Boks have raised the bar - Cullen
LEO Cullen, who led Leinster to the last four league titles, said it is clear that it’s going to be much more difficult to win the new United Rugby Championship with four South African teams involved.
His side had no answer to Jake White’s rampaging Bulls at the RDS to reach the final and Cullen warned that European teams will have to improve to win this title.
“The South African teams, we knew they would bring a different flavour to the competition, in terms of that physical edge in particular. Credit to the Bulls and it is going to get more difficult to win this competition. We have had a good run but we weren’t good.
“I think those teams are only going to get better as the tournament goes on so it’s a fantastic challenge for us and one we will just have to try to figure out and understand and relish going forward.”
The tone for a gripping contest was set in the opening minutes when Leinster went to touch a penalty down the right but 12 phases later, all played out within a few metres of the line, ended with the Bulls turning over possession and clearing their lines.
But Leinster kept their composure and they hit the front after nine minutes when hooker Dan Sheehan crossed for his tenth try of the season after a grubber from Ross Byrne.
Bulls’ 19-year-old fullback Canan Moodie failed to ground the ball despite being unchallenged going over the line but the reprieve was brief for Leinster as superb hooker Johan Grobbelaar bulldozed over after a tapped penalty after 20 minutes and they pushed the lead out to 17-7 five minutes later when Marcell Coetzee
finished after a burst from No.8 Elrigh Rouw.
Robbie Henshaw started and finished a move to make it 17-14 at the interval and they defended an 18-phase Bulls surge after the restart.
But the pressure from the South Africans yielded a penalty try and a yellow card for Leinster captain James Ryan after 53 minutes and while the Bulls didn’t increase their 24-14 lead while they had an extra man, it left the champions with an uphill battle, although the introduction of Johnny Sexton ignited them despite a malfunctioning lineout.
Winger Rory O’Loughlin finished a good move to cut the gap after 72 minutes but a penalty from veteran Morne Steyn made it safe for the Bulls with Cian Healy’s lastgasp try not enough for Leinster.
Bulls coach White said that they learned a lot from the way La Rochelle beat Leinster in the recent Champions Cup final.
“What La Rochelle showed was once you stay in the game you can win it. That gave us belief. I know they scored late, but I realised that if Leinster get a 10-15 point start, it’s very hard.
“You get belief from seeing them lose, if they'd won they’d probably have been harder to beat.
“You have to make sure you don’t give them setpiece, we didn’t kick the ball out.
“Their lineout is efficient, but we got in among that too,” he said.