LEINSTER BOSS LEO Cullen says the province must work hard to ensure their streak of bonus-point wins in the Guinness Pro14 doesn’t come to cost them in the tougher tasks that lie ahead in the Champions Cup.
Having won every single game of last season’s Pro14, Leinster have started the new campaign with six bonus-point wins from six games, scoring 34 tries in the process.
Leinster felt that their 2019/20 Pro14 season run-in hadn’t ideally prepared them for the Champions Cup quarter-final clash with Saracens back in September and Cullen’s men were disappointing on that big occasion.
Having dismantled last season’s Pro14 semi-finalists, Edinburgh, at the RDS on Monday night in an eight-try win, Cullen admitted that continuing to be so dominant is a concern for Leinster as they build towards the start of the 2020/21 Champions Cup season in December.
“Definitely,” said Cullen. “Of course it’s a concern.
“You’re trucking along, picking up bonus-point wins and then you’re seeing trends. Even, there’s a couple of things that we saw against Edinburgh. I think 14 was the penalty count given against us – on another day where you don’t take some of the opportunities that we took in the first half, suddenly it’s a very different game.
“I didn’t think we were at our best and even though we did pick up the bonus-point win, everyone – players and coaches – are very realistic that there’s a lot of things we can get better at.
“It’s important for us to be very open about that in terms of looking to improve all the time.
“That’s the biggest lesson for us over the last couple of weeks really, in terms of having that consistency and being open about what’s realistic.
“Just because things went your way this week doesn’t mean you’ll get a bonus-point win other weeks.
“Particularly in the second half, I thought we looked ragged at times.
“I think it’s a very, very valid point. We need to make sure we don’t pick up bad habits that would cost us on a different day.”
Cullen’s side face the Cardiff Blues at the RDS this Sunday hoping for a far tougher test of their ability.
Assistant coach Felipe Contepomi underlined that Leinster still need to produce excellent performances to keep up their 100% streak.
“I don’t think we just blow teams away, we have had to work for our victories because definitely there is a lot more for us to improve on and we are conscious of those things,” said Contepomi.
“You’re only as good as your next game. It’s important that we keep in mind that even if we are getting good results.
“We don’t look much at results, we try to look more at performance, and that’s where I think you realise there are certain things we can get better at.”
Sounds worrying
@geraldo: he has a point about thr penalty count. When your winning handy enough there’s no excuse to give away penalties.
Hard to stay disciplined and motivated if you are winning by 50pts. The big problem is the overlap with international windows. It effectively means each club has to have two teams. If there were fewer games it would be more competitive. A pool or conference system is the only way to go without asking unions to reduce the number of teams they have.
@Rudiger McMonihan: few clubs lose a whole team to the international windows. Maybe one in each country would lose 15. I think a 2 division league might work but as soon as the SA teams come in it would be them and the 3 Irish sides. So maybe not.
@Chris Mc: I think this year you need to include all four provinces. If Connacht had played all their games they would be second in conference B.
@Chris Mc: no union will ever have relagation, would the FIR, WRU or IRFU risk one or more of their professional teams being 2nd division teams? Glasgow, Edinburgh, Zebre, Benetton lose as many players as Leinster to international call ups and have nowhere near the same resources. Its little surprise Leinster are walking it against those teams.
@Rudiger McMonihan: think we touched on this before, clubs need the 10/11 home games. The proposed new rugby calendar if it gets agreed will sort it out. With no overlap durning internationals. It has a 29/30 week club season, but I think it would be the end of the HCup. As the French Top 14 takes 29 weeks and if given the choice between changing their league system or leaving the HCup the French would leave the HCup. The Pro 16 and English Prem would have maybe 5 weeks that they could fit a new European rugby cup in (Current HCup, takes 9 weeks), but no way can the French fit in a 29 round league and 9 round HCup in 30 weeks, and if there are no French is it really worth it?
@Kingshu: yeah I said they need to reduce the number of club games. Pre-covid Super rugby teams played far fewer games (16 + 3 knock outs). The best players go on to play internationals after (14 in a normal year). Then the rest play in the mitre cup (10 + 2 KO’s). So everyone gets game time, the calendar is more coherent and the games are more competitive. The way our calendar is set up is ridiculous. There is so much overlap between pro14, Heineken cup and internationals. We bounce between the 3 all year too. Teams dont get enough time together to build momentum and their position on the table is often down to how well their 3rd or 4th choice player is.
@Rudiger McMonihan: The New global calendar proposal
Is
Autumn internationals: October-November
Club and European games: December-July with a 7 week break for
Six Nations: April-May and same time the Rugby Championship: April-May. Players get a break from end of July to start of Oct.
Thats a 30 week club season with 7 week break with no games played durning 6 nations/rugbt championship. I just can’t see the Top 14 fitting their league and Hcup into that window.
@Con Cussed: have they not lost 2 games so far. They are a bit off the top 3 to be fair.
@Kingshu: I am with you on this. The system that has been cobbled together over the years has suited the Irish set-up more than anyone else; its deficiencies are increasingly obvious but it is hard to see that there will be changes that will be beneficial in the round.
The underlying problem is that there are only 2 countries – England and France – with the resources to support a domestic professional ‘club’ set-up. The rest have to rely on subsidies from the mens’ senior international game and an artificial cobbled-together league combining the remaining countries.
For us the real focus of the ‘club’ game is the Heineken Cup, but this can only really exist if the English and French clubs want it to, and only a minority of them are really committed