LEINSTER HEAD COACH Leo Cullen said he had difficult conversations with several players who missed out on being included in the province’s matchday 23 for tomorrow’s Champions Cup final against Toulouse.
Will Connors will start at openside for Leinster, with Josh van der Flier to come off the bench, while Jason Jenkins has been given the nod to start in the second row alongside Joe McCarthy, with the experienced James Ryan also named on the bench.
That means Ross Molony misses out on Leinster’s matchday squad, as does versatile back Jimmy O’Brien after Cullen confirmed a 6/2 bench split.
Jordan Larmour retains his place on the right wing and with Luke McGrath and Ciarán Frawley taking the two backs spots on the bench, O’Brien is left out.
Leinster are delighted to have Hugo Keenan at fullback following his return from injury last weekend in the URC against Ulster.
“I think we have a good balance there,” said Cullen of Leinster’s selection.
“Hugo got through the game last week, so did James, great to have James back and I know he’s on the bench. But from some of the experiences we’ve had, we need to make sure we’ve got that level of experience coming off the bench and James has been great in the way he’s gone about the week. Listen, we need him there on the field to help us win the game at the end.
“The combination of Jason and Joe, we’ve seen that before. Ross Molony in that instance is incredibly unlucky because he’s been brilliant for the team over the course of the season and in previous seasons as well.
“There’s been a few of those conversations this week with a few of those guys who are incredibly unlucky to miss out but we still think we’ve got a strong 23 there who will hopefully represent everybody well.
“Some tight calls in terms of the team piece but that’s the nature of the competitive squad we have.”
Cullen paid tribute to the wider Leinster group for their part in preparing the 23 this week, while he also credited the province’s fans for helping his team to reach the final.
He said Leinster were excited to see another big crowd at the impressive 62,850-capacity Tottenham Hotspur Stadium tomorrow.
Cullen believes his players are ready for the challenge coming their way having lost the last two Champions Cup finals to La Rochelle.
“The players have been through unbelievable experiences and everyone has different levels of experience so I’m trying to think who would be the eldest player… like say, Cian is probably the most experienced and has been through so much but then you have a Jamie Osborne on the other end of that. Less experienced but he has been immense during this sequence of knock-out games in particular but we’ve seen that in games and training for the last number of seasons,” said Cullen.
“Everyone has a slightly different lens but the group overall has accumulated amazing experience. Some of it is character building, as painful as it is, so we’ve got some strong characters in the group now that really perform on this type of stage and that’s ultimately what you want. You want to go through these experiences, yeah you’d love it if it was all plain sailing and you’re winning games.
“We were sitting at the end of a Champions Cup final last season and you have to pick yourself up and go again. You see the draw when it gets announced, first up is La Rochelle away and that’s how you start planning the season.
“To get through all the steps we’ve got through and I’m listening to some of Toulouse’s piece and how they’ve lost in the semi-final against us last year in the Aviva, so they have a similar type of disappointment I guess. So they have to navigate their way through.
“There’s a hell of a lot of excellent teams who are not here. Everyone wants to be involved in this weekend because it’s Champions Cup. All the champions teams are pitted against each other, so we’re up against one of the great teams of the competition in Toulouse and it’s a privilege here.
“Now it’s about the group performing and delivering the best version of themselves. We think they’ve prepared well so hopefully we see that in terms of the performance tomorrow. Hopefully, we’ll have an amazing crowd here and it will be a great occasion for rugby in the Northern Hemisphere.”
