LEO CULLEN ADMITTED Leinster have work to do if they are to end their wait for Champions Cup success after watching his team labour to a 15-7 defeat of Clermont Auvergne. 

After last weekend’s bonus-point win in Bristol, Leinster followed up with a sloppy, error-heavy showing against a Clermont side who brought plenty of fight but lacked an attacking threat at Aviva Stadium.

Leinster were limited to just 15 points on the night, with Garry Ringrose and Jordie Barrett scoring first-half tries before Sam Prendergast added a second-half penalty.

Cullen took satisfaction in the win but was clearly agitated with elements of the performance, outlining that his team are not yet at the level of reigning champions Toulouse, who pipped the province in last year’s decider.

“A win, isn’t it?” said Cullen.

“When you see these two fixtures at the start, and where they’re positioned after the four Test matches, if someone said you were going to get nine points from the two games, you’d probably be quite happy.

“But when you score two tries in the first half of the second game having got five (match) points last week, it sort of feels like there are things there that we can be better at.

“The dressing room is frustrated at how we performed today because we want to put on a better show in front of our home fans but at the same time, you’ve got to win against a team that is used to these sort of arm-wrestles in the Top 14, where they’re currently sitting third.

They’ve a ton of experience. It’s good to get a win. The conditions deteriorated in the second half and it became quite difficult to play but at the same time, there’s lots of things that we can be better at, so it’s pretty mixed, I’d have to say.” 

Leinster’s attack was hampered by handling errors and poor decision making, but the most jarring aspect of the evening was the province’s misfiring lineout.

Leinster lost their first three lineouts and seven in total across the course of the night – the lineout operated at just over 56% due to a variety of issues. Clermont were competitive in the air but some of Leinster’s problems were entirely of their own fault, with crooked throws and poor execution proving damaging.

“Because of the way they are coached, you go through the history of Christophe Urios teams, they will kick the ball off and pressurise lineout, which was what we expected,” said Cullen.

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

“We didn’t see some of the pictures and then we got rattled, couple of throws go awry and combination of lots of different things and then suddenly you are losing seven lineouts or whatever it was.

“That sort of creeps into the rest of our game. Going back to guys coming back from international Tests, there’s a big effort to get up to speed for Bristol, then there’s a short week and you don’t quite get to the emotional level we had last week. 

“It’s something we need to be conscious of, I’m not trying to make excuses at all but there’s is a lot more in us and if we want to be successful and go on in this competition, we are not at the level of probably where, as an example, I watched Toulouse last week where they are. They are in unbelievable form at the moment so we’ve plenty to work on.

“Listen, it (the lineout) hasn’t been a major issue for us,” he added.

“But yeah, it was poor today. You have a bad day, we’ll go back, work hard next week and whether you win or lose, you go through the process again and there’s plenty of good experience in there so they will figure it out, I’m sure.”