Cullen salutes ‘phenomenal’ Leinster after cup glory

Leo Cullen praised Leinster’s players after a “phenomenal” 15-12 victory over Racing 92 secured the European Champions Cup at Bilbao’s San Mames Stadium.

Cullen, who became the first man to win the tournament as a player and coach, savoured Leinster’s first European crown since 2012 and a record-equalling fourth in all.

Three penalties by Jonathan Sexton,pictured,andtwofrom captain Isa Nacewa, including the 78th-minute matchwinner, got the job done in a defence-dominated decider.

Reflecting on the tryless encounter, head coach Cullen said: “They played that territory game and just made it very difficult for us.

“We just couldn’t get a flow into the game and it was frustrating. We didn’t quite execute a couple of things and we were just a little bit off.

“But credit to the players. It’s phenomenal how they dug it out. It wasn’t pretty at times, it was tough to watch that last 20 minutes. Torturous in many ways. Maybe the fact that it was ugly like that makes it even better.” Racing scrum-half Teddy Iribaren – kicking in the injury-enforced absence of Maxime Machenaud, Pat Lambie and Dan Carter – was only a couple of minutes away from steering the French club to their first European title.

However, Leinster’s retiring 35-year-old skipper Nacewa landed a penalty to have the final say.

Sexton, now a fellow fourtime European Cup champion like Nacewa, admitted afterwards: “It was great for Isa to finish off with the last couple of penalties. I just slipped during the game and tweaked my groin a bit and I was struggling a little bit with it. There was no point risking it.”

Meanwhile, a second European final defeat in three seasons was tough to take for Racing skipper Yannick Nyanga.

Nyanga, who confirmed that he is retiring at the end of the season, said: “I would have liked to finish my last European Cup match in another way.”