Leo Cullen turns page quickly to Sale visit - 'the graveyard shift'

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen quickly moved on from Sunday's win over Edinburgh in the Aviva Stadium.

Leinster's Head Coach Leo Cullen and Edinburgh's Head Coach Sean Everitt. Pic: INPHO/Bryan Keane

Given how short the turnaround is to their next game in the competition, it came as little surprise that Leinster head coach Leo Cullen’s mind wasn’t solely focused on what had just unfolded when he sat down for his post-match press conference in the Aviva Stadium on Sunday.

Hot favourites to prevail against Edinburgh in a European Champions Cup Round of 16 encounter at Irish Rugby HQ, Leinster were forced to dig deep before earning a 49-31 victory over Sean Everitt’s Scottish outfit. 31-28 behind with 52 minutes gone on the clock, the eastern province ultimately rediscovered an attacking rhythm either side of the third-quarter mark to book their spot in the quarter-final stage of Europe’s top-tier.

Whereas Edinburgh will just have the United Rugby Championship to fight for in the remaining weeks of the 2025/26 season, Leinster are set to make a swift return to Champions Cup duty when they take on Sale Sharks at the Aviva next Saturday.

“We have a short week this week. We're in the graveyard shift so to speak on a Sunday. [We] need to turn the page pretty quickly into playing back here next Saturday at 5.30pm and it's a great challenge for us. This is where we want to be as in playing the top teams in the competition,” Cullen acknowledged in his post-match press conference.

“It's amazing that we're at home and that's on the back of some dogged performances in the pool stages. Where we're missing players and making changes and all the different weather conditions.

“We've got ourselves in a position where we have a home quarter-final and we need to make the most of it. Because we were close to being really good today and we were really good in patches, but there were other patches where we're making it more difficult than it needs to be. But, we're getting there.” 

Having welcomed Ryan Baird back into the starting line-up for this game following his recovery from a leg injury sustained in Ireland’s defeat to South Africa in an autumn international at the Aviva last November, Cullen is now hopeful of having a strong hand to pick from for the rest of their campaign.

The likes of RG Snyman, Jack Boyle and James Lowe remain on the treatment table, but the Wicklow native is optimistic those who featured against Edinburgh will be fit and available for the visit of Sale to Ballsbridge.

Andrew Porter was replaced by European debutant Alex Usanov at half-time with a suspected shoulder/pec injury, but Cullen doesn’t anticipate it being a major issue. Harry Byrne was also withdrawn with cramp inside the closing quarter of the game and while a six-day turnaround can pose its own problems, he already has some idea of the challenge they will face from Sale in the last-eight.

“It’s tough on a six-day turnaround. We don't have any travel, but travel is sometimes a positive for an away team because it builds some of that siege mentality. I’m sure Alex Sanderson will be trying to feed that into his team,” Cullen added.

“That would be my experience of coming up against Sale and him as a coach over the years. Even with Saracens before that. Listen, they have a lot of pedigree in their group and they’ll be a handful.”