Cullen to turn Ireland pain into Leinster’s gain

Leo Cullen believes every one of the 15 Leinster players who featured in Ireland’s disappointing Six Nations campaign will feel they have a point to prove when the province faces Ulster in a Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final on Saturday evening.

Cullen to turn Ireland pain into Leinster’s gain

Leo Cullen believes every one of the 15 Leinster players who featured in Ireland’s disappointing Six Nations campaign will feel they have a point to prove when the province faces Ulster in a Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final on Saturday evening.

The championship just gone delivered three wins but was bookended by convincing losses to England and Wales and, as bulk suppliers to Joe Schmidt’s selection, Leinster have had most to do in terms of rehabilitating bruised bodies and egos.

“That’s just always ongoing during the course of the Six Nations or post-Six Nations, during the course of all the parts of the season,” said Cullen. “There are these ups and downs, ebbs and flows with people’s form over the course of a campaign. It’s always a tricky balance. But some guys are coming off the campaign in good spirits having played well. Other guys are... what’s going on? But that is always the case for us. Other guys are pissed off they haven’t been picked so they come back a bit frustrated.

“They are the guys who often go best when they come back in because they have a real point to prove. The players all feel that they have a point to prove now. They are disappointed with how the campaign ended. Nobody is denying that.”

Few Irish players featured more over the course of the Six Nations than Jonathan Sexton, who started all five games and banked 313 minutes and yet the reigning world player of the year returned to provincial duty with questions over both his form and attitude. All of which has been debated in the context of Ireland’s World Cup ambitions until now, but the looming knockout stages of the European Cup will change the tint on that conversation, at least temporarily, from green to blue.

He has been great (since his return to Leinster).It’s just a case of trying to get his body sorted and make sure he is in the best possible shape. He went into the campaign off the back of a bit of disrupted form. He hadn’t played since the Munster game, so it was a difficult lead in for him.

“But at least he has played, got through and started all five games in the Championship. For us now, it’s about taking a bit of pressure off him. He was good last week, he’s getting himself sorted and is on top of everything.”

There was a time when Cullen would watch Ireland’s games exclusively through the prism of Leinster’s wants and needs but he has found that a needless drain and now prefers to look on as a fan. Why waste energy on matters outside of your control? The fact is that he has had a dozen of his 15-strong international contingent returned to him in working order. Devin Toner and Josh van der Flier are long-term absentees while Robbie Henshaw is still recovering from perhaps the most persistent ‘dead leg’ in Irish sporting history.

Leinster will turn towards a 14th European quarter-final in the knowledge that many of their returning internationals haven’t played with the club since prior to the Six Nations. Of that 15, only Sean Cronin, Andrew Porter and Jack McGrath featured against Edinburgh last week. Same as it ever was, in that sense.

Fact is that they will be expected to book their place in the semi-finals regardless of any interrupted build-up, loss of form or injuries given their status as champions and the ease with which they have dispatched Ulster in big games in recent years. The visitors will know all that and they will hope to buttress their underdog status with the extra bite that so many of their leading lights – John Cooney, Jordi Murphy and Marty Moore among them – will bring given their previous allegiances to Leinster.

“It probably makes it harder because they know us very well. Jordi, in particular, spent all last year being in and around the place. It is a challenge. It is always important to understand the motivation of whoever you play on any given week.

“Those guys will be highly motivated. I’m sure they are always highly motivated. But, there’s always a little extra edge. We need to understand that, respect that, and understand what sort of an effect it is going to have.

“We can try to control our own bits best, getting our detail right. We know if we get those right, it helps us perform better on the day.”

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