NO SOONER HAD Leo Cullen concluded his brief post-match assessment in the bowels of the Aviva Stadium had talk of Wasps focused his mind on the week ahead, as Leinster face into a quick five-day turnaround ahead of their Heineken Champions Cup opener.
The head coach’s team selection for Saturday’s inter-pro victory over Munster was done, by his own admission, with one eye on Wasps, and Cullen could reflect with a degree of satisfaction on a near-perfect work-out for his side ahead of Europe.
Leinster were able to strike the right balance between resting key players and having enough firepower to withhold a full-blooded effort from Munster at the Aviva Stadium, further underlining their unrivalled strength in depth and formidable credentials.
A fifth Pro14 victory of the season ensures the defending champions head into the start of their European defence with significant and positive momentum behind them, in addition to the benefit of having been pushed all the way in a derby fixture played with a feisty edge.
Indeed, Leinster were fully stretched and tested by their southern rivals in front of 50,120 on Saturday evening, as this marquee fixture once again lived up to its billing with a passionate and absorbing contest, which finished with no shortage of controversy.
It was, in more ways than one, the perfect lead in to Friday’s Pool 1 clash with Wasps at the RDS, as Cullen’s mean continue to improve week-on-week and key players sharpen their early-season form.
The likes of Jack McGrath, Dan Leavy, James Ryan and Seán O’Brien all built up valuable minutes in the heat of battle, while the all-action, virtuoso exploits of James Lowe gives Cullen a serious selection headache this week.
In using 41 players already this term, and with a relatively small injury list, Leinster are in a strong position at this juncture of the campaign, with competition for places among their ridiculously deep squad as intense as ever.
“I think getting guys through was a big thing for us,” Cullen said of the 30-22 victory over Munster. “So, yeah, we are pleased we got a result and the players have come through the game from what the initial reports are at least.
“Pleased to get a result, that’s moves us forward in the league, we’ll park that for a couple of weeks now. We turn our attention to a very short turnaround. Wasps are a team with so many threats as we have seen over the last couple of years.
“We have come unstuck against them in the RDS in the past so it is going to be a big week for us. It is just our attention, there is a very short turnaround. It is just so much in our minds. We said we would park this game very, very quickly and move to the challenge of next week.”
With Johnny Sexton, Scott Fardy, Garry Ringrose and Tadhg Furlong expected to come back into the fold after being given the weekend off, Cullen’s strongest team largely picks itself but there are a number of interesting calls facing the head coach and Stuart Lancaster.
Lowe, having frustratingly missed out on last season’s Champions Cup semi-final and final due to the non-European player ruling, has now staked a near-irrepressible claim to start against Wasps, but there are so many other variables at play.
Can Leinster afford to leave Fardy out of their matchday squad to accommodate the Kiwi duo of Lowe and back-up nine Jamison Gibson-Park, or will Cullen opt for Nick McCarthy as the replacement scrum-half?
The back row department is particularly well stocked, and few would envy Cullen having to pick a combination of three from Josh van der Flier, Rhys Ruddock, Leavy, O’Brien and Jack Conan.
And should Jordan Larmour shake off the hip injury which troubled him last week, does he come into the side, and at whose expense? Rob Kearney at fullback? Fergus McFadden on the wing?
It’s a good problem to have.
“We’re reasonably comfortable, happy with where we are in terms of we’ve used a good chunk of players and competition within the group is good, so there’s plenty of headaches for us as coaches,” Cullen continued.
“There will be guys disappointed that they’re not going to be involved next week and that is the way we want it. So, there are some difficult conversations we need to manage and hopefully that drives the group forward because we have so many big games coming up.
“It’s what you need over the course of the season [depth], it’s something we worked hard on and it is a constant challenge to make sure that you have that depth. That’s what the season demands in our opinion, you want to be able to manage the season.
“Other teams suddenly get themselves into a situation where they lose 10/15 guys to injuries because they play the same team all the time, that’s not the situation you want to be in because it forces your hand.
“So, you’d like to be able to rotate the team on your terms in an ideal world.”
Cullen has been able to do that, as evidenced on Saturday as the province continued that happy habit of winning, even when they had made 11 changes and their performance was far from perfect. It’s the hallmark of all champion sides.
But, as has become the mindset of the Leinster dressing room, there are always reminders of how things quickly can turn, and no doubt Cullen will reference the damaging defeat to Wasps in the opening game of the 2015/16 pool stages over the next few days.
Leinster were shockingly poor in slipping to a 33-6 reversal at the RDS that year, and such a performance will no doubt serve as a warning this week.
“Yeah, definitely,” Cullen agreed. “They’ve got so much pace. The team has changed slightly — I remember George Smith and Charles Piutau were in their side at that time.
“Jimmy Gopperth is injured at the moment so he won’t be playing. But the pace they have… Christian Wade, Elliot Daly, plus the power of guys like Nathan Hughes and Ashley Johnson.
‘They have Joe Launchbury, who is a quality international second row. Danny Cipriani is gone from when we played them here a couple of years ago, but Lima Sopoaga has been added. They’ll be a tough challenge again.”
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