Leo vowing to make changes for final clash
LEO Cullen has seen a lot in his three years at the helm with Leinster, from the highs of huge away day wins and last week’s European Cup triumph to the lows of bitterly disappointing home defeats and semi-final hurt.
Rarely, though, has he seen anything as chaotic as the 80 minutes of rugby at the RDS yesterday. Leinster looked on course for a comfortable win over their most bitter rivals, only to end up clinging on for dear life in a breathless final passage of play.
Of course, this was a very different Leinster to the one that took to the field for the Champions Cup final win over Racing last week. And it is likely that there will be a similar turnover of personnel for next week’s Pro14 decider against Scarlets at Landsdowne Road.
The Blues started without Robbie Henshaw, Johnny Sexton, Rob Kearney, Dan Leavy, Scott Fardy and Cian Healy – the six either rested, injured or on the bench. And still, after a week disrupted by celebrations and one or two extra late nights, Leinster were the better team.
‘The mental and physical toll that playing in these games takes is enormous, so I think it’s important that we did freshen things up,’ Cullen explained.
‘A couple of guys came in that were unlucky not to be picked the previous week. Those guys came in and did well. That’s what you need. It’s completely unrealistic to expect the same team to be able to front out in these big games, you just can’t do it now.’
As a result, Leinster needed new heroes yesterday, some more unlikely than others. James Lowe, back in the team after missing out in Bilbao, was superb and claimed the man-of-the-match award after mixing his usual attacking brilliance with some lesser-seen defensive steel.
Then, as Munster threatened to spoil the party after Gerbrandt Grobler’s late try, it was 21-year-old Max Deegan who stepped up with a vital 60 second cameo. He replaced try-scorer Jack Conan and provided the crucial turnover penalty than ended Munster’s hopes and kept Leinster’s double dream alive.
‘That’s why we used as many players as possible [over the season],’ Cullen explained. ‘So it doesn’t seem like a big change when guys come in. You can see that at the very end of the game, and Max has played a huge amount of games. He comes on and comes away with a big turnover at the end, it’s incredible really. There’s other guys who will potentially come into the frame this week.
‘I think we have a better chance this week leading into the final, than this [past] week. It was a tough challenge and that’s why Leinster haven’t got a great record the week after [winning the European Cup], in 2011 and 2012. It is tough to do, so credit to the guys. I can’t say enough about the character they’ve shown.’
Character has never been Munster’s problem, but again it was their skills that let them down at the RDS.
After crashing out to Racing in the last four of the Champions Cup, Munster captain Peter O’Mahony admitted he was ‘sick’ of losing semi-finals. This defeat brings that unfortunate record up to four semi-final losses in a row for the province, a last-four exit in both the Pro14 and Champions Cup two seasons in a row.
‘They’re setting the standard in Europe and in this competition and we came out there and said we’d leave nothing out there and we didn’t,’ O’Mahony said.
‘There were inaccuracies there certainly and luckily for us they are things we can fix. If we came out here and rolled over that would be a different story and that’s something you can’t fix. We fought until the end, gave away points but went back up the other end and scored a try under the posts to get another shot to win the game. It takes a lot of mental ability and mental strength but as I said you can’t let that happen, that eight-point gap [in the second half] is too big.’
His head coach, Johann van Graan, tried to stay positive.
‘I came in in the middle of November so we’ll take our time to review,’ he explained.
‘Our planning for pre-season is well under way but we said from day one we’re not going to change a lot in the first six months. I think we moved our plan a bit forward like you saw out there today, obviously execution is something that we want to work on.
‘It was one score in it, all credit to the players for fighting to the end. That’s rugby, unfortunately, sometimes it goes for you and sometimes it doesn’t.
‘We want to improve as Leinster are the trendsetters in Europe and obviously they’re the team to beat.
‘Obviously it’s very disappointing, there’s nothing bittersweet in this, it’s only bitter. You’ve got to take it on the chin and move on.’
Leinster are Europe’s trendsetters and they’re the team to beat