No thoughts of tomorrow for Leo Cullen as Leinster focus on Scarlets

Garry Ringrose is out with a calf injury that he has been carrying for an unspecified period of time. Tommy O’Brien, Leinster’s breakout star this season, has been hobbled by a foot problem. Both were running at the back end of the week.

Sat, 31 May, 2025 - 06:29

Brendan O'Brien

Nobody sells tickets faster and better than Leinster so it says something that the province had shifted only 12,000 of them as of Friday for this URC quarter-final encounter with Scarlets at the Aviva Stadium.

The Bank Holiday will have had something to do with that. So too will the general impression that Leo Cullen’s lads will sweep the Welsh aside and book a more attractive date at the same venue a week later. Some, of course, will have their eyes on a final.

But don’t say any of that to Cullen.

The Leinster head coach was in no mood to countenance the next step prior to this one. Not after that Champions Cup semi-final loss to Northampton Saints. And not on the back of three seasons and counting without a trophy.

No, there is no tomorrow.

That was abundantly clear when the head coach was asked the most routine of questions, on the absences of Garry Ringrose and Tommy O’Brien, and whether the pair would be available again soon.

“We are literally looking at this game,” he said, the vexation clear in his voice. “We have fallen into this trap before, people looking too far ahead, and it is actually doing our heads in because everyone is just talking about the next thing and nobody wants to talk about the here and now.

“It has got to the point where it’s undermining of the teams we play against (sic) because I would rather focus on the Scarlets and who we are playing this week. Listen, we were talking about the semi-final if you remember and there was talk about Cardiff and EPCR and there was no talk about Northampton. Can we talk about the actual game?”

We did, and we can, but first things first.

Ringrose is out with a calf injury that he has been carrying for an unspecified period of time. O’Brien, Leinster’s breakout star this season, has been hobbled by a foot problem. Both were running at the back end of the week.

Neither was listed on the weekly injury bulletin last Monday, hence the interest. Already confirmed as absentees were Robbie Henshaw who won’t play URC again this season whatever Leinster do, and Tadhg Furlong.

The Ireland prop sits out for the second game in a row with a calf injury – not the one that caused him such trouble this term – and the signs are that he will struggle to make the semi-final should Leinster do the needy this weekend.

Leinster, as is their wont, can still field a ridiculously strong 15 and 23. They make six changes to the side that eked out a 13-5 win against Glasgow last time out. Scarlets are unchanged from the side that went toe to toe with Sharks in Durban two weekends ago.

Dwayne Peel’s men had two weeks in South Africa that should have steeled them for the task to come and it’s only four weeks since they overcame a much-changed Leinster side at Parc y Scarlets. All that will stand to them.

“Scarlets are a team that is in form. We rate their coaches, we know Dwayne Peel and Jarred [Payne] as well and those guys know the system here and they have a very good inside knowledge about us.”

We’ll just have to risk Cullen’s wrath by suggesting that any chance of a repeat result in Ballsbridge this time is fanciful. The province has hammered three different opponents in the last three URC quarter-finals. It’s the last four round that has caught them cold.

That this is all business is apparent in the absence from the squad of Cian Healy and Ross Byrne, two veterans who have given so much to their home club and due to depart as soon as this league campaign is over.

Jordie Barrett is another whose time is coming to an end.

“I've had some interesting conversations about this over the years about different players finishing up, and when I was myself, you don't want to be a distraction,” said Cullen. “That can't be the legacy you leave.

“You still have to go back to the process of playing and what wins rugby matches, and because it's a contact sport, there's an emotional side that you need to get right. So, there is a technique part to it, but there's always a bit of an emotional part to that as well.”