Leo Cullen knows loss of focus could cost Leinster as big games loom large

At one stage during yesterday’s press briefing from Johannesburg where Leinster are based until their move to Cape Town, the coach was asked if any of the players had come out of Saturday’s 44-12 defeat to the Lions with credit.

He was happy that Charlie Ngatai and Cormac Foley had returned from injury and got through it unscathed, but that was about that.

“After that then, yeah, everyone was battling but I’m not sure anyone really put their hand up the way they wanted to. A lot of them will get another opportunity this week so hopefully we’re better, and that’s across the board,” he said.

“I look at myself first and I think all the coaches look at themselves first as well, so I think we can all be better, it’s not just players.”

Cullen did briefly wonder if the enormity of last week with the win over La Rochelle, the confirmation of Jordie Barrett and Tyler Bleyendaal’s arrivals and the sell-out of Croke Park might have distracted from his players’ focus, but he wasn’t looking for excuses.

After all, this is an operation that prides itself on performance across a season and this was not the first time the second string had slipped up in a game they’d previously have backed themselves to win.

And, as a result, there’s a fair bit of jeopardy left in the URC season – even if the majority of fans are already thinking about their plans for next week’s trip up Jones’ Road.

Leinster will make the league play-offs, that much is certain, but they want home advantage through the knockouts and a Croke Park final.

Glasgow Warriors are just a point behind and take on Zebre this weekend, with Leinster set to release a few more bodies home where coaches Andrew Goodman and Jacques Nienaber will be in situ to begin preparations for the semi-final against Northampton Saints.

“It’s about trying to keep control of your own destiny, isn’t it? We still have it, just about, we would have liked to have a few more points on the board so you have a life then, I suppose,” Cullen said.

“But, we just need to focus on ourselves and not worry too much about what Glasgow and everyone else is doing.

“Four games to go; we discussed this at the start of the season because there’s so many different parts, competing on the two fronts.

​“As we know you’ve the World Cup you’ve players being managed post-World Cup and we’ve a big chunk of players here.

“So, you have to be smart how you manage guys but it’s been a great experience for a lot of guys within that as well and getting some good exposure over the course of it, and the squad has done well to get us to this point.

“We messed up at the weekend, and we just need to get back out there and put in a better performance and give a better account of ourselves and then the results and the points follow after that.

“For us what we have to focus on is what a good performance looks like and how do we go about trying to get that. That’s the focus for us this week.

“We just need to work hard tomorrow and then we’ll travel down to Cape Town in the middle of the week.

“I’m not sure how it came across on the TV but there was an unbelievable Leinster following in the crowd. So, apologies to that cohort of 300 people who were there because we thought we would give them more to cheer about.

“There was a lot of good news last week and unfortunately some of that becomes a distraction. It should be a positive distraction but unfortunately we didn’t capitalise on some of that positive momentum that’s out there at the moment. It is tight around the table, which is maybe not a bad thing. It focuses the mind for us all rather than suddenly getting caught out when the play-offs come around.

“There’s a lot of moving parts as we know at this time of year and it’s tight at the top. It’s a great challenge for this group to try and get a result this week and that obviously comes off the back of putting in a big performance.”

The way things fall this season, Leinster will at least have a clean run at the play-offs regardless of what happens in the Champions Cup.

Leinster play the Stormers this weekend, then have Northampton and play an improving Ospreys team and Ulster away before the final. A week later, they round off their regular season campaign at home to Connacht.

“It’s unbelievably congested now, how you go about managing the different components of the season and, when you get to this point of the season,” he said. “There are no gimmes, which is positive for the competition.”

Since the South African big hitters arrived, the URC has become a tougher nut to crack and Saturday’s loss makes life all the trickier for Cullen and Co.