Cullen play down home advantage ahead of Toulon semi-final

Leinster took care of business against Sale Sharks on Saturday

WATCHING BRIEF: Leinster's head coach Leo Cullen during the warm-up ahead of the match. Picture: Dan Clohessy/Inpho

Leinster 43 Sale Sharks 13 

Leo Cullen has insisted Leinster can’t rely entirely on home comforts as they prepare to embark on a sixth consecutive semi-final appearance in the European Champions Cup.

Thanks to an ultimately convincing victory over Sale Sharks at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, Leinster are once again just 80 minutes away from gracing a showpiece in Europe’s top-tier. Courtesy of their triumph against Glasgow Warriors earlier on the same day, Toulon will provide last-four opposition to the eastern province at the Aviva on the May bank holiday weekend.

However, while it proved to be a lucky venue for three semi-final successes on the bounce from 2022 to 2024, Leinster came unstuck in Ballsbridge against Northampton Saints at the same stage of last season’s competition.

“Listen, we were here for a semi-final last year and we didn't manage to get the job done, so it doesn't matter… I don’t know. From a logistical point of view it saves a bit of work anyway, but we need to make it pay if you're playing at home in a semi-final,” the Leinster head coach acknowledged after Saturday’s game.

“Again, that's the reward of all the work that goes in during the pool stages and doing everything you can. They're not knockout games, but that's the reward when you win four games in your pool.” 

Whereas there were eight tries evenly spread out in the first half of their manic Round of 16 meeting with Edinburgh in the Aviva six days earlier, Dan Sheehan’s converted finish under the posts on 10 minutes and a George Ford penalty for Sale were the only scores in an extremely scrappy opening period on Saturday.

Yet the sin-binning of Dan Du Preez on 37 minutes meant Sale had a lot of work to do on the resumption to remain two adrift (7-5) and their Irish counterparts subsequently created daylight when Hugo Keenan dotted down for their second try in the 44th minute.

Sharks also lost prop Si McIntyre to a yellow card for a high tackle on James Ryan in the lead-up to this score and while Ford added a second penalty in the brief time Leinster had a two-man advantage, the industrious Baird crossed over via a Jack Conan pass in advance of their opponents being restored to a full compliment.

The Irish province were beginning to fire on all cylinders and the final outcome was placed beyond all doubt when Rieko Ioane and Tommy O’Brien dotted down either side of the third-quarter mark.

Sale finally fired back with a well-worked try from Alex Wills, before five points from the boot of Harry Byrne and a breakaway score by Jamie Osborne helped Leinster to progress in style.

Although he is hopeful the withdrawals of Baird and Josh van der Flier in the second half are just a case of bumps and bruises, Cullen will be concerned that an ankle injury led to the withdrawal of Alex Usanov just four minutes into his first Champions Cup start.

Considering Jack Boyle, Paddy McCarthy and Andrew Porter are all currently on the injury list, Cullen can ill-afford to be without another loosehead prop coming into the business end of the season. Tipperary native Jerry Cahir played 76 minutes in Usanov’s absence on Saturday and though Cullen explained it would be possible to draft another player in this late in the campaign, it is likely any potential recruit would be restricted to league action.

“For URC, yeah, but it’s hard to register for Champions Cup. You have a group, but you can go with emergency front-row cover. It’s early days and we’ll see. There’s a few things that could potentially play out. A few young guys too which is good,” Cullen added.

“He [Usanov] has done something to his ankle, we’ll get him checked out. It’s hard to see him playing next week anyway, but we’ll see after that.”

Scorers for Leinster: Tries: D Sheehan, H Keenan, R Baird, R Ioane, T O’Brien, J Osborne Cons: H Byrne 5 Pens: H Byrne 

Scorers for Sale Sharks: Tries: A Wills Cons: G Ford Pens: G Ford 2 

LEINSTER: H Keenan (C Frawley 71); T O’Brien, G Ringrose (R Henshaw 60), J Osborne, R Ioane; H Byrne, J Gibson-Park (L McGrath 65); A Usanov (J Cahir 4), D Sheehan, T Furlong (T Clarkson 55); J McCarthy (M Deegan 9-22), J Ryan (R Kelleher 67); R Baird (M Deegan 61), J van der Flier (S Penny 50), J Conan.

SALE SHARKS: J Carpenter (A Wills h-t); T Roebuck, R Du Preez (M Louw 60), R Ma’asi-White, T O’Flaherty; G Ford, G Warr (D Hanson 67); S McIntyre (R McEachran 65), E Caine (A Longstaff 65), A Opoku-Fordjour (J Harper 65); E Van Rhyn, B Bamber, J Vermeulen (R Logan 71), S Dugdale (J Gilmore 71), D Du Preez.

Referee: P Brousset (France).