LEINSTER HEAD COACH Leo Cullen said he hopes to see sell-out crowds at the revamped Laya Arena all season after his side got off to a winning start on their return to the Dublin venue.
Cullen’s men grabbed a bonus-point 29-5 win over Cardiff to celebrate their homecoming, making a fast start and racking up four tries by half-time before adding a fifth late on.
Leinster confirmed the game as a sell-out in the hours leading up to kick-off, and announced a crowd of 20,035 people for the province’s first win of the URC season.
Cullen was delighted with the occasion, although he believes his team need to improve as they develop more cohesion. Nine of the Leinster starting XV were making their first appearances of the season in this game.
“I think it’s such a great venue,” said Cullen post-match. “It’s amazing we’ve sold out today, but we would love that to be just the norm now.
“From our point of view, we can do better. We can do better in terms of our performance, is my honest opinion about us. I think there’s lots of great effort and intent, but it’s just making sure we gel and get more cohesive as a group.
“We don’t have another game in the RDS during this first block of the season, so it’s into the next block of the season, but you’d love for us to have this place as a really special venue to be part of, as in players and supporters. We all need to work at that. It’s a really positive start, which is lovely. It’s cool, isn’t it? It’s a really cool place.
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“There’s so much going on around the area and all the rest. We need to make it a special atmosphere, but we need to play our part by playing a little bit better than we were today. We need to coach them better to play better.”
Leinster's Joshua Kenny leaves the pitch after the game. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
Cullen was happy to report that Leinster didn’t suffer any new injuries during their win over Cardiff, meaning he will have a strong hand to pick from for next weekend’s Champions Cup visit to Clermont.
A week later, Leinster will welcome Munster to the Aviva Stadium in the URC.
Cullen hopes to see a notable improvement in the coming weeks.
“Lots of good stuff in the first half,” he said of Leinster’s performance against Cardiff.
“Unfortunately, at the start of the second half we don’t put on much of a show, it gets a bit disjointed. The big challenge is when you have so many players coming back in for the first game of the season, it just looks like lads haven’t played in a while.
“But we stuck at it, defended well, scrambled well on lots of different stages and got over towards the end.
“It’s a start, a really positive start. But we just need to work at getting better across the board. We’ve used 40 players in three rounds, quite a lot realistically. Cohesion is not there where we would ideally like it to be. But we just need to keep working at that.
Three games done, we’ve done a trip to South Africa.
“It’s great to get a bonus-point win. Cardiff, on the flip side, they’re coming into the game with plenty of positive momentum, aren’t they? Off the back of two wins and probably a greater sense of cohesion as a group.
“They’re dangerous. You can see they were dangerous and they posed us lots of threats at different stages. But as I said, it’s a win, a really positive start to be here. It’s just something to build on now because we’ve huge games coming up in the next few weeks.”
Leinster head coach Leo Cullen. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
Out-half Sam Prendergast was player of the match for Leinster, with his running, passing, and offloading repeatedly causing problems for the Cardiff defence.
The 23-year-old finished last season strongly for Leinster and returned to the Ireland number 10 shirt, so Cullen is happy to see him picking up where he left off.
“He’s just building all the time,” said Cullen of Prendergast. “That’s what we’ve been saying for the last few years.
“He has a really positive mindset, wants to keep getting better at all aspects of his game. Once you have young players that are like that, they will get better. That’s the main thing. We all have to be patient.
“As young players, particularly in a critical position like that, playing at 10, there are so many moving parts to manage. He’s getting better all the time and we want to continue the growth of all our young players.”
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'It's amazing we've sold out today, we'd love that to be the norm now'
LEINSTER HEAD COACH Leo Cullen said he hopes to see sell-out crowds at the revamped Laya Arena all season after his side got off to a winning start on their return to the Dublin venue.
Cullen’s men grabbed a bonus-point 29-5 win over Cardiff to celebrate their homecoming, making a fast start and racking up four tries by half-time before adding a fifth late on.
Leinster confirmed the game as a sell-out in the hours leading up to kick-off, and announced a crowd of 20,035 people for the province’s first win of the URC season.
Cullen was delighted with the occasion, although he believes his team need to improve as they develop more cohesion. Nine of the Leinster starting XV were making their first appearances of the season in this game.
“I think it’s such a great venue,” said Cullen post-match. “It’s amazing we’ve sold out today, but we would love that to be just the norm now.
“From our point of view, we can do better. We can do better in terms of our performance, is my honest opinion about us. I think there’s lots of great effort and intent, but it’s just making sure we gel and get more cohesive as a group.
“We don’t have another game in the RDS during this first block of the season, so it’s into the next block of the season, but you’d love for us to have this place as a really special venue to be part of, as in players and supporters. We all need to work at that. It’s a really positive start, which is lovely. It’s cool, isn’t it? It’s a really cool place.
“There’s so much going on around the area and all the rest. We need to make it a special atmosphere, but we need to play our part by playing a little bit better than we were today. We need to coach them better to play better.”
Cullen was happy to report that Leinster didn’t suffer any new injuries during their win over Cardiff, meaning he will have a strong hand to pick from for next weekend’s Champions Cup visit to Clermont.
A week later, Leinster will welcome Munster to the Aviva Stadium in the URC.
Cullen hopes to see a notable improvement in the coming weeks.
“Lots of good stuff in the first half,” he said of Leinster’s performance against Cardiff.
“Unfortunately, at the start of the second half we don’t put on much of a show, it gets a bit disjointed. The big challenge is when you have so many players coming back in for the first game of the season, it just looks like lads haven’t played in a while.
“But we stuck at it, defended well, scrambled well on lots of different stages and got over towards the end.
“It’s a start, a really positive start. But we just need to work at getting better across the board. We’ve used 40 players in three rounds, quite a lot realistically. Cohesion is not there where we would ideally like it to be. But we just need to keep working at that.
Three games done, we’ve done a trip to South Africa.
“It’s great to get a bonus-point win. Cardiff, on the flip side, they’re coming into the game with plenty of positive momentum, aren’t they? Off the back of two wins and probably a greater sense of cohesion as a group.
“They’re dangerous. You can see they were dangerous and they posed us lots of threats at different stages. But as I said, it’s a win, a really positive start to be here. It’s just something to build on now because we’ve huge games coming up in the next few weeks.”
Out-half Sam Prendergast was player of the match for Leinster, with his running, passing, and offloading repeatedly causing problems for the Cardiff defence.
The 23-year-old finished last season strongly for Leinster and returned to the Ireland number 10 shirt, so Cullen is happy to see him picking up where he left off.
“He’s just building all the time,” said Cullen of Prendergast. “That’s what we’ve been saying for the last few years.
“He has a really positive mindset, wants to keep getting better at all aspects of his game. Once you have young players that are like that, they will get better. That’s the main thing. We all have to be patient.
“As young players, particularly in a critical position like that, playing at 10, there are so many moving parts to manage. He’s getting better all the time and we want to continue the growth of all our young players.”
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