Leinster head coach Leo Cullen has admitted he had to make some tough decisions
Leinster head coach Leo Cullen is confident that his side are ready to put an end to their Champions Cup hurt in Saturday’s Final against Toulouse.
Having been beaten by La Rochelle in the last two Finals, Leinster are bidding to join Toulouse on five Champions Cup titles, but the French side are dangerous opponents capable of adding even more pain to Cullen’s side.
“The players have been through unbelievable experiences and everyone has different levels of experience so I’m trying to think who would be the eldest player,” Cullen said following his side’s captain’s run at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
“Like say, Cian (Healy) is probably the most experienced and has been through so much but then you have a Jamie Osborne on the other end of that.
“Less experienced but he has been immense during this sequence of knockout games in particular but we’ve seen that in games and training for the last number of seasons.
“Everyone has a slightly different lens but the group overall has accumulated amazing experience. Some of it is character building, as painful as it is, so we’ve got some strong characters in the group now that really perform on this type of stage and that’s ultimately what you want.
“You want to go through these experiences, yeah you’d love it if it was all plain sailing and you’re winning games. We were sitting at the end of a Champions Cup Final last season and you have to pick yourself up and go again.
“You see the draw when it gets announced, first up is La Rochelle away and that’s how you start planning the season.
“To get through all the steps we’ve got through and I’m listening to some of Toulouse’s piece and how they’ve lost in the Semi-Final against us last year in the Aviva, so they have a similar type of disappointment I guess. So they have to navigate their way through.
“There’s a hell of a lot of excellent teams who are not here. Everyone wants to be involved in this weekend because it’s Champions Cup. All the champion teams are pitted against each other, so we’re up against one of the great teams of the competition in Toulouse and it’s a privilege here.
“Now it’s about the group performing and delivering the best version of themselves. We think they’ve prepared well so hopefully we see that in terms of the performance tomorrow.
“Hopefully, we’ll have an amazing crowd here and it will be a great occasion for rugby, for rugby in the Northern Hemisphere.”
Leinster during their captain's run at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Cullen admitted that he had some tough conversations with players who were left out of this weekend’s match-day squad, with the likes of Jimmy O’Brien and Ross Molony unlucky to miss out, while co-captain Garry Ringrose was fit enough to take part in Friday morning’s light hit out in north London, but he is also not included.
Cullen, though, believes he has struck the right balance with Will Connors getting the nod ahead of Josh van der Flier, who is one of six forwards on what is a strong Leinster bench.
Leinster's James Ryan addresses the media
“I think we have a good balance there,” Cullen continued.
“Hugo (Keenan) got through the game last week, so did James (Ryan), great to have James back and I know he’s on the bench.
“But from some of the experiences we’ve had, we need to make sure we’ve got that level of experience coming off the bench and James has been great in the way he’s gone about the week. Listen, we need him there on the field to help us win the game at the end.
“The combination of Jason and Joe, we’ve seen that before. Ross Molony in that instance is incredibly unlucky because he’s been brilliant for the team over the course of the season and in previous seasons as well.
“There’s been a few of those conversations this week with a few of those guys who are incredibly unlucky to miss out but we still think we’ve got a strong