LEINSTER HEAD COACH Leo Cullen laughed when he was asked whether he was pleased more by his side’s 52 points against Glasgow or the fact that Leinster were again able to hold their opponents scoreless as they marched into the Champions Cup semi-finals.
“It depends who you’re talking to: Jacques [Nienaber] or Tyler [Bleyendaal]. Robin [McBryde] is somewhere in between.”
Cullen’s men have scored 114 unanswered points in their two Champions Cup knockout games so far, holding both Harlequins and Glasgow scoreless across 160 minutes.
Last night at the Aviva Stadium, they racked up eight tries against the URC champions, albeit Franco Smith’s Warriors were missing several of their Scotland internationals through injury, following up the 10 they dotted down at Croke Park last week.
Their rampage through the round of 16 and quarter-final stage has been unprecedented. The winners of today’s meeting of Northampton Saints and Castres will have a lot on their plates on the May bank holiday weekend.
Cullen described Leinster’s recent numbers as “good from a stats point of view” but added that “the only thing that really matters is making sure we get through to the next round”.
“It’s enjoyable to watch and I’m sure for the players it’s enjoyable to play in the games where everyone is working hard for each other and it makes life a lot easier when you get a bit of scoreboard separation.
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“Overall, it’s been a great couple of weeks, but it’s only just about getting into the next round.
“Now we have a few weeks building toward a knockout game, which is something we should all get excited for and look forward for. We’ll watch Northampton-Castres, how they get on tomorrow (Saturday). The beauty of playing on a Friday night is you get to sit back and watch everyone else in action now over the rest of the weekend.”
Cullen, his coaching staff, and Leinster’s players navigated the six-day turnaround without so much as a hiccup.
Whereas Leinster’s 62-0 victory over Harlequins last Saturday played out in front of 55,000 supporters at Croke Park, there was more of a lowkey random-URC-round vibe to Friday night’s annihilation of Warriors.
With virtually zero time to market the game, the Aviva wasn’t even half full, and one wondered if Leinster might struggle slightly to regenerate the effervescence with which they put away Quins at GAA HQ.
Within minutes, anyone wondering as much was disabused of that notion. Leinster actually looked better than they did against Quins in so far as Glasgow actually asked them questions. The imperious Jordie Barrett and co. simply had the answers.
“So, we made some changes, you know, even from a leadership point of view,” Cullen said. “Jack [Conan] has done a great job for us for the year — and I’m not just saying that because he’s sitting beside me. He has, since pre-season. (Conan demonstrated that his neck injury was nothing to worry about by nodding theatrically in agreement).
“Even for Caelan and Jack, just for that bit of freshness in terms of ‘mission’ and everything, you know?
“The lads have worked hard this week and, like, it’s short. You get to do two decent training sessions: one is probably a bit more knowledge-based, then you have a one decent [physical] session and off you go again.
“Sometimes it’s not the worst thing in the world that you have a short turnaround and it just focuses the minds, and it allows you to be very specific with some of the messaging as well.”
Speaking to RTÉ afterwards, man of the match Jordie Barrett said that picking up at the Aviva where Leinster had left off at Croke Park had been the challenge posed to them by their head coach all week.
“I suppose it’s easy to get up for a side, to get up once, but you need to show a bit of character to come back a week later and do the same thing,” said the All Black.
When asked if complacency might have been a danger, Barrett replied: “It can, but that was our challenge and if you care enough you won’t let that be.
“We paid Glasgow full respect. We’d a good week because we respect Glasgow as a side. They’ve scored the most tries across the two competitions, they’re a good side, so it was imperative we started well.
“I’m very proud of this performance. The 52 points is nice but the zero is extra pleasing.
“We showed a lot of great control and intent with our defence. It’s nice to get both parts right but we’ve got to keep getting better.”
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Leinster enjoying clean sheets as much as their own huge points tallies
LEINSTER HEAD COACH Leo Cullen laughed when he was asked whether he was pleased more by his side’s 52 points against Glasgow or the fact that Leinster were again able to hold their opponents scoreless as they marched into the Champions Cup semi-finals.
“It depends who you’re talking to: Jacques [Nienaber] or Tyler [Bleyendaal]. Robin [McBryde] is somewhere in between.”
Cullen’s men have scored 114 unanswered points in their two Champions Cup knockout games so far, holding both Harlequins and Glasgow scoreless across 160 minutes.
Last night at the Aviva Stadium, they racked up eight tries against the URC champions, albeit Franco Smith’s Warriors were missing several of their Scotland internationals through injury, following up the 10 they dotted down at Croke Park last week.
Their rampage through the round of 16 and quarter-final stage has been unprecedented. The winners of today’s meeting of Northampton Saints and Castres will have a lot on their plates on the May bank holiday weekend.
Cullen described Leinster’s recent numbers as “good from a stats point of view” but added that “the only thing that really matters is making sure we get through to the next round”.
“It’s enjoyable to watch and I’m sure for the players it’s enjoyable to play in the games where everyone is working hard for each other and it makes life a lot easier when you get a bit of scoreboard separation.
“Overall, it’s been a great couple of weeks, but it’s only just about getting into the next round.
“Now we have a few weeks building toward a knockout game, which is something we should all get excited for and look forward for. We’ll watch Northampton-Castres, how they get on tomorrow (Saturday). The beauty of playing on a Friday night is you get to sit back and watch everyone else in action now over the rest of the weekend.”
Cullen, his coaching staff, and Leinster’s players navigated the six-day turnaround without so much as a hiccup.
Whereas Leinster’s 62-0 victory over Harlequins last Saturday played out in front of 55,000 supporters at Croke Park, there was more of a lowkey random-URC-round vibe to Friday night’s annihilation of Warriors.
With virtually zero time to market the game, the Aviva wasn’t even half full, and one wondered if Leinster might struggle slightly to regenerate the effervescence with which they put away Quins at GAA HQ.
Within minutes, anyone wondering as much was disabused of that notion. Leinster actually looked better than they did against Quins in so far as Glasgow actually asked them questions. The imperious Jordie Barrett and co. simply had the answers.
“So, we made some changes, you know, even from a leadership point of view,” Cullen said. “Jack [Conan] has done a great job for us for the year — and I’m not just saying that because he’s sitting beside me. He has, since pre-season. (Conan demonstrated that his neck injury was nothing to worry about by nodding theatrically in agreement).
“Even for Caelan and Jack, just for that bit of freshness in terms of ‘mission’ and everything, you know?
“The lads have worked hard this week and, like, it’s short. You get to do two decent training sessions: one is probably a bit more knowledge-based, then you have a one decent [physical] session and off you go again.
“Sometimes it’s not the worst thing in the world that you have a short turnaround and it just focuses the minds, and it allows you to be very specific with some of the messaging as well.”
Speaking to RTÉ afterwards, man of the match Jordie Barrett said that picking up at the Aviva where Leinster had left off at Croke Park had been the challenge posed to them by their head coach all week.
“I suppose it’s easy to get up for a side, to get up once, but you need to show a bit of character to come back a week later and do the same thing,” said the All Black.
When asked if complacency might have been a danger, Barrett replied: “It can, but that was our challenge and if you care enough you won’t let that be.
“We paid Glasgow full respect. We’d a good week because we respect Glasgow as a side. They’ve scored the most tries across the two competitions, they’re a good side, so it was imperative we started well.
“I’m very proud of this performance. The 52 points is nice but the zero is extra pleasing.
“We showed a lot of great control and intent with our defence. It’s nice to get both parts right but we’ve got to keep getting better.”
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