WHEN HE TAKES into account all the things they had to deal with both before and during the game, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen was ultimately satisfied with his side’s work against Edinburgh in the URC at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday night.

Between international call-ups and injuries, Cullen was missing more than 20 senior players for the visit of the Scottish outfit to Irish Rugby HQ in round 11. Edinburgh for their part were able to call upon the services of Duhan van der Merwe, Freddy Douglas and Magnus Bradbury from Scotland’s squad for the Six Nations Championship and had established a 15-7 interval lead over their Irish counterparts.

Yet despite having 11 players in their squad with fewer than 10 Leinster caps to their name, the hosts ultimately came back to record a 28-20 bonus point triumph that propelled them to second spot in the Championship standings.

“It’s great in terms of the outcome,” Cullen said. “A lot of young guys with very little involvement with the Leinster senior team. A lot of Academy players out there, three players I think starting for the first time. Andrew Sparrow, Ciaran Mangan, Ruben Moloney. It’s a great experience for those guys out there.”

“Edinburgh had a ton of experience on the flip side in their team, so it was always going to be a very tough challenge for us. To be fair, I thought the players were pretty composed at half-time.

“Just had a lot more intent, energy. Everything that we did was just that one second quicker across the board. To come away with a bonus point win is hugely pleasing, considering all the disruptions and players unavailable this time of year.”

Although he is uncapped at senior test level with Ireland, Scott Penny was making his 98th appearance for Leinster this weekend. He came into Saturday’s fixture with 36 tries to his name and he proceeded to significantly increase his personal haul for the Blues with a second half hat-trick that helped the hosts to turn the tie on its head.

The openside flanker has proven to be a capable alternative to regular number seven Josh van der Flier in the past and Cullen was delighted with his performance in the Aviva on Saturday.

“Scott is fantastic. I thought he had an outstanding game. Hopefully he’ll get a bit of recognition at some point because I thought he was outstanding there today.”

Another man who Cullen signalled out for praise was Wexford native Charlie Tector. The starting out-half when the Ireland U20s won a Six Nations Grand Slam in 2022, Tector has been operating more frequently at inside centre in recent times – delivering a player of the match display in the latter position when Leinster defeated Connacht in Galway last weekend.

However, the presence of Sam Prendergast, Harry Byrne and Ciaran Frawley at Ireland’s Six Nations training camp in Portugal meant he was selected at out-half on this occasion and he supplied conversions to all four tries Leinster registered on Saturday.

Charlie Tector scores a try that was later disallowed. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO

“Obviously with a few 10s away this week, he [Tector] has led the week incredibly well. We thought we might have Caspar Gabriel involved as well, so Fintan Gunne actually was on the bench covering 10. Everyone mucked in this week and just was ready for lots of different scenarios, depending on how things played out,” Cullen added.

“Charlie as I said was really exceptional this week and he has been brilliant for us. Obviously man of the match last week at 12. It was curious, Stuart [Lancaster] was talking after the [Connacht] game about how some of their young guys went, but I was really pleased with some of our young guys against some of the experienced guys they had.

“If you think of Charlie Tector up against Bundee Aki, obviously Fintan played nine for the first half up against Caolin Blade with way more experience than he would have. The last couple of weeks, really pleasing with some of our less experienced guys. How they’ve stepped up to the plate.”