THE SUN ROSE on Sunday, and life continued. Leinster have become used to the feeling of having to move on from Champions Cup final disappointment, although it was different this time.
The grieving process could start at half-time in Bilbao on Saturday, with the game over as a contest.
Is it worse to lose agonisingly at the death of an intense tussle? Or to be well beaten and have no real ‘what if?’ moments to play over and over again in your mind?
The concern is that the gap to winning the Champions Cup is widening. Bordeaux were excellent in the final, having already beaten Toulouse and Bath on their way to retaining the trophy. Yannick Bru’s men were the best team in the competition and thoroughly deserved to be the winners.
We will have to wait another year to find out if Leinster will remain at the top table. Four final appearances in the last five seasons suggest they will be there or thereabouts, although this year’s final loss was Leinster’s most emphatic, and they lost at home in the semi-finals last season.
It’s also clear that French club rugby is going from strength to strength. Next year’s final will take place in Lyon, so any French side that makes it would have serious support.
The scenes in Bordeaux for their homecoming underlined just how strong their connection is with fans. There were more than 20,000 of them in Bilbao, with another 25,000 or more back in Stade Chaban-Delmas watching the game.
And yet, we’ve worried about French rugby accelerating out of view before. Irish rugby has often managed to keep pace and even outplay the behemoths of the game. The effort will need to be renewed.
For now, Leinster must channel their pain into winning the URC. They did that impressively last season, building a siege mentality after the Champions Cup semi-final loss to Northampton.
They blew Scarlets, Glasgow and the Bulls away to end their trophy wait. There were 46,127 people at Croke Park for the final, the biggest-ever crowd for a league decider held in Ireland. It was a glorious day for the province.
Doing their utmost to win it every season should be the base for Leinster, even with the URC evidently improving in quality year-on-year. We know that the province’s players care about the Champions Cup above all else, but re-establishing themselves as the dominant force at the domestic level should be a key ambition too.
Last season’s title success, in which they won 19 of their 21 games, was somewhat underappreciated. Leinster’s own obsession with the Champions Cup has fed into this, to be fair, but there needs to be more respect put on the URC’s name thanks to the improvement in competitiveness in recent years.
Would a URC title make this season a success for Leinster? It seems crazy to even pose it, but that question will attract differing opinions, possibly even within the province’s squad itself.
But opinions are opinions. Trophies are tangible. If Leinster can win their three knock-out games in the coming weeks, they will have another trophy to go with their existing haul.
And this at the end of a season which was always going to be challenging after such heavy Leinster involvement on the 2025 Lions tour to Australia. That group of players – if not injured – have gone from Lions to November Tests to Champions Cup to Six Nations to Champions Cup again. Most of the games they play are big ones. It’s a big ask.
Leinster lift the URC trophy last season. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
Yes, Leinster would love their trophy haul to include more than the four Heineken Cups from 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2018, but reaching five further finals of the leading club competition shows genuine consistency.
Amid discussions of their shortcomings, the reality is that there currently isn’t a huge scope for Leinster to change their approach to trying to get over the line in the Champions Cup, at least in terms of their model and overall strategy.
Leinster is a remarkable case study for sport if you zoom out for a minute. The vast majority of their players come from the province itself. The population of over 2.5 million people is not insignificant, but Leinster’s squad is unique in being so heavily homegrown.
French clubs can shop abroad, but also from every other area of France. It’s not like Leinster look elsewhere in Ireland for talent. And they can only bring in a sprinkling of non-Irish-qualified players. Arguably, the success Leinster have had and the level they have maintained is worthy of more pride.
All things considered, their playing budget is estimated to be somewhere in the region of €9 million or €10 million per season, yet it’s only that high because their homegrown players have been developed to such a high-class level. The Top 14 salary cap is currently €10.7 million, but that jumps higher if a club has French internationals. The best sides are spending closer to €13 million.
The worry now is that Leinster’s belt is being tightened. From 1 August, the IRFU’s updated funding model means the provinces will be responsible for 40% of the cost of national player contracts. That largely only applies to Leinster, who have nearly all the nationally contracted players in Ireland.
That 40% will come from Leinster and be channelled into the player development pathways in Munster, Connacht and Ulster. The IRFU hopes this will see more Irish internationals being delivered from those pathways in the future.
