Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
LEINSTER BOSS LOOKING AT THE BIGGER PICTURE
LEINSTER coach Leo Cullen is relaxed about having to rest some of his Ireland players for two consecutive games over the festive period.
It didn’t have any impact on Friday night as a weakened side romped to a 54-42 win over Ulster in a 14-try encounter.
And while Cullen (inset) will also be without his frontline stars for Saturday’s trip to play Munster, he isn’t making a fuss about it.
“It’s been planned out for such a long time now. We talked about this last summer,” said Cullen, who will have all his World Cup players back for the visit of Connacht on January 4.
“There are limited playing resources in this country. So it’s important we take care of the guys we have here and keep them in the country because they know they’ll be looked after here and not played into the ground. That’s not going to help anyone.
“We’ve worked hard to bring young guys through.
“When you’re missing a certain amount of players it just gives younger guys an opportunity and that’s important for the overall development of Irish rugby.”
Max Deegan and Scott Penny both got a brace while Robbie Henshaw, Fergus Mcfadden, Rob Kearney and Cian Kelleher also scored as they extended their winning start to the season to 12 games. But Cullen warned that if they display the defensive lapses which allowed Ulster in for six tries, they will pay a big price against Munster in Thomond Park.
“If you start giving away things cheaply down in Thomond it can be a pretty tough day down there.
“It’s a good challenge for our guys. It’s great really. We didn’t acquit ourselves well down there last year, so hopefully we can go a bit better.”