Leo Cullen: It's a privilege to be at Croke Park. It's a magnificent stadium
Luke McGrath with Micheal Ala'Alatoa and Jamison Gibson-Park. Picture: ©INPHO/Ben Brady
Leinster boss Leo Cullen wants his side to do justice to the ”real privilege” of playing at Croke Park when they play at the iconic GAA stadium in Saturday’s Champions Cup semi-final against Northampton Saints.
Cullen was Leinster captain when the last club rugby match was played at the 82,000-plus capacity in 2009, a 25-6 Heineken Cup semi-final victory over arch rivals Munster and he hopes his current playing squad can produce a similar outcome on their return to the venue on Dublin’s northside for a match that sold out within hours of tickets going on sale.
Speaking after Leinster’s eve of match training session at Corke Park on Friday, Cullen said: "It's a real privilege to be here, it's a magnificent stadium. It's iconic, not just in terms of sport but in Irish society.
"For this generation of players to get that chance, Cian (Healy) being the only one that's still there from the previous time Leinster played here 15 years ago.
"I hope we do it justice this week, the guys have prepared well. Not just this week, but the previous week as well.
"We'd a chunk of guys who travelled to South Africa, so that's the big thing - to make sure the guys do themselves justice really.
"That’s what it is about playing in a great arena in front of lots of support. It’s an amazing response that the crowd have given the team on the back of the previous couple of knockout games that we have had at the Aviva. Everyone is looking forward to it now.
"We talk about this point quite often, when we are at this moment, sitting in a press room somewhere and you just want to press fast forward and get on with the game. Everyone has to go through their normal rituals and get themselves ready for the action.”
Cullen will have to continue without the services of injured Ireland backline duo Hugo Keenan and Garry Ringrose and though no neither the full-back nor the outside centre was available for the quarter-final victory over back-to-back defending champions La Rochelle at Aviva Stadium last month, the head coach has made two changes to that starting line-up.
Josh van der Flier comes in at openside flanker to replace Will Connors while Ross Molony is called into the second row at the expense of Jason Jenkins while Cullen has reverted from a 6-2 split among his replacement options to five forwards and three backs, meaning Connors misses out altogether while outside back replacement Jimmy O’Brien returning from a lengthy neck injury.
"Garry, he was making good progress at the start of the week and he's not quite right. Similarly, Hugo was never really going to be right this week.
"Garry's probably the one that we thought, but he's going to be a little bit longer.
"Jamie (Osborne) has gone really well, has a good relationship with Robbie (Henshaw) which is good, Jimmy comes back in there as well, he's been out for a while but gives us great versatility off the bench.
"Will (Connors) is incredibly unlucky because I thought he was excellent against La Rochelle, but there's a few moving parts. We've gone back to a 5-3 split, Cian comes back in again with Mikey Milne losing out.
"That was a pretty close call again the previous time, Cian gets the opportunity to get back on the bench.
"We think we've a good group, we're excited for the challenge.”
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