AFTER 80 MINUTES of rugby which brought big hits, a couple of controversial incidents and plenty of high-quality attacking play, Leo Cullen was delighted to see his team walk off the pitch with a commanding 47-14 win over the Bulls in their pocket.
It hadn’t always looked like the night would be so comfortable for the hosts, Leinster finding themselves in a real battle at the scrum across the early stages and trailing 14-12 at half-time.
However the home side were utterly ruthless after the break, scoring five second-half tries on their way to an impressive 33-point victory.
The wins means Leinster now sit nine points clear of the Bulls at the top of the URC table as the province turn their attention to next weekend’s Champions Cup knockout date with Leicester Tigers at Aviva Stadium.
“It was a proper arm-wrestle at the start,” said Cullen.
“Bulls, very physical team, took us on at the scrum, they won a couple of scrum penalties at the start. It was pleasing how we responded to that though, we were able to drive them off their ball and suddenly we changed that picture, which you have to be able to do. I thought the guys adapted to that well.
“There’s the try in the corner, and we lose Lukey [McGrath] to the bin and for that 10 minutes.
“How we started the second half was probably pleasing. We wanted to get some guys on pretty early and they added good impacts straight away. That was good. It had a bit of everything, we rode our luck a little bit towards the end.
“Overall, it’s a great win for us. Bulls have been going well and have a lot of quality and picked a very strong team.
“You could see them at different stages, how different they are, in lots of ways. They have a lot of power, a strong kicking game and a good bit of speed as well. When you see when they catch you on the break, they’re very dangerous and some of the individuals they have, the ability to step and you’ve seen them at international level as well. They have some serious quality.
“To get a win, when you play first and second, you’re trying to maximise the points. To get five for us and none for them, that’s perfect. We’re pleased with the outcome.”
Cullen added that Luke McGrath does not appear to be a major injury concern after being forced off for a HIA.
The Leinster scrum-half left the action towards the end of the first-half after a head-on-head collision with Kurt-Lee Arendse as the Bulls winger ran in a try. The tackle also saw McGrath yellow-carded on TMO review.
“There was a bit of everything in that,” said Cullen.
“I thought there was a block missed earlier, where [Marcell] Coetzee checks Josh [van der Flier], and that leads to the linebreak. You’re always looking to see the first thing first.
“I’ll have a look back at the incident. The main thing is making sure Lukey is alright at the moment for us.
“He seems OK, again you go through graduated return to play, similar with Robbie [Henshaw] as well. There’s no point me commenting too much on it.
“We’ll just get them through graduated return to play and they’ll go though the usual protocols.”
Great save by Kelleher near the end. Comfortable afternoon for him
Top player.
Super performance and result albeit against a woeful Watford. Unlikely to be a worse performance by any PL team this season. Salah is unbelievable and his goal was magical, give him the contract his performances and goals deserve. Great to see Firmino scoring. Though Kelleher had nothing to do he kept his concentration to make a very good save at the end. Gonna be a tight title race. Surprised Salah and Mane played the 90 minutes, Minamino could have done with game time especially against that Watford team.
Mo Salah is WOW!!! a pleasure to watch him…..Firmino not bad either : )
Time to sack Ranieri…….
@John S: dilly ding dilly dong
@Heckler davies: dilly ding, dilly gone
Class win and 3 more handy points. We will be hard to stop This season as we put last seasons blip behind us
Danny Rose will sleep tonight. Great performance against an albeit poor side!!
Give Mo all the money. Almost 0% chance of being able to replace him
Lewandowski and Salah are the best players in the world on current form.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a PL side as bad as that Watford side today….if they lost 10-0 it wouldn’t have been a surprise! Woeful…
@Ottomaaan: you forgot to mention that they were up against a solid side with a rampant front three, there, I fixed it for you…. :)
@Gordon Larney: no need to fix anything. That was the worst performance I’ve ever seen from a PL side, dreadful stuff and Liverpool could have put 10 past them.
@Ottomaaan: have to agree. I was at the game and never seen such a bad performance from a PL team.
Salah in great form. But how long canhe hold that form? He has 20-25 goals in him a season, but he’s up and down. If he held this form, he’d be close to 40 goals?
Bigger tests against Athletico and United on the way.
@Finn Faulkner: did you like your own comment…
@Finn Faulkner: how long can he do that. ? He has been doing it for the last 4 seasons. 104 goals in 166 games in the Premier league but you think he should score more. Okay so
@Finn Faulkner: you’re gonna need bigger bait on that hook ….
@WESHALLNOTBEMOVED: But by that metric 4 seasons at 40 goals would be 160 goals. He hasn t done that. But my point is that if he can keep that killer hat on his head for a prolonged period, and with our squad almost injury free, he could break records for us. I’m HOPING he keeps this lethal form indefinitely. He still can’t be put in the Messi/Ronaldo category until he starts being seriously clinical. I’d love to see him win the Balloon d’Or this year (or the next)
@len len: No, but seeing as you need likes, here, have mine. Have a lovely day.
@WESHALLNOTBEMOVED: you included his Chelsea stats there, it’s 102 in 153 for Liverpool
@Shane Roche: It’s still an amazing number of goals per season, but I think he can go even further, he needs to keep this current form. Biggest tests are against Athletico and then United.
That salah. Goal was pure roy of the rovers.. Pure art.. He must be a great dancer..
As good as Liverpool are, and they are really good. This in my opinion is all about Klopp.