MANY YEARS, THERE can be an element of cut-and-paste to a Leinster season preview.
Win the URC, and it’s a good season. Win the Champions Cup, and it’s a great one. Win nothing, and it’s a disaster.
These are the lofty expectations by which a team of Leinster’s resources and quality are measured, but this year, it does all feel a little different.
For a start, those lofty external expectations appear to have been tempered. As Leo Cullen enters into his final season as Leinster head coach, there is a wider acceptance that the ‘juggernauts’ – to borrow a favoured Cullen term – are steaming ahead of the chasing pack.
Of course, many would rightly label Leinster as a juggernaut in their own right. Cullen can point to the bulging budgets of the Top 14 heavyweights, but Leinster aren’t short a few quid themselves and when it comes to knockout rugby, they regularly roll out a starting team that’s only a Mack Hansen and a Tadhg Beirne short of reading like an Ireland Test side.
So, what would make Cullen’s final season a successful one, in the eyes of both those inside the building and outside?
Defending their URC title feels like an absolute minimum, while acknowledging that this in itself is no mean feat. After the messy start to last season – where Leinster lost their opening two games away in South Africa – the approach to this year’s opening rounds in the Rainbow Nation is already more locked and loaded. The province had to manage the delayed integration of their Lions contingent in 2025, but this time around Cullen’s fit internationals all have boots on the ground in South Africa.
Come their 24 October Croke Park date with Munster, the province should be fitter and sharper than they were for last year’s meeting in Drumcondra.
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The squad are currently in South Africa preparing for their opening URC fixtures. Grace Halton / INPHO
Grace Halton / INPHO / INPHO
Their Champions Cup mission kicks off with a trip to play Clermont on 17 October, before further pool games against Sale, Pau and Leicester – a run which gives Cullen’s men a great shot at putting themselves in a strong position for the knockouts.
And so often, that has felt like the point where Leinster’s season starts in earnest. On this latest European charge, they’ll have notable challenges to negotiate long before the Champions Cup has shed its stragglers.
The Leinster boss has spoken strongly about his dislike for the term ‘lame duck’, but while Cullen insists he won’t let any drop-off happen under his watch, it might not all be entirely under his control. Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United team of 2001/02 are a go-to reference for how standards can slip when a manager is preparing for his exit, but Joe Schmidt’s 2019 Ireland are a more pertinent example here. Even in a World Cup year, Schmidt couldn’t keep his fine-tuned green machine running smoothly, his brilliant tenure stuttering to a disastrous World Cup quarter-final ending.
Cullen’s challenge is to keep his players motivated as Leinster plan for the next chapter behind the scenes. With Jacques Nienaber also potentially packing his bags, the group head into the season in the knowledge the playing style they have been so committed to these past few years may be getting a total overhaul in 12 months’ time. Probably best to try to forget about all that.
And that playing group has experienced considerable turnover since getting blitzed under the Bilbao sun by Bordeaux-Bègles. Ten players have cleared out their lockers, including a cluster of experienced internationals and long-serving Leinster stalwarts in James Lowe, Will Connors, Ciarán Frawley, Luke McGrath and Rabah Slimani, while Rieko Ioane’s short stay in Dublin also came to an end.
The returning Joey Carbery and Peter Dooley are the sole new recruits. It’s worth remembering that since 1 August, the IRFU has increased the provincial contribution for all national player contracts from 30% to 40%, a fair whack of change for the bulk suppliers.
Peter Dooley is one of only two new additions. Tom O’Hanlon / INPHO
Tom O’Hanlon / INPHO / INPHO
And significantly, at the time of writing there has been no marquee overseas signing added to the roster. That’s not necessarily a disaster, but so often those imported stars have been key to Leinster’s successful European charges.
If this is to be the year they break the European wait, it will be a truly Leinster effort.
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A more settled scene at out-half would certainly help. Sam Prendergast’s drop in form earlier this year was a reminder he is still a young man learning his craft. His return across the close of the season with Leinster and Ireland highlighted a strong mental reserve. Prendergast will turn 24 in February, and by that point will hope to have locked down the Leinster and Ireland shirts – a clearer challenge now that Jack Crowley won’t return to rugby until the new year, at the earliest.
With Frawley now in the green of Connacht, Harry Byrne provides the competition alongside up-and-coming Caspar Gabriel, who has been handed opportunities in pre-season. Carbery’s name will enter that mix when he returns from his ACL injury, although the 30-year-old also covers fullback and did a fine job in a couple of cameos at scrum-half in Bordeaux. One to watch, perhaps.
Joey Carbery is back in Leinster blue. Grace Halton / INPHO
Grace Halton / INPHO / INPHO
There is an ageing core there, but others look primed to take the next step in their Leinster careers. Jamie Osborne was used at inside centre across last season’s URC run-in but had to make do with a place on the bench for the European semi-final and final. Andy Farrell preferred Osborne at fullback during Hugo Keenan’s long injury absence, but 12 looks his ideal home in the Leinster shirt.
With Slimani gone and Tadhg Furlong (33) so central to Ireland’s World Cup plans, tighthead Tom Clarkson will have a big role. Jamison Gibson-Park might just be the most important player in the Irish system, so 23-year-old scrum-half Fintan Gunne will hope to build on his five starts last season. Centre Charlie Tector, who impressed despite an injury-disrupted 2025/26, will also be aiming to kick up the depth chart.
