Cullen not buying the Blues hype
LEO CULLEN wants to joust. After the 2016 Champions Cup knockout stages featured no Irish representation for the first time since 1998, the writing was said to be on the wall this time last year for provincial rugby’s competitiveness against French and English money.
Now, fresh from a restorative campaign where both Leinster and Munster reached semi-finals, this new campaign opens next weekend buoyed by a renewed optimism that the Irish are back punching above their weight.
Agitated Cullen, though, isn’t completely buying into the hype, suggesting Leinster can fare even better this time round. ‘You were doom and gloom,’ he said accusatorily, harping back to last year’s prevailing pessimistic pre-tournament predictions.
‘I was more optimistic so if you’re optimistic now I’ll probably be a bit more doom and gloom I think. That is probably the way I have got to be because if you guys are very optimistic it’s very worrying for me, so I’m somewhere in the middle at the moment.
‘But you were very doom and gloom last year. Don’t be so doom and gloomy. When it’s really bad it’s maybe not as bad as you think and when it is really good it’s not as good as you think.’
What has Cullen tempering the mood is the prospect of a Montpellier juggernaut arriving at the RDS next Saturday. Just nine months ago, Leinster were cat-like in toying with the mouse that was a 14man French opposition, pummelling them 57-3 to clinch a quarter-final berth with a round to spare.
Now, though, Montpellier are overhauled, Vern Cotter succeeding Jake White and spending like confetti the cash of scaffolding billionaire Mohed Altrad.
Louis Picamoles, Ruan Pienaar and Aaron Cruden are marquee signings who have them throwing shapes at the head of the Top 14, emergence that leaves coach Cullen in no doubt he has a fight on if Leinster are ever to roll back the era where they won three European Cups in four seasons with him as skipper.
‘We want to be the best team in Europe. There was a moment in time when we probably might have been the best. Then the landscape shifted. There was a shift in France and Toulon won three titles.
‘Now Montpellier are another who have cropped up on the scene with a very wealthy owner. At the same time there is the same developments going on in England.
‘The game changed drastically. We don’t have accumulated losses of 50-odd million euro, shall we say. That is just not the way the game is (in Ireland) so we need to rethink the way we do things. Can we be the best team in Europe again? That is what we are aspiring to be and 100 per cent (we can do it).
‘It’s professional sport and you just need to adapt. Evolve or die is the phrase because professional sports teams that don’t evolve generally do go out of business. Hopefully we don’t go out of business.’
The Leinster way — the same business model is at the other three Irish provinces — is to nurture a surfeit of homegrown talent interspersed with canny — but restricted — overseas recruitment.
Not for them Montpellier’s cashheavy quick fix. Instead, time and patience is a necessity, Cullen hoping last April’s exposure to knockout European rugby can inspire the many young hearts and minds at his disposal to benefit from an agonising Lyon semi-final loss to eventual runners-up Clermont.
‘You need to get a lot right in those games away from home… you live and learn. It was a great experience for a lot of (young) guys and hopefully they will kick on now and be better this year because we need to be better.
‘The dynamic is changing all the time. A lot of people won’t know that much about Montpellier but the guard has shifted. Four-time winners Toulouse aren’t in the tournament. It’s hard to contemplate that fact.
‘There is an opportunity for us — and Toulon — to become four-time winners and join Toulouse. Toulouse can’t become five-time winners. We have an opportunity to close the gap.’
Injuries, which see Leinster open minus Jamie Heaslip and Rob Kearney if not even more stars, are something Cullen is not getting hung up on. ‘It’s probably wise to plan that you have 25 per cent of your squad missing through injury.’
It’s an education that won’t ever end despite the fledgling boss now being in his third year in charge. ‘I don’t know the ins and outs of what the job entails because I’m surprised every single day,’ he claimed. ‘We’d a surprising (South African) trip over the last few weeks, some stuff broke the script.’
Next Saturday, though, he will hope to control the round one story.