Stars in his eyes

Having once envied Toulouse’s pre-eminence in Europe, Leo Cullen and Leinster are now targeting their record

William Winder McConnell joined the No 245 squadron in 1940 and, during the Battle of Britain, was shot in the legs, managing to escape a plane that would be smashed to pieces on the white cliffs of Dover.

Later in World War II, he was captured by the Nazis and imprisoned in Stalag Luft where he remained until VE Day. Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, he was a hero to so many.

To Leo Cullen, he was a more intimate idol. Leinster’s Director of Rugby recalls watching the first European Cup final in January, 1996, between Toulouse and Cardiff, at McConnell’s house in Blackrock.

His dreams were the giddy ambitions of innocent childhood then. In the following months, at the school down the road he had recently joined as a boarder, he would win a Senior Cup medal in his final year.

His adult life would harbour myopic motivation, as a player with Leinster, Ireland and Leicester. But always there, the coursing desire tugging at his sleeve to emulate the greatest club side of them all, the one he had seen triumph in his grandfather’s front room. Stade Toulousain. Perennial kings of French rugby, now instituting a European eminence.

Sometimes it might have felt that Cullen was like Captain Ahab, coursing the white whale, almost always within touching distance and yet tantalisingly beyond reach. Despite three successive semi-final wins since their last title in 2018, so roundly humbling that one could not deny a decisive changing of the guard, their pretensions remain gently mocked by the stitching of history embroidered upon their breasts. Toulouse, five stars. Leinster, four.

They have recently enjoyed unparalleled European hegemony amongst former Irish and English rivals. But the French aristocrats elude them.

Leinster may have edged the historic head-to-head with their recent hat-trick of knock-out wins — Toulouse have contested ties with Leinster more than any other side — but successive final defeats have not altered the ultimate balance of power.

“Toulouse are the standard-bearers of the competition really,” says Cullen. “Going back to the start of the competition, they were the ones out of the blocks first in terms of professionalism and you could see the set-up they had when the game went professional first. They were light years ahead of us, let’s be honest. We sort of feel that we’ve been chasing them ever since.”

From day one then, always one step behind the greatest European club side of them all. On Saturday, in their 14th meeting (Leinster lead the head-to-head 7-6) but their first in a final, the Irish side can finally draw level with Toulouse. Only then can they boast of a shared history so many years after it had seemed so inconceivable.

The way Reggie Corrigan remembers it in 1997, Stade Toulousain was not just in a different country but, it seemed to him and his teammates, an entirely different planet.

“I just remember the feeling of being there, drinking coffee in the square surrounded by all the pink terracotta houses,” he recalls. “And everybody knew the club, knew the players. Even the jersey was iconic. And they sold it in this shop, a Mickey Mouse place in fairness. But Leinster didn’t sell jerseys.

“They had everything, mugs, all sorts of memorabilia and knick-knacks.

We bought stuff as fans. I played for Leinster but I’d always admired Toulouse. They were my second favourite team. They were the club you looked up to. They had history, an academy. I was blown away by the stadium. They had the statues outside with all their titles embossed. Girls giving out free cigarettes, which some of the players took. Foie gras. Cheese and wine. I love the place.”

Leinster had lost their first meeting months earlier in Donnybrook to the four-in-row French champions, by nine points. In France, they were humbled, 38-10.

“They were like rock stars,” says Corrigan. “We weren’t completely out of our depth but we had fear in our eyes, they had none. The size of them, compared to us. But also the sense that when they started off-loading, they could do as they pleased.

“They were the target for clubs like us. They always performed in Europe and domestically. They were the flag-bearers on and off the field. Others would come and go in time. They have endured.”

In 2002, Leinster eliminated them in the pool stages but it was a pyrrhic victory; they would lose to Leicester. Guy Noves. the legendary Toulouse coach, was so impressed by the performance of one Irishman that he signed him. Two years later, Trevor Brennan would walk into Kiely’s pub in Donnybrook holding aloft the club’s second title he had helped win on the other side of the river Dodder.

Leinster would have been their final opponents but stumbled to a then familiar implosion, in a Lansdowne semi-final they were expected to win. Not able to beat them, it seemed, so joining them instead.

But it was their first knock-out meeting, in 2006, that suggested the glacial construction of an Irish empire that might one day consistently challenge the imperious might of Les Toulousain.

Ironically, Leo Cullen, disillusioned

at under-achieving Leinster, was away winning titles at Leicester when his old team sensationally triumphed in southern France sunshine.

“I privately questioned my great plan,” he later revealed.

“Their fans applauded us, 1500 supporters waited for our autographs after that game,” recalls Corrigan after the sensational 41-35 win sparked by French-style expansive play, spearheaded by Brian O’Driscoll. “They were the benchmark but we had caught up with them. Now we could put 30,000 in a stadium, now we were selling jerseys.”

