LEO CULLEN HAS outlined the scale of the hurt he and his Leinster team have endured since their unimpressive Champions Cup exit to Saracens.

After going into that game on the back of a 25-game winning streak, Leinster were taught a grim lesson. By full-time they were outfought, outthought and out of Europe.

“When you get knocked out of the tournament, it really magnifies things,” Cullen said today.

Like every week after a game, we try and make our assessments. But this one hit the players hard, it really did hit them hard. It hit us all hard, really. There was a huge sense of disappointment off the back of the previous week’s win over Ulster (in the PRO14 final).

“After that (Ulster) game we talked a little about our ability to back things up in big game after big game. It is a real challenge for teams to do that but that is where we want to be. The intention was to get to a semi-final in Europe but we never actually got there. As time goes in we will take stock in terms of even some of the selections that we made.

“Did they work? Did they not? What would we do differently if we had our time again? So we will ask lots of questions of ourselves as coaches as well?”

Have those answers arrived yet? “It is tricky to answer that,” Cullen said, “because you are always asking the questions off the outcome – so if we had won the game would there be different questions that we would be asking? We are all geniuses in hindsight, aren’t we?”

Yet no sooner has one season ended than another is about to begin. It is the Dragons tonight at the RDS. Despite naming a strong side, injuries remain with Cullen saying he is ‘hopeful’ Dan Leavy will be back by mid-October and that Tadhg Furlong’s return can also be pencilled in around that time.

Furlong looks set for a mid-October return. Tommy Dickson / INPHO Tommy Dickson / INPHO / INPHO

“Tadhg is a lot of little things unfortunately that have stalled his return, he’s got close a couple of occasions and has had a few false starts,” said Cullen.

“Yeah, he’s close to getting back and hopefully will feature… I suppose his timeline is similar to what you mentioned around Dan’s.

“Whatever team that’s with, I’m not sure yet, but he’s making progress.”

In the meantime, Johnny Sexton will start – something that has been written infrequently in recent years around the Ireland captain and regular PRO14 fixtures. Cullen, however, insists his captain is looking forward to it.

“We all are,” the coach said. And of particular interest is the selection of Hugo Keenan at full-back and Jordan Larmour on the wing.

“It is just something we wanted to see in terms of what that combination looks like,” said Cullen. “It’s a small alteration and I wouldn’t read a huge amount into it.

“Playing on the wing probably gives Jordan a little bit more freedom to roam and it’s something that comes quite naturally to him. He’s played a lot of games on the right wing for us. Hugo has probably played a lot more at 15 coming through.

“When Hugo came into the team initially it was more as a replacement when Dave Kearney got injured. So, this is just something we want to have a look at.”