And this big financial change does not mean a reduction into how much control is applied to the nationally contracted players. Leinster will still have to juggle their resources and manage minutes throughout the season.
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They get very little sympathy for that, yet it’s obvious that having a big group of players disappearing for long stints of the season is not ideal for momentum. Ulster learned that this season, with their campaign ultimately petering out following far more extensive Six Nations involvement for their players.
The union has insisted that it will work hard to make sure Leinster are not weakened, but it’s hard to see how the changes won’t affect the eastern province. Even a glance at the ‘ins and outs’ for this summer suggests they may have a weaker squad next season.
All of that said, Leinster’s squad includes lots of top-class players, a couple of whom missed Bilbao due to injury. And they will continue to bring through more Leinster-born-and-bred talent.
Despite Leinster reaching yet another Champions Cup final, the latest defeat has led to some questions about Leo Cullen’s future, as well as that of senior coach Jacques Nienaber. They’re both big and bold enough to know that this is how sport works.
Jacques Nienaber with Leo Cullen. Tom Maher / INPHO
Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO
Cullen and Nienaber are both contracted until the summer of 2027, as are Leinster forwards coach Robin McBryde and attack coach Tyler Bleyendaal.
As things stand, all of them will still be in place next season. Cullen was already speaking about the future on Saturday night in Bilbao. He has played a central role in Leinster continuing to provide talent to the Ireland squad. Let’s not forget that the IRFU directly contracts provincial head coaches like Cullen.
Nienaber can point to last season’s URC trophy – Leinster’s first in four years – as evidence of his impact, with the potential for another one next month.
It is difficult to see any drastic decisions being made, even if there is a worry that Leinster have regressed in terms of the overall quality of their performances.
There has always been a nagging sense that the structure of Leinster’s coaching team is a little muddy. Cullen’s title is head coach, but he is more of a director of rugby. Nienaber’s title is senior coach, but he is really more of a head coach.
After Leinster lost to Northampton last season, Nienaber essentially said he was just in charge of the defence. And yet, this season, he told SuperSport of South Africa that he is in charge of Leinster’s rugby programme.
This season has also included another reminder from Nienaber that Cullen has the final say in Leinster’s team selection. Cullen is the face and voice of this team. That has meant Nienaber avoiding having to be public-facing, which he probably welcomes.
Nienaber’s defensive imprint on Leinster has been clear, but is he really a coach who favours intricate phase-play attack over a more kick-and-counter-focused approach? Leinster’s style this season has looked almost like a medley of coaching philosophies.
So, whose rugby team is it? Who is the one with the final say from the coaching box in the heat of the moment, like when Leinster are trying to make a crucial penalty decision in the white-hot heat of a big knock-out game?
The very best teams in the world have complete clarity and a relentless sense of what they want to be. Perhaps Leinster have that internally, yet it’s not always obvious from the outside.
What is perhaps more up for debate is what Leinster should do in 2027.
If the province and the IRFU feel that a fresh start or a change of the structure would be best, they will need to get working towards that urgently. Big coaching appointments or structural changes can’t be made overnight. And it does sound like this kind of stuff has already been discussed within Leinster and the IRFU.
A dejected Leinster fan in Bilbao. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
Leinster need to be clear on how they want to play and whether they believe a fresh voice at the top of the tree can have a positive impact on this group of players. Cullen will have been that voice for 12 years by the end of next season.
He has been a central figure in Leinster’s emergence as a truly consistent top-level force. Let’s not forget that when he took on the job in 2015, Leinster weren’t in a great place. Cullen was catapulted into the gig well before he would have hoped, yet he got the province running smoothly, with Stuart Lancaster making a major impact too.
Even if he wasn’t to continue in his current role, it must be hoped that Cullen has a part to play with Leinster. His strengths seem to be in the organisational, planning, and strategising realm.
Leinster have had a good thing going for a long time now, but that’s no guarantee that it will simply continue long into the future.
It is, of course, distinctly possible that Leinster and the IRFU will look to extend Cullen’s time in charge beyond 2027 but if that’s not the case, the decision will need to be made sooner rather than later.
Planning for the future has been a strength for Leinster over the past decade and that can’t change now, as they finally get set to move back into the RDS next season. They have missed their home.
Leinster’s short-term future involves defending their URC crown, the medium-term revolves around going after the Champions Cup once again, and the longer-term outlook remains to be decided.
