LEO CULLEN HAS asked his Leinster team to ignore the chat about unbeaten campaigns and focus solely on improving the standard of their performance ahead of this Saturday’s Guinness Pro14 final.
With a double on the cards – this weekend’s date with Ulster is followed by a Champions Cup quarter-final against Saracens – Leinster’s unbeaten run stretches back to the tail end of the 2018/19 season. Still, they could get better. Friday’s low-score-bore against Munster – where Leinster ground out a 13-3 win – was proof of that.
“Sometimes it’s just about nailing some of the basics,” Cullen said. “Against Munster we gave away a couple of cheap penalties where we could have maybe painted better pictures for some of our actions.
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“We dropped one or two balls as well, get bundled into touch. Little things in the game happened that you look to improve on.
“The conditions were very hard out there but nonetheless you would hope we will get better. It’s the second game for a lot of players.
“It’s not hugely dissimilar for the other teams but we are through and looking to improve. That’s the challenge, the preparation piece going into our next performance (against Ulster this Saturday).
“We just need to focus on ourselves and try and improve and get better. They are all the soundbites but we actually have to go about the process of actually doing it now. All of our efforts will be focused on that.”
It helps that the final is at the Aviva – which is quickly becoming Leinster’s second home, venue of all three of their games since rugby resumed last month.
Cullen said: “All the work that goes into getting the number one seed is important. Going through the season unbeaten doesn’t really count for anything bar the fact that it gives you number one seeding.
“If it goes down to whoever has the best seeding to get the home draw and not have to travel etc. We have been in control of that.
“To do that, there has been all the dogging out wins at different stages in the year. We started this campaign in the middle of the World Cup. It has gone well.”
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Cullen challenges his Leinster side to move to another level
LEO CULLEN HAS asked his Leinster team to ignore the chat about unbeaten campaigns and focus solely on improving the standard of their performance ahead of this Saturday’s Guinness Pro14 final.
With a double on the cards – this weekend’s date with Ulster is followed by a Champions Cup quarter-final against Saracens – Leinster’s unbeaten run stretches back to the tail end of the 2018/19 season. Still, they could get better. Friday’s low-score-bore against Munster – where Leinster ground out a 13-3 win – was proof of that.
“Sometimes it’s just about nailing some of the basics,” Cullen said. “Against Munster we gave away a couple of cheap penalties where we could have maybe painted better pictures for some of our actions.
“We dropped one or two balls as well, get bundled into touch. Little things in the game happened that you look to improve on.
“The conditions were very hard out there but nonetheless you would hope we will get better. It’s the second game for a lot of players.
“It’s not hugely dissimilar for the other teams but we are through and looking to improve. That’s the challenge, the preparation piece going into our next performance (against Ulster this Saturday).
“We just need to focus on ourselves and try and improve and get better. They are all the soundbites but we actually have to go about the process of actually doing it now. All of our efforts will be focused on that.”
It helps that the final is at the Aviva – which is quickly becoming Leinster’s second home, venue of all three of their games since rugby resumed last month.
Cullen said: “All the work that goes into getting the number one seed is important. Going through the season unbeaten doesn’t really count for anything bar the fact that it gives you number one seeding.
“If it goes down to whoever has the best seeding to get the home draw and not have to travel etc. We have been in control of that.
“To do that, there has been all the dogging out wins at different stages in the year. We started this campaign in the middle of the World Cup. It has gone well.”
Now they aim to finish the job.
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Ambition Guinness Pro14 Leinster Leo Cullen