AFTER SEEING HIS side record a convincing bonus-point triumph against Cardiff on Saturday in the absence of a substantial international contingent, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen is looking upon the province’s relatively relaxed United Rugby Championship schedule in the coming weeks as a positive.
Whereas last season saw them playing six games during the months of February and March, Leinster are set to play half that amount in the same period for the 2022/23 campaign.
Following their 38-14 win over Cardiff at the RDS, the Blue won’t be in action again until playing host to another Welsh side – Dragons – on 18 February.
Subsequent encounters with Edinburgh and DHL Stormers will fall on the 4th and 24th days in March respectively, before Leinster take on Ulster in the Heineken Champions Cup Round of 16 at the beginning of April.
“Whatever it is, I think we have to use it as a positive. This window here now, there’s sort of a mix of some quality training time and a bit of downtime as well, and a couple of games that we have.
“I know we’re finishing off this sequence of games [10 games in as many weeks], but for this particular group it’s sort of the start of a block of games,” Cullen remarked at Saturday’s post-match press conference.
The next game here will be Dragons. Again, it’s making sure that the group are mentally refreshed now and then it’s getting quality training time. Because some of the performance today is built off the work they put in this week and recent weeks as well.
“This group has a chance to lay down a marker as such, because they’re the ones with the Leinster jerseys at the moment.”
In addition to those who are currently with the Ireland squad in Portugal preparing for the start of the Six Nations Championship, URC table-toppers Leinster were also missing a number of injured players on Saturday.
Robbie Henshaw is the most notable name on the treatment table at the moment as it is anticipated the Westmeath man could yet feature in the spring international window.
Cullen expects Henshaw – who performed with his family band at the Leinster Fanzone, ‘The Laighin Den’, in the aftermath of Saturday’s game – to be approaching a full recovery from wrist surgery ahead of the aforementioned visit of Dragons to Ballsbridge, but it remains to be seen what camp he finds himself in at that point.
“Some of them will be back for the Dragons game in a couple of weeks’ time. He’s pretty close Robbie now. In terms of what Ireland do with him, do they bring him back into camp or does he play with us? He has a big performance on next door now!”
Meanwhile, Cullen partially addressed the speculation surrounding his own future at Leinster. In the role of head coach since 2015 – having worked under his predecessor Matt O’Connor as a forwards coach for a single season – the latest of the Wicklow native’s one-year deals with the eastern province is set to run out this summer.
A recent report suggested he is set to continue in his current position until 2025 at the very least and while there isn’t any official confirmation from Leinster for the time being, it doesn’t seem that Cullen is in any hurry out of the door just yet.
“I love the group. It’s a challenging job, but the young guys give it great energy in particular. The older guys are obviously a bit harder work! They’re a great bunch, I have to say now. We’ll see what happens,” Cullen added.