The campaign starts a long way from home, but before they know it Leinster will be settling back into the redeveloped RDS, now known as the Laya Arena. That very welcome homecoming, coupled with Cullen’s long goodbye, might be the extra spur needed on what looks an increasingly difficult path back to the top of European rugby.
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Cullen's long goodbye creates motivation and potential distraction for Leinster
MANY YEARS, THERE can be an element of cut-and-paste to a Leinster season preview.
Win the URC, and it’s a good season. Win the Champions Cup, and it’s a great one. Win nothing, and it’s a disaster.
These are the lofty expectations by which a team of Leinster’s resources and quality are measured, but this year, it does all feel a little different.
For a start, those lofty external expectations appear to have been tempered. As Leo Cullen enters into his final season as Leinster head coach, there is a wider acceptance that the ‘juggernauts’ – to borrow a favoured Cullen term – are steaming ahead of the chasing pack.
Of course, many would rightly label Leinster as a juggernaut in their own right. Cullen can point to the bulging budgets of the Top 14 heavyweights, but Leinster aren’t short a few quid themselves and when it comes to knockout rugby, they regularly roll out a starting team that’s only a Mack Hansen and a Tadhg Beirne short of reading like an Ireland Test side.
So, what would make Cullen’s final season a successful one, in the eyes of both those inside the building and outside?
Defending their URC title feels like an absolute minimum, while acknowledging that this in itself is no mean feat. After the messy start to last season – where Leinster lost their opening two games away in South Africa – the approach to this year’s opening rounds in the Rainbow Nation is already more locked and loaded. The province had to manage the delayed integration of their Lions contingent in 2025, but this time around Cullen’s fit internationals all have boots on the ground in South Africa.
Come their 24 October Croke Park date with Munster, the province should be fitter and sharper than they were for last year’s meeting in Drumcondra.
Their Champions Cup mission kicks off with a trip to play Clermont on 17 October, before further pool games against Sale, Pau and Leicester – a run which gives Cullen’s men a great shot at putting themselves in a strong position for the knockouts.
And so often, that has felt like the point where Leinster’s season starts in earnest. On this latest European charge, they’ll have notable challenges to negotiate long before the Champions Cup has shed its stragglers.
The Leinster boss has spoken strongly about his dislike for the term ‘lame duck’, but while Cullen insists he won’t let any drop-off happen under his watch, it might not all be entirely under his control. Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United team of 2001/02 are a go-to reference for how standards can slip when a manager is preparing for his exit, but Joe Schmidt’s 2019 Ireland are a more pertinent example here. Even in a World Cup year, Schmidt couldn’t keep his fine-tuned green machine running smoothly, his brilliant tenure stuttering to a disastrous World Cup quarter-final ending.
Cullen’s challenge is to keep his players motivated as Leinster plan for the next chapter behind the scenes. With Jacques Nienaber also potentially packing his bags, the group head into the season in the knowledge the playing style they have been so committed to these past few years may be getting a total overhaul in 12 months’ time. Probably best to try to forget about all that.
And that playing group has experienced considerable turnover since getting blitzed under the Bilbao sun by Bordeaux-Bègles. Ten players have cleared out their lockers, including a cluster of experienced internationals and long-serving Leinster stalwarts in James Lowe, Will Connors, Ciarán Frawley, Luke McGrath and Rabah Slimani, while Rieko Ioane’s short stay in Dublin also came to an end.
The returning Joey Carbery and Peter Dooley are the sole new recruits. It’s worth remembering that since 1 August, the IRFU has increased the provincial contribution for all national player contracts from 30% to 40%, a fair whack of change for the bulk suppliers.
And significantly, at the time of writing there has been no marquee overseas signing added to the roster. That’s not necessarily a disaster, but so often those imported stars have been key to Leinster’s successful European charges.
If this is to be the year they break the European wait, it will be a truly Leinster effort.
A more settled scene at out-half would certainly help. Sam Prendergast’s drop in form earlier this year was a reminder he is still a young man learning his craft. His return across the close of the season with Leinster and Ireland highlighted a strong mental reserve. Prendergast will turn 24 in February, and by that point will hope to have locked down the Leinster and Ireland shirts – a clearer challenge now that Jack Crowley won’t return to rugby until the new year, at the earliest.
With Frawley now in the green of Connacht, Harry Byrne provides the competition alongside up-and-coming Caspar Gabriel, who has been handed opportunities in pre-season. Carbery’s name will enter that mix when he returns from his ACL injury, although the 30-year-old also covers fullback and did a fine job in a couple of cameos at scrum-half in Bordeaux. One to watch, perhaps.
There is an ageing core there, but others look primed to take the next step in their Leinster careers. Jamie Osborne was used at inside centre across last season’s URC run-in but had to make do with a place on the bench for the European semi-final and final. Andy Farrell preferred Osborne at fullback during Hugo Keenan’s long injury absence, but 12 looks his ideal home in the Leinster shirt.
With Slimani gone and Tadhg Furlong (33) so central to Ireland’s World Cup plans, tighthead Tom Clarkson will have a big role. Jamison Gibson-Park might just be the most important player in the Irish system, so 23-year-old scrum-half Fintan Gunne will hope to build on his five starts last season. Centre Charlie Tector, who impressed despite an injury-disrupted 2025/26, will also be aiming to kick up the depth chart.
The campaign starts a long way from home, but before they know it Leinster will be settling back into the redeveloped RDS, now known as the Laya Arena. That very welcome homecoming, coupled with Cullen’s long goodbye, might be the extra spur needed on what looks an increasingly difficult path back to the top of European rugby.
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Leinster Preview Rugby the final chapter