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What next for Leinster? It starts with defending their URC title
THE SUN ROSE on Sunday, and life continued. Leinster have become used to the feeling of having to move on from Champions Cup final disappointment, although it was different this time.
The grieving process could start at half-time in Bilbao on Saturday, with the game over as a contest.
Is it worse to lose agonisingly at the death of an intense tussle? Or to be well beaten and have no real ‘what if?’ moments to play over and over again in your mind?
The concern is that the gap to winning the Champions Cup is widening. Bordeaux were excellent in the final, having already beaten Toulouse and Bath on their way to retaining the trophy. Yannick Bru’s men were the best team in the competition and thoroughly deserved to be the winners.
We will have to wait another year to find out if Leinster will remain at the top table. Four final appearances in the last five seasons suggest they will be there or thereabouts, although this year’s final loss was Leinster’s most emphatic, and they lost at home in the semi-finals last season.
It’s also clear that French club rugby is going from strength to strength. Next year’s final will take place in Lyon, so any French side that makes it would have serious support.
The scenes in Bordeaux for their homecoming underlined just how strong their connection is with fans. There were more than 20,000 of them in Bilbao, with another 25,000 or more back in Stade Chaban-Delmas watching the game.
And yet, we’ve worried about French rugby accelerating out of view before. Irish rugby has often managed to keep pace and even outplay the behemoths of the game. The effort will need to be renewed.
For now, Leinster must channel their pain into winning the URC. They did that impressively last season, building a siege mentality after the Champions Cup semi-final loss to Northampton.
They blew Scarlets, Glasgow and the Bulls away to end their trophy wait. There were 46,127 people at Croke Park for the final, the biggest-ever crowd for a league decider held in Ireland. It was a glorious day for the province.
Doing their utmost to win it every season should be the base for Leinster, even with the URC evidently improving in quality year-on-year. We know that the province’s players care about the Champions Cup above all else, but re-establishing themselves as the dominant force at the domestic level should be a key ambition too.
Last season’s title success, in which they won 19 of their 21 games, was somewhat underappreciated. Leinster’s own obsession with the Champions Cup has fed into this, to be fair, but there needs to be more respect put on the URC’s name thanks to the improvement in competitiveness in recent years.
Would a URC title make this season a success for Leinster? It seems crazy to even pose it, but that question will attract differing opinions, possibly even within the province’s squad itself.
But opinions are opinions. Trophies are tangible. If Leinster can win their three knock-out games in the coming weeks, they will have another trophy to go with their existing haul.
And this at the end of a season which was always going to be challenging after such heavy Leinster involvement on the 2025 Lions tour to Australia. That group of players – if not injured – have gone from Lions to November Tests to Champions Cup to Six Nations to Champions Cup again. Most of the games they play are big ones. It’s a big ask.
Yes, Leinster would love their trophy haul to include more than the four Heineken Cups from 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2018, but reaching five further finals of the leading club competition shows genuine consistency.
Amid discussions of their shortcomings, the reality is that there currently isn’t a huge scope for Leinster to change their approach to trying to get over the line in the Champions Cup, at least in terms of their model and overall strategy.
Leinster is a remarkable case study for sport if you zoom out for a minute. The vast majority of their players come from the province itself. The population of over 2.5 million people is not insignificant, but Leinster’s squad is unique in being so heavily homegrown.
French clubs can shop abroad, but also from every other area of France. It’s not like Leinster look elsewhere in Ireland for talent. And they can only bring in a sprinkling of non-Irish-qualified players. Arguably, the success Leinster have had and the level they have maintained is worthy of more pride.
All things considered, their playing budget is estimated to be somewhere in the region of €9 million or €10 million per season, yet it’s only that high because their homegrown players have been developed to such a high-class level. The Top 14 salary cap is currently €10.7 million, but that jumps higher if a club has French internationals. The best sides are spending closer to €13 million.
The worry now is that Leinster’s belt is being tightened. From 1 August, the IRFU’s updated funding model means the provinces will be responsible for 40% of the cost of national player contracts. That largely only applies to Leinster, who have nearly all the nationally contracted players in Ireland.
That 40% will come from Leinster and be channelled into the player development pathways in Munster, Connacht and Ulster. The IRFU hopes this will see more Irish internationals being delivered from those pathways in the future.
