55 the magic number for Leinster's Leo Cullen
Leo Cullen is under no illusions about the size of the challenge he faces in trying to guide Leinster to a successful Guinness PRO14 title defence — last weekend’s friendly defeat at home to Newcastle Falcons underlined the point.
A glance around the room as the awards were being handed out for last season’s campaign on Monday night in Glasgow will have shown that the competition in the league this season will be greater than ever, with new coaches, better players, and deeper pockets across all the clubs than in previous seasons.
With Leinster supplying the bulk of Joe Schmidt’s Ireland squad as the World Cup looms 13 months from now, that will mean head coach Cullen has to deepen the strength in depth of his playing group if they are to remain at the top in the PRO14 and defend their Champions Cup crown.
That strength in depth has already been tested this month as Leinster prepare to start the league campaign next Friday night in Cardiff against the Blues without their frontline Ireland stars, all on a delayed pre-season schedule following the June tour to Australia.
Of Schmidt’s 32-man touring squad that secured a series victory over the Wallabies, 17 were Leinster players — Joey Carbery has since left for Munster and Jordi Murphy has joined Ulster for the new season.
Pre-season friendlies in Montauban, an 18-17 win, and a thumping 42-17 loss to Newcastle at Donnybrook’s Energia Park have been important experiences for the younger members of Cullen’s squad. The Leinster boss did not hide his concerns at those performances.
“There were aspects of the performance in France which concerned us as well. At this time of year, when you go through a live game situation, it exposes a lot of things. So there are some aspects we would be quite happy with and other aspects we would want to improve. It’s about getting that fine balance right,” said Cullen.
“Even going back to last season, there were a number of things we could have done better. It is a challenge for players and coaches. Over the course of the last few seasons, a lot of teams have been getting better; players, coaches, and resources have been pumped into teams.
“The competition is strengthening all the time. That is the challenge. All the time we are trying to bring in a lot of young players.”
“We have 45 in our senior squad but we used 55 players in the PRO14 last year. To get to the situation where you’re actually able to get to a play-off game, you have to use a lot of players, so you are trying to get them all as ready as they can possibly be.
“Because it’s important, the fact is we used 55 players — it’s not a made-up number, that’s the number we actually used last year. So, we need to make sure we have 55 players who can play at that level. That’s important.”
With the Ireland stars not expected back in blue until at least the third or fourth rounds of the PRO14 in late September, Cullen is expecting a testing start to the campaign at the Blues and then at Scarlets on September 8.
“It is a tough start, yeah, Cardiff — it’s a bit more difficult because they have a new coaching group as well, we can look at a few things they did last season so we’re a bit limited in terms of the footage we have, the access to the footage we’ve had of them, and what they’ve been working on in pre-season.
“We’ll do as much prep as we possibly can on them to make sure we’ve as good a chance as possible.
“Scarlets are a team we played a lot last year, we played them twice during the Six Nations and in two play-off games as well — plus we prepared for a game that got called off — so we basically prepared for them five times in the space of three or four months in the season.
“They caused us a lot of pain the previous year as well, that’s reasonably fresh in the memory. So, yeah, they’re a very well-coached team. They’ve lost a couple of players, added a couple of players so the dynamic of all the teams has changed slightly,” said Cullen.
“For us it’s trying to figure out how teams play, the way they’re coached. So, yes, it’s a very tough start for us.”
And though Leinster’s access to their Ireland contingent may be limited at the moment, Cullen is confident he will get some continuity of selection going as the season gets into full swing.
“I think we can expect plenty of changes to the team in the first six weeks.
“But then you will see us build that bit of cohesion as we get closer into Europe. Then you hope there will be a number of guys who will get picked for Ireland. Everybody is used to that system. It serves everybody well.”
