Cullen praises side’s defensive effort in victory
LEINSTER head coach Leo Cullen hailed the defensive resilience of his team after the hosts dug out a hard-fought win against Munster last night.
The visitors surged into a 10-0 lead, thanks to a stunning early try from Craig Casey, but Munster did not breach their try-line again before tries from Jamison GibsonPark, Dan Sheehan and Jordan Larmour swung the game back in Leinster’s favour.
The home side were wasteful and error strewn for large swathes of a fiercely-fought URC derby clash, but Cullen was pleased with the grit shown by his players.
‘Defensively, I thought we stood up well,’ the Leinster boss reflected after this team’s 21-16 win.
‘They had a couple of break outs and we had some chances and it was only until Jordan scored and we went eight points clear at that stage.
‘We had other chances to score again but we just didn’t take them. It was bit of that. It was toing and froing wasn’t it?
‘If you think, what, six or seven minutes to go, we’re defending in our 22 on the back of that Conor Murray break up the sideline.
‘We get down the edge but I thought it was a really good defensive set because we get back to our point and we look, not comfortable, that’s the wrong word, but we look like we’re dominating collisions again and we eventually come up with a turnover, which is pleasing but then we get down to the other side of the field, we can’t quite nail that last moment.
‘That was the make-up of the game, in many ways. It had a bit of everything so, overall, we’re delighted to get a win. Four points and it potentially could have been five at the end.’
Leinster suffered an early injury blow when Ross Byrne left the field with what appeared to be a bicep injury after just eight minutes.
The Leinster out-half is set to undergo a scan, but the province’s frontline out-half now looks a major injury doubt for his side’s Champions Cup opener against La Rochelle in a fortnight.
‘Yeah, it’s arm related,’ Cullen explained. ‘I don’t know. I hope it’s not too bad. We’ll see.’
In Byrne’s absence, Ciarán Frawley stepped in to run the show at No10 and Cullen was pleased with the replacement’s display. ‘Ciaran stepped in well,’ he added. ‘I thought he was excellent. Controlled the game. Even though he was played at 15 at the start of the season for us, the way roles are, particular with someone like Ciaran, he’s comfortable stepping up as that first receiver and that interplay between your 10, 12 and 15 — it’s great to have that second ball player there.
‘He’s been excellent for us this season. Hopefully that will be the case going forwards as well, so he stepped in, kicked his goals and it was a pretty accomplished and comfortable performance.’
Meanwhile, Graham Rowntree had nothing but praise for his young side’s performance and the Munster head coach believes the gulf between the two sides is beginning to close.
‘Yeah I think our performance merits that comment — I think it is shifting. I think we proved that in May and that was a fully loaded team they (Leinster) had there,’ he said.
‘And we could have beaten them. A lot of it is in our control — which we’ll have a look at. But we’ve got to keep building momentum and we’ve got a huge game in Cork on Friday night against Glasgow.
‘We’ve got some battered young and old bodies to look after but I take an immense amount of pride in a stack of great things we did in that game.’