...But Leinster will pass ultimate test Cullen: We have a lot of respect for what Saracens have done
THE European Cup has provided Leo Cullen with some of the best days of his life. In 2012 he became the first player to captain a team to three European Cups when he helped lead the Blues to a third success in just four years, but as he soaked in the glory and paraded the trophy around Twickenham, he hardly could have envisaged the barren years that lay ahead.
Six years on and Cullen is preparing for another shot at European rugby’s top prize, but this time what happens on the field is largely out of his hands once the whistle sounds.
Saracens at home in a Champions Cup quarter-final? It doesn’t get much bigger than this.
The Leinster head coach paused when asked if tomorrow’s Lansdowne Road clash is the biggest challenge of his managerial career to date, but he did admit the London club are the team his squad are aspiring to become.
Mark McCall’s men arrive in Dublin as back-to-back champions, although a stodgy start to the season saw them scrape through the pool stages to reach this stage.
As it happens, Leinster have been installed as favourites, not just for this game but for the Champions Cup outright.
That is the sort of label that comes when you breeze through a pool containing Exeter Chiefs, Montpellier and Glasgow Warriors with a devastating haul of 27 points from a possible 30.
The former Leinster lock would be the first to insist that pool stage form goes out the window when it comes to knock-out rugby, and he has a point. It is over two months since these teams last laced up their boots in the competition.
In the weeks since, a Saracens-heavy England team meekly surrendered their Six Nations title to an Ireland side backboned by the riches available to Leinster.
Despite the absence of the injured Robbie Henshaw, Josh van der Flier, Seán O’Brien and Jack Conan, Cullen has named a starting XV that contains 11 players who played some part in Ireland’s Grand Slam campaign. Still, this is a different proposition, and until they prove themselves in Europe, this Leinster team will continue to live in the shadow of the allconquering side that Cullen captained. ‘I think what they’ve [Saracens] created is very unique and we’ve a hell of a lot of respect for what they’ve done,’ Cullen admits. ‘They’re the team that we aspire to get to, to that level. A huge amount of work has gone into trying to get us back to this stage where we can actually take these teams on, it’s a great test actually, for where we are in the development of this team.
‘We look at other teams, but you need to be able to focus most of your attention on yourselves. It’s just about trying to get better and better and better. Is that going to be good enough for us this Sunday? We hope so.’
Scarlets’ defeat of La Rochelle last night means that if Cullen’s men can overcome this hurdle, they will again have home advatnage in the semi-finals. To get there, they must become the first team to stop Saracens qualifying for the last four since Clermont back in 2012.
The champions have named a strong team, with key man Owen Farrell — who was rated as 50-50 earlier in the week — starting at out-half to square up opposite Johnny Sexton for the second time in two weeks, a clash that left Sexton nursing a bloodied noise in Twickenham.
For Cullen, any comparisons between that St Patrick’s Day Six Nations closer and this game end with the names of those involved.
‘It’s different,’ he continued. ‘We play slightly different to the way Ireland play, Saracens play differently to the way England play, so it’s a different game.
‘They play a strong, pressure game where they are happy for the scoreboard to go three, six, nine and put pressure on teams. They want teams to chase the game early against them, which plays into their hands because they’re very strong defensively.
‘They’re a very efficient team, they don’t waste much energy in their own half. [Richard] Wigglesworth, in terms of his exits, they’ll kick a lot from No9, contestable kicks and they’ll put pressure on the opposition. They’re strong at the breakdown.
‘We need to be sure we’re careful about how we manage our way around the field and we’re not playing to what their strengths are.
‘We try to prepare for all eventualities, all the scenarios and the unknowns that could happen in the game, so it’s just about giving the players as many tools as possible but my experience tells me that it’s virtually impossible to cover all the bases.’
Cullen knows the expectation weighted on his side, but he is confident this dynamic bunch can deliver in front of a Lansdowne Road crowd that is expected to tip 50,000.
‘Once we saw Saracens [in the draw], we thought, whoa, Saracens, because that is the ultimate test for us.
‘Are we ready? It is hard to say. We have tried to deliver a clear plan to the players, the players have taken it on board now, and we just need to go out and do it. They are hungry to do so, they want to succeed.’
This is the test Leinster wanted. Now it’s time to show why.
by CIARÁN KENNEDY