That match may have tilted the relationship between them, but it did not alter Leinster’s with Europe. Ambushed by Munster on home soil in 2006, O’Driscoll had already privately met Toulouse, pondering his future away from a club who, it seemed, were making illusory progress. Aidan McCullen, a less heralded flanker, had also joined Brennan in Toulouse, finding there a world-class environment not yet evident in his home club.

By the stage of the latest near miss in ’06, Michael Cheika was in charge. Soon, Cullen would come home. Then ahead of the 2008-09 season, a truly world-class recruit.

“Cheika actually spoke to me at the time he had Rocky Elsom in mind, which was nice,” smiles McCullen.

His day job now encompasses what Leinster were striving for. Transformation in business.

“The foundations for lasting success hadn’t formed yet in Leinster. Everyone brought it on or exposed the cracks. Matt Williams started it. But it was a messy middle between the old way and the new way. Then with Cheika? It’s like the ‘red wedding’ effect in Chinese business, clearing the entire shop to rebuild the whole thing and Cheika did that.

“He brought it to another mental level. Then Joe Schmidt adds his coaching expertise. After that, Stuart Lancaster looks at the player beyond the jersey. And above it all, Leo the lodestar.”

Slowly, they ascended, even if Toulouse would eliminate them from the pool stages in 2008. “I didn’t have all the time in the world,” Cullen, already in his 30s, would say later.

As Munster claimed their second title (beating Toulouse in the final) to join Leicester and Wasps, it was not just the French side who now seemed light years away.

But in 2009, it all came together. Cullen lifted the trophy in Edinburgh, after a win against his old team. They did not encounter Toulouse that season, but a year later, they did and lost in the semi-final as the French side went on to claim a fourth star.

Still, by the time Cullen retired as a player, Leinster had won three titles and, befitting the club they desperately sought to emulate, had promoted him to their coaching staff. “William Servat has done it there, so it is not unprecedented,” he said.

“Leinster simply achieved its potential and had the injection of money to do it, to develop that environment,” notes McCullen. “You should be doing at a minimum everything you can in trying to become successful but then having that environment adds another layer on top of that and Leinster reached that stage.”

Initially, the waters were choppy, even when Cullen was appointed head coach, losing five of six pool games.

Girls giving out free cigarettes, which some players took. Foie gras. I love the place.

In a newly-minted European landscape transformed by galacticos from Toulon and a new English behemoth in Saracens, Leinster weren’t the only established name struggling however.

Toulouse endured seven trophyless seasons in the 2010s, struggling to cohere after the departure of the legendary Guy Noves, playing dour rugby. Off the field, they were bleeding seven-figure annual losses.

Ugo Mola, who had played in that 1996 final, was only their second professional coach — they have never hired a non-native — but transition was tough. They had lost their way.

“The port had changed on and off the field,” says Régis Sonnes, a former player and assistant coach at Toulouse, now in his second spell as director of rugby at Bandon. “Castres won a Top 14 without playing rugby, just kicking. There was no risk and that is not the Toulouse way.”

The return of former player Didier Lacroix as president re-energised the boot-room philosophy. From the academy emerged Romain Ntamack, son of Emile. Two Brennan boys, Josh and Dan, emphasised this renewal of ‘family’. And clever purchases too, notably a promising 21-year-old scrum-half called Antoine Dupont.

In the meantime, Leinster joined them on four titles in 2018. Now they were the ones who seemed primed to accelerate ahead of the side they had once admired from a distance.

“Toulouse are a good lesson for us, it seemed like they were going to push on,” said Cullen in Bilbao, winning his first title as coach to add to three as captain. “We’ve had to wait six years to get back here. Hopefully we don’t have to wait another six.”

Urging his side not to stop at four, they did, and in 2021, Toulouse edged ahead with a fifth triumph. Ironically, Leinster have lorded the recent rivalry, winning three successive semi-finals.

Dupont did not need to remind them, but he did anyhow, that Leinster lost all three subsequent finals.

On Saturday, for the first time meeting in a decider, they begin a final on equal terms; only a Leinster win can ensure they finish it on equal titles.

“In business, I have this concept that your competitive advantage is your product but then your patents run out,” says McCullen. “And then mindset and culture are the only advantages left. And that’s why these two teams are in the final. That’s the battle now.

“Yes there are unbelievable individual talents on either side who can win you a game. And you will see some incredible skills from Gibson-Park, Dupont. But this is a battle of culture and mindsets even beyond that,” he adds.

As an 18-year-old, Leo Cullen watched Toulouse’s inaugural European Cup win with stars in his eyes. Now he has his eyes on their stars.