And this big financial change does not mean a reduction into how much control is applied to the nationally contracted players. Leinster will still have to juggle their resources and manage minutes throughout the season.
They get very little sympathy for that, yet it’s obvious that having a big group of players disappearing for long stints of the season is not ideal for momentum. Ulster learned that this season, with their campaign ultimately petering out following far more extensive Six Nations involvement for their players.
The union has insisted that it will work hard to make sure Leinster are not weakened, but it’s hard to see how the changes won’t affect the eastern province. Even a glance at the ‘ins and outs’ for this summer suggests they may have a weaker squad next season.
All of that said, Leinster’s squad includes lots of top-class players, a couple of whom missed Bilbao due to injury. And they will continue to bring through more Leinster-born-and-bred talent.
Despite Leinster reaching yet another Champions Cup final, the latest defeat has led to some questions about Leo Cullen’s future, as well as that of senior coach Jacques Nienaber. They’re both big and bold enough to know that this is how sport works.
Cullen and Nienaber are both contracted until the summer of 2027, as are Leinster forwards coach Robin McBryde and attack coach Tyler Bleyendaal.
As things stand, all of them will still be in place next season. Cullen was already speaking about the future on Saturday night in Bilbao. He has played a central role in Leinster continuing to provide talent to the Ireland squad. Let’s not forget that the IRFU directly contracts provincial head coaches like Cullen.
Nienaber can point to last season’s URC trophy – Leinster’s first in four years – as evidence of his impact, with the potential for another one next month.
It is difficult to see any drastic decisions being made, even if there is a worry that Leinster have regressed in terms of the overall quality of their performances.
There has always been a nagging sense that the structure of Leinster’s coaching team is a little muddy. Cullen’s title is head coach, but he is more of a director of rugby. Nienaber’s title is senior coach, but he is really more of a head coach.
After Leinster lost to Northampton last season, Nienaber essentially said he was just in charge of the defence. And yet, this season, he told SuperSport of South Africa that he is in charge of Leinster’s rugby programme.
This season has also included another reminder from Nienaber that Cullen has the final say in Leinster’s team selection. Cullen is the face and voice of this team. That has meant Nienaber avoiding having to be public-facing, which he probably welcomes.
Nienaber’s defensive imprint on Leinster has been clear, but is he really a coach who favours intricate phase-play attack over a more kick-and-counter-focused approach? Leinster’s style this season has looked almost like a medley of coaching philosophies.
So, whose rugby team is it? Who is the one with the final say from the coaching box in the heat of the moment, like when Leinster are trying to make a crucial penalty decision in the white-hot heat of a big knock-out game?
The very best teams in the world have complete clarity and a relentless sense of what they want to be. Perhaps Leinster have that internally, yet it’s not always obvious from the outside.
What is perhaps more up for debate is what Leinster should do in 2027.
If the province and the IRFU feel that a fresh start or a change of the structure would be best, they will need to get working towards that urgently. Big coaching appointments or structural changes can’t be made overnight. And it does sound like this kind of stuff has already been discussed within Leinster and the IRFU.
Leinster need to be clear on how they want to play and whether they believe a fresh voice at the top of the tree can have a positive impact on this group of players. Cullen will have been that voice for 12 years by the end of next season.
He has been a central figure in Leinster’s emergence as a truly consistent top-level force. Let’s not forget that when he took on the job in 2015, Leinster weren’t in a great place. Cullen was catapulted into the gig well before he would have hoped, yet he got the province running smoothly, with Stuart Lancaster making a major impact too.
Even if he wasn’t to continue in his current role, it must be hoped that Cullen has a part to play with Leinster. His strengths seem to be in the organisational, planning, and strategising realm.
Leinster have had a good thing going for a long time now, but that’s no guarantee that it will simply continue long into the future.
It is, of course, distinctly possible that Leinster and the IRFU will look to extend Cullen’s time in charge beyond 2027 but if that’s not the case, the decision will need to be made sooner rather than later.
Planning for the future has been a strength for Leinster over the past decade and that can’t change now, as they finally get set to move back into the RDS next season. They have missed their home.
Leinster’s short-term future involves defending their URC crown, the medium-term revolves around going after the Champions Cup once again, and the longer-term outlook remains to be decided.
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Champions Cup Leinster Leo Cullen Moving On? URC