LEO CULLEN HAS a talent on his hands, so it’s perhaps understandable that he offered a composed, measured praise in the wake of Joey Carbery’s performance in the Champions Cup quarter-final.
The 21-year-old Athy playmaker was outstanding against Wasps, creating his team’s opening two tries and constantly keeping the Premiership leaders guessing in defence with his fluid passing and instinctive eye for a gap.
“He’s very, very brave. He’s not afraid to try things,” said head coach Cullen post-match, perhaps hinting at some errors to be sifted through to keep Carbery’s feet rooted.
“We will have a look back at the game and go through it with him. He’s hungry to learn and he wants to get better. I’m delighted for him today, it was a good performance; 21 years of age. It has come very quickly but he is definitely a talent.”
Having Carbery at fullback gives Leinster a greater variation in their attack, a natural out-half, he was perfectly comfortable taking over from Jonathan Sexton as first receiver, whether the number 10 was simply lined up elsewhere, or out of commission.
Carbery himself came in for some physical treatment in the second half when Ashley Johnson dropped his own version of the People’s Elbow. But Cullen was keen not to let another day when Sexton was in the cross-hairs to pass unchecked.
You see the way teams are targeting Johnny. Even there, a couple of times you see he’s being hit late. Same in the England game. Teams are willing to go after him.
“It’s definitely something that referees need to keep in mind, because it’s easy for a defender to commit to a tackle, knowing that he’s committed, but he knows he’s not going to tackle the man before he gets the pass away.
“It’s one of those grey areas, but Johnny is definitely the recipient on that. You saw Rory Best making the point to the referee in the Ireland-England game in particular. It’s definitely something that Johnny is going to have to face, but having a second receiver takes away a little bit of that pressure maybe.”
Despite taking some treatment on board, Sexton came through the 80 minutes unscathed on this occasion. Adam Byrne is Leinster’s early injury worry after he was withdrawn with a hamstring issue midway through the first half. Though even that ended up working in Leinster’s favour as his replacement Fergus McFadden crossed for the fourth try to settle any nerves that had taken hold as Wasps battled back from a 22 – 3 half-time deficit to trail by just eight points as the clock ticked down.
“We want to play with attacking intent, but with that comes a little risk as well. When you turn the ball over you are a little bit more exposed. That’s what happened on a few occasions. There was one time (before Jimmy Gopperth’s try) when we were right on their try line, had the ball reefed and they are gone the length of the pitch. That’s how quickly they can turn defence into attack.
“There are definitely a lot of areas that we can be better at. We misfired in the line-out a couple of times. We probably managed better than we did last year.
Cullen added: “All in all we are delighted to be in a semifinal again.”
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