Relief for Cullen but Leinster leave room for final improvement

Leinster were clinging on by their fingernails as the clock turned into the red.

Northampton Saints head coach Sam Vesty after the game with Leinster head coach Leo Cullen Pic ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Leo Cullen spoke for most of the 82,300 Croke Park when admitting his ‘relief’ at having fended off a late Northampton Saints comeback to make another Investec Champions Cup decider.

The Leinster head coach must have felt his men were home and hosed when the province held a 20-3 lead with an hour of this semi-final played only to find themselves clinging on by their fingernails as the clock turned into the red.

A Leinster loss, and from such a commanding position, would have been a comedown of enormous proportions given the massive attendance and the fact that this was the first rugby game played at GAA HQ in 14 years.

“Well, I think everyone was shocked in the most positive sense of the word when the tickets started going on sale and this thing is going to get sold out as quickly as it did,” said Cullen who captained Leinster against Munster at Croke Park in 2009.

“It was amazing the response really. We talked about it yesterday. It’s an unbelievable privilege for us to be here in front of a full house. It’s remarkable really. We’re relieved that we were able to get a win.

“There’s plenty of parts to the performance that we can improve upon. Ultimately the most important bit is to get through and now hopefully we have a good crowd over in Spurs stadium in a few weeks’ time.” The manner in which Leinster lost the momentum and the whip hand in that final quarter was scarily reminiscent of games against Saracens and La Rochelle in the past where they had engineered decent leads only to fall away when push came to shove.

Cullen admitted that they had tried to “sit and manage” the game in that second-half and that it had offered an in to a Saints side that was always going to be a dangerous attacking threat with ball in hand at some stage.

Leinster's Head Coach Leo Cullen. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie

“The score goes to what, 20-3 pretty early in the second half, and then I suppose there's a human nature part to it. You can try and sit and protect what you have. That can be the real challenge, can you try and push on at that stage?

“We maybe struggled with that a little bit, but credit to Northampton as well. They dug in well defensively and made life tough for us. We didn't quite execute on certain things and they fight their way back into their game.” They will now face either Toulouse or Harlequins in the decider. Those two meet in Toulouse on Sunday afternoon with the hosts and five-time champions heavy favourites to join the Irish province in London at the end of the month.

“Toulouse are the standard bearers of the competition really. Going back to the start of the competition, they were the ones out of the blocks first in terms of professionalism and you could see the setup they had when the game went professional first. They were light years ahead of us, let’s be honest.

“We sort of feel that we’ve been chasing them ever since. Quins are a team who we have quite a bit of history with in the competition as well. Quins are probably fairly fresh in our minds because we all watched Quins against Northampton last week and the type of game it is.

“Similar to Northampton they have really strong attacking intent and they’re just a constant threat so you have to be alert the whole time … You saw them away in Bordeaux in France. They can produce huge performances on any day. You’ve seen that over the last number of seasons. They’re two top teams.” 

For Leinster it is an eighth decider for Leinster who won their first four and lost the three since the last victory, against Racing 92 in Bilbao in 2018. If nothing else they have plenty of experience of the club game’s biggest day but that doesn’t make it any easier.

“No, it won’t,” said the head coach. “It’s an amazing challenge. We just need to embrace it for the challenge it is. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to get to this point and now we are there so it’s making sure that we deliver.

“It’s an amazing arena that we’re able to play in today. It will be an amazing arena for the final. It’s a new arena for us to play in. Again, it will be a privilege again.

“For us, for the players that are lucky enough to get selected on the day, it’s about putting out their best versions of themselves and they’re able to show what they’re made of and the character that they have.”