Cullen disappointed but not dismayed after 'pretty good' Leinster performance in Pretoria

Brendan Nel reports from Loftus Versfeld

LEINSTER COACH LEO Cullen was disappointed but took the last-minute defeat at the hands of the Bulls in his stride as Leinster lost their unbeaten record in the United Rugby Championship.

Cullen said he was proud of Leinster’s performance and that, given they lacked some cohesion coming off the break of the Six Nations and faced further disruptions during the game, he wasn’t devastated by the nature of the loss.

“It was lots of good work,” Cullen said. “It wasn’t the prettiest of contests really but that was because we were coming off a break and teams lack a bit of cohesion coming back into the season. It’s not a nice way to lose a game at the end, but we put in a lot of effort up until that point and it was 83 minutes on the clock when the penalty went over.

“If you look back on the clock we had to manage a lot of disruptions. I don’t think we’ve ever had four HIAs in one half of rugby before. The guys adapted pretty well with certain things, there is always a challenge when you lose two guys in the first five minutes.

“The fact that we had a 6-2 split probably came back to hurt us later in the game. We have to deal with these things and we weren’t quite good enough today. There was a lot of learning from the game and hopefully some of the young guys will be better for the experience.”

Cullen said that the discipline in the second half allowed the Bulls back into the game, but that it would be addressed.

“There were some moments in the second half, some discipline moments where guys came off the bench where they were trying too hard. They are trying to get back into the game and they give away penalties. And the big strength of the Bulls is when they get you into the corner and attack with a lineout drive. It’s trying to get that balance right between the effort part and being disciplined in what you do.

“Particularly away from home and unusual conditions for us. Overall we were pretty good but there is definitely learnings from the game.”

He also had some high praise for Will Connors, who was an easy man of the match winner from the home broadcaster. Cullen hinted that Marcell Coetzee’s presence may have spurred him on.

“Marcell would know him well from his time at Ulster. There was a game at Aviva stadium when Marcell was at the height of his powers at that stage and Will was really good at chopping him down. You saw that today, he was a very good chop tackler. He throws his body at everything and is unbelievably brave, a great character in the group and played a great 80 minutes out there today.”

The Leinster coach said that more Ireland internationals would join the side this week ahead of their match against the Sharks in Durban.