DRIVE FOR FIVE
AS thousands of adoring fans welcomed triumphant Leinster home yesterday, Leo Cullen called on his team to keep on winning.
Their taut, tense 15-12 victory against Racing 92 in Saturday’s European Cup final in Bilbao means they are now level with the great Toulouse team of the early 2000s on four wins.
But, as the French giants slipped into decline in the age of the superclub, Cullen said they are a cautionary tale for his team, and in particular the need to keep changing in order to remain in contention.
‘It seemed like Toulouse were that club that were going to kick on,’ said Cullen. ‘You have to keep chipping away, keep trying to get better. I suppose there’s a lesson in that: don’t stop at four.’
The burning desire that drives Leinster on looks certain to remain stoked for the foreseeable future, thanks to veterans like Johnny Sexton and Rob Kearney but also young stars like James Ryan, Jordan Larmour and Garry Ringrose. ‘You need to keep evolving all the
time and keep getting better,’ said Cullen, ‘because if you sit still for too long, people will pass you by. ‘We’ve had to wait so long to get to this stage again. Six years we had to wait.
‘Hopefully it won’t be another six years.’
That desire to institute a new era of blue rule is obvious. Cian Healy, one of the four Leinster players to now hold four European Cup medals, made their appetites clear.
‘You don’t play rugby if you don’t think it’s going to come. You have to have a dream and a vision and the plan is to put a lot of stars on the shirt,’ he said, referencing the design on the Leinster jersey that sees a star stitched on for every European victory.
‘Not four, not five: I want to see Leinster grow and be dominant in Europe for years.
‘The crop that are coming through and long after I’m gone now, they’ll be holding that and hopefully doing that.’
One immediate challenge, said Cullen, will be replacing Isa Nacewa. He is another, along with Johnny Sexton and Devin Toner, to join Healy in holding all four European medals.
He retires at the end of the season.
Nacewa’s influence has been profound on all of the province’s European successes — including the latest when after enduring one of his less effective games for Leinster, with a couple of sloppy errors, the Leinster captain still had the resolve to step up and nail the winning kicks.
That strength of character will be missed.
‘We’ve got a great group of coaches, putting a huge amount of work in to make sure it gets better. But we have some great leaders as well. How we go without Isa is going to be a big challenge,’ said Cullen.
‘He is such a key figure. Someone is going to have to step up now because he is an amazing individual.
‘I couldn’t put into put into words how special he is in terms of his influence on the group and on the club. That’s something we need to figure out.’