Leo Cullen admits Leinster 'not quite free' as they reach another Champions Cup decider

Toulon came up short in Dublin on Saturday.

JOB DONE: Leinster's Head Coach Leo Cullen and Caelan Doris after the match. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady

Leinster 29 Toulon 25 

The first, second and third priority in any semi-final is the win. Nothing else usually maps. It’s a truism that crosses all sports and standards. It stands timeless in the canon of clichés. Nobody cares if you razzle and dazzle your way to the exit and miss the big day.

But that’s the thing with Leinster. They actually are playing some gorgeous rugby. They actually have made it to a record ninth Champions Cup final, in Bilbao later this month. But they still aren’t clicking. And it will have to click against the opponents in the final.

Step back from this and the tail end to their season isn’t all that different from that of Arsenal’s: both sides are on the cusp of something magical but glitchy form is mixing with an excess of historical baggage to make it all feel like an assault on the nerves.

Everything about Leo Cullen suggested as much after Saturday’s semi-final.

The Leinster head coach spoke for almost six minutes when asked his first question in the post-match conference. Lengthy stream of consciousness answers are not new for him, but this was that and more again. A vocal release after another 80 minutes of angst.

“You guys love throwing the boot into us when things don’t go well,” he said at another point. “Whatever sells.” Again, similar observations on perceived media negativity have been heard from him before, but all this reads as pent-up pressure.

And it’s not just him feeling it.

His own son had to leave the stadium and go home at half-time, convinced it was over with Leinster leading 14-11 but down two men in the sinbin. Cullen himself joked sarcastically about Leinster having no chance and being “bloody useless” this year.

This is the human side to high-level sport and the expectation that comes with it.

Saturday was Leinster’s 10th semi-final in 12 years, their sixth on the trot, and a fifth successive last four tie in Dublin. Bilbao will be their ninth final, a record, but they have lost four since their last visit to the Basque Country for the 2018 decider.

They have got this far again on the back of a radically compromised opening to the season having had 14 British and Irish Lions in Australia last summer. Injuries haven’t been kind while November and the Six Nations are routine interruptions by now.

Cullen didn’t mention the existential question that is Leinster’s struggle to marry their own attacking tendencies with Jacques Nienaber’s defensive theories, but that too feeds into the struggles they have overcome.

“I don't know, is it tension or what is it, there's definitely something in the performance there that we're not quite free,” Cullen admitted. “They're all humans. They're all trying to learn as they go along because they want something so badly. That's the thing about the tournament. You've heard some players talk about an obsession.

“It's a magic tournament , isn't it? That's why it's so amazing. Teams put everything into it. You're down to the last four teams but, listen, think of some of the teams that are not in the last four. There's some unbelievable teams not there. On we go. Bilbao here we come, but we're here [next week in the URC] against the Lions first.” 

It’s not a failure reaching a final, he said. Apologies, but the harsh truth is that it is for a side like Leinster. Northampton Saints arguably overachieved by reaching the Cardiff decider last season – and in sacking Leinster in Dublin to do it. Fair play.

That’s them, that’s their story.

Leinster’s inability to be the first over the line in modern times, under Cullen’s watch, is an indictment of all the talent and the resources the province brings to the table. Luck hasn’t been kind, but strip everything else back and that’s the plain, unvarnished truth.

This defeat of Toulon showed again why there are fears they will fall short, even as they approach another final hurdle. Brilliant at times in attack, and staunch for stints in defence, they married it with too many mistakes and a failure to put the game to bed.

They remain infuriatingly inconsistent.

Take away the brilliance in some of the play that led to tries for Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Garry Ringrose and Caelan Doris and they peaked here either side of half-time when winning a period when they were down players to the sinbin 7-0.

They had a dominant platform in a scrum that earned them five penalties against a big Top 14 pack but indiscipline allowed Melvyn Jaminet kick six points in the first 25 minutes and opened the door for Seta Tuicuvu’s try when they were actually reduced to 14.

More worrying again was the speed with which Toulon reduced an 18-point deficit to just four after Doris’s try in 67th-minute. Had Gael Drean’s pass been better, and Tuicuvu not knocked it on, Leinster might well have let this one slip through their fingers.

They are three weeks and just 80 minutes away from a fifth title. Few would be harder won.

Leinster: H Keenan; T O’Brien, G Ringrose, G Henshaw, R Ioane; H Byrne, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, D Sheehan, T Clarkson; J McCarthy, J Ryan; J Conan, J van der Flier, C Doris.

Replacements: J Osborne for Henshaw (15); S Penny for van der Flier (47); J Cahir for Ioane (temp, 40-43) and for Porter (75); A Soroka for Conan (56); S Prendergast for O’Brien (69); R Slimani for Clarkson (70); R Kelleher for Sheehan (75).

Toulon: M Jaminet; G Dréan, JI Brex, J Sinzelle, S Tuicuvu; T Albornoz, B White; JB Gros, T Baubigny, K Sinckler; C Mezou, D Ribbans; J Kpoku, C Ollivon, M Shioshvili.

Replacements: B Gigashvili for Sinckler, Z Mercer for Shioshvili, E Abadie for Kpoku and B Serin for White (all 55); D Brennan for Gros and M Halagahu for Mezou (both 61); G Lucchesi for Baubigny (67).

Referee: L Pearce (Eng).