared to his media duties prior to the finals lost to La Rochelle in the past two seasons. The only time the air cooled was when he was asked about Peter O’Mahony’s new Munster contract.
“It feels weird talking about Peter O'Mahony here today,” he suggested, having already sidestepped another unrelated query about the mooted World Club Cup.
“Ronan will be in here after, they were being hosted down in Cork Con this week, Donal Lenihan organised a few things for them this week, so maybe ask the lads.”
If La Rochelle are in Leinster’s heads then it would hardly come as a shock.
Those three knockout defeats in the past three seasons – one semi and two deciders – were salved only slightly by the 16-9 win in Stade Marcel Deflandre last December and, while Cullen made talk about focusing on their own jobs rather than events in Cork this week, his team selection is tailored specifically for the visitors.
Will Connors starts a Champions Cup game for the first time since that day with Josh van der Flier once again dropping to the bench. Why? Because Connors is “the best chop tackler” in the business, he explained. Using the big Bok Jason Jenkins in the second row and keeping Ross Molony in reserve is another nod to beef ranged against them.
The hope is that these selections tick two crucial boxes: in negating the first La Rochelle wave and then in ensuring that Leinster have a deep enough bench to finish out this end game having fallen so frustratingly short at the death in the Marseille and Dublin finals in 2022 and 2023.
The 6/2 bench split speaks even louder for that while it is a big day for Ryan Baird who starts but will also be tasked with calling a lineout that, like Ireland’s, hasn’t always been perfect and contributes so much to the province’s attacking arsenal. That needs to sing today and their conversion rate in the 22 needs to be better too.
The four-time winners are without their co-captains Garry Ringrose and James Ryan through injury. Those are big losses in terms of leadership and ability but La Rochelle have their own absentees. The unavailability of men like Remi Wardi, Pierre Bourgarit and Georges-Henri Colombes from the pack, and Brice Dulin at full-back, are significant.
Cullen talked openly about targeting the 20-year old loosehead Louis Penverne and there is no doubt but that this is as big an ask for La Rochelle as it is Leinster. Their form has been patchy and that travel has to be a factor, but there are question marks over Leinster’s game too, their physicality and their head space.
Those defeats have been brutal in execution and in consequence. Robbie Henshaw spoke of the “mental fatigue” the province suffered in the course of them. Cullen touched on the “painful lessons” learned. Another known unknown here is just how the new blitz defence stands up to the French behemoths and zippy flyboys.
Jacques Nienaber said it would take 14 weeks to embed it. Twenty have passed since but then the Ireland contingent was absent on Six Nations duties for two months of that. It all leaves us grasping at yet another straw ahead of a fifth chapter where the reward will feel so much greater than a semi-final.
Tickets went on sale last Sunday morning. By yesterday lunchtime the province was confirming that almost 50,000 of the 51,700 Aviva Stadium capacity had been accounted for. The Leinster-Leicester last-eight tie 12 months ago peaked at 27,000. Astonishing.
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