Leo Cullen: 'Munster trolls' responsible for a lot of Leinster criticism

Cullen said he and his fellow Leinster coach coaches are "protective of the team if someone says something not nice about us"

Leo Cullen: “I was very emotional towards the tail end of this season. There's lots of different reasons for that." Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Leo Cullen admits he found it hard to keep his emotions in check towards the end of a season that saw Leinster come under fire for their play and for a failure to launch in the Champions Cup final defeat to Bordeaux-Begles.

The province struggled to get out of the blocks at the start of the campaign with players still off duty following British and Irish Lions or Ireland tours and the team’s form never quite clicked until Friday’s URC Grand Final defeat of the Bulls.

The toll it took was apparent in some tetchy media dealings held by Cullen and senior coach Jacques Nienaber with the former’s post-match press conference in the wake of the URC quarter-final defeat of the Lions standing out.

That was just a week after the Bordeaux beating. Cullen’s Q&A appeared to be ending before he chose to engage in a bizarre and meandering back-and-forth with a journalist after a standard query about pressure.

“I had a grumpy press conference after the Lions game,” he laughed. “That was an eight o'clock kick-off. The game finished at 10. I'd been at a 30-year-old school reunion the day before, where I maybe had one too many. So I might have been a bit grumpier that day… 

“I was very emotional towards the tail end of this season. There's lots of different reasons for that. That's just sometimes what happens. It comes out. I definitely think there's a real love for a team. We are protective of the team if someone says something not nice about us.

“I was slagging [Simon] Zebo off there [on TV] because a lot of it is formed off the Munster trolls, would be my opinion. But that’s just life, you’ve just got to deal with it. It's a very different landscape, isn't it?

“People can carry on whatever goes through their mind at any moment in time these days. The landscape is different. Listen, we know that. But I shouldn't be sensitive. I'm being critical of myself. Let’s be positive. It's a great day today.”