LEO CULLEN REFUSED to panic after seeing his Leinster side beaten for only the second time this season in the United Rugby Championship, but was left scratching his head about the last time he had seen his team conceded 35 points.

Success over Welsh regions has been routine for Leinster in recent years, even with a second string, but Scarlets came into their final home game of the season needing five points, with a team full of internationals and determined to gain a boost before heading to South Africa for their final two games.

Their 35-22 win pushed them into the picture for a possible play-off place and ended a run of five straight defeats to Leinster. It was such a joyous and comprehensive win for the home side in the end their fans celebrated by singing the Welsh national anthem!

With Glasgow Warriors also losing it didn’t make much impact on Leinster’s eight point lead at the top of the table. They finish with home games against Zebre and Glasgow and can still bank on a home quarter-final.

“We lost control of the game pretty early on because of our ill discipline at the start. That gave them reasonable access,” explained Cullen.

“We knew the Scarlets would be up for the game because they’ve got so much to play for. It wasn’t like things we hadn’t discussed during the week and I was a bit disappointed with the way our guys didn’t really pitch up.

“Credit to Scarlets, they exploited us in many different ways and scored some good tries. We were still in the game all the way through to the end and we were talking about maybe taking two points, but they defended well.

“There were a few issues with cohesion after so many changes in recent weeks. Blame the coach first – I’ll take the blame.”

Cullen rested his main side ahead of this weekend’s Investec Champions Cup semi-final clash with Northampton Saints at the Aviva Stadium and will be expecting a different type of performance on that occasion. This defeat may add a bit more focus to training in the build up.

“We felt there is more in this group, but we didn’t quite see that. We will dust ourselves off and get ourselves ready for the different challenges coming up over the next few weeks,” added Cullen.

“It’s not a disaster, but you come back to the performance part. How did we put out a performance like that and conceded 35 points?

“If you are a little bit off and you are playing against highly motivated teams at the end of a season you can ship 35 points, although I can’t remember the last time that happened.

“It is a good reminder for us. We’ve had some good wins in the last few weeks – after the narrow loss to the Bulls we had the win over the Sharks in South Africa that led into two Champions Cup weeks – and that gave everyone a lift.

“The momentum carried on into the win over Ulster last week, but we hit a bit of a rock today. We will try to get better for next week.”