IN TERMS OF their fortunes in the Champions Cup pool stage at least, Leinster’s last 12 months has been a perfect story arc.
A year ago today, the eastern province welcomed Bath to the RDS having already been forced to accept their fate after four pool defeats.
Playing for nothing more than pride, head coach Leo Cullen handed six promising talents their first European start. And they repaid him handsomely by dominating the Premiership side in a lively bonus point win.
The ‘new faces’ that day were Garry Ringrose, Luke McGrath, James Tracy, Tadhg Furlong, Peter Dooley and Ross Molony. The majority of that sextet are now matchday regulars in a Leinster side who have qualified for the Champions Cup quarter-finals with a game to spare. And only the latter two were not awarded an international cap on the journey to this point.
That ‘dead rubber’ of a 25 – 11 victory 365 days ago was a clear sign of new beginnings during a punishing first season at the helm for Cullen.
“It was such a disappointing year last year in so many different forms,” Cullen said after his team tore eight tries out of Montpellier on Friday night.
“I think a lot of people were writing off provinces and Pro12 teams and there’s been a lot of doom and gloom about it. I was always a bit more optimistic, because I could see we’ve a lot of good young players coming through.”
Understatement.
On top of the six who have shot up since beating Bath, Adam Byrne and Rory O’Loughlin have injected boundless exuberance to the blues’ attacking threat while Ross Byrne has grasped an unlikely opportunity after starting the season as fourth-choice out-half.
An arc of sorts may be completed, but there is still a very important part of the job left to do in this Champions Cup season. A win in Castres will welcome a European quarter-final back to the Aviva Stadium. That’s why Cullen, though insisting that his players should be allowed to celebrate Friday’s big win, continues to deflect any hint of praise or sense that they’re over the line.
“For tonight, it’s great to be in the quarter-finals. (But) there’s still a hell of a lot of work to be done. There’s a very clear plan: win in Castres, which gets us a home quarter-final. It’s important to be at home.
“We need to make sure we get a lot of things right: putting in big performances, getting people to turn up to games, they go hand-in-hand. The players have talked a lot about producing special moments when they play, particularly at home. That tight relationship between players and supporters is important.”
And the coach? What role has he in all these special moments?
“I just worry week-to-week: ‘how do we win the game’, ‘how do we start improving, keep improving?’
“The players have a very good philosophy on self-improvement. It’s just trying to facilitate that for them.”
Cullen’s coaching story is just getting going.
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