LEINSTER HEAD COACH Leo Cullen praised the attitude of his players after they got their United Rugby Championship campaign back on track with an accomplished 26-7 bonus point triumph over Edinburgh at the RDS.

Following last Saturday week’s crushing 29-27 defeat at the hands of Cardiff, the Blues were aiming to keep up the pressure on their interprovincial rivals Ulster at the summit of the URC table. Thanks to tries from Scott Penny, Nick McCarthy, Vakh Abdaladze and Max Deegan, they managed to do just that. This result leaves them a single point adrift of the northern province – with a game in hand – ahead of the Ospreys’ visit to the Ballsbridge venue next weekend.

“It’s a pleasing outcome for sure. A lot of parts of the performance is to be expected really. We’ve a group here that were just working away, limited numbers. The effort was outstanding, it’s just about being a bit more accurate with the execution,” Cullen remarked in his post-match press conference.

“The attitude is the big thing. Making sure we bring that attitude the whole time. It’s great to have a big crowd for the game, I know there’s lots on this weekend and with the break in the Six Nations hopefully we can build on it for the Ospreys. Hopefully we’ll get a big crowd out. Some good stuff today, but plenty to work on.”

Already without a large chunk of his squad through injury and international call-ups, Cullen was dealt a further blow when team captain Rhys Ruddock was ruled out of the game with a minor quad issue. This threw Kildare native Martin Moloney in at the deep end for his first Leinster start, but Cullen felt the former Ireland U20s star – a Grand Slam winner at that age grade in 2019 – acquitted himself well during his 73 minutes on the pitch.

“He’s a great character, even yesterday he got a sense that Rhys might be struggling so I was going home yesterday and he was still studying away in the video room. He has a great attitude, Marty, and it was great to see him do well.”

Leinster also had to play three-quarters of the game without the services of Ciaran Frawley following his clash of heads with Edinburgh flanker Connor Boyle that earned the latter 10 minutes in the sin-bin.

This meant that – instead of replacing him later in the contest – Harry Byrne got a chance to play with his older brother Ross for the best part of an hour. Although he was disappointed to lose Frawley so early in the action, Cullen was glad to have the option of the two siblings within the same back line.

“He [Frawley] has a crack, he got a bang on his cheek. We’ll see how bad it is, we’ll find out over the weekend,” Cullen added.

“They [Ross and Harry] have a good relationship and understanding in what they’re trying to do. It gives us good balance in terms of the attack as well. It was good to see it for an extended period of time, 60 odd minutes. It’s definitely a good option for us in the future.

“For us the way we want to play, it’s very helpful having that second ball player. It’s much harder if you’re the opposition defence trying to pick up cues, having that second ball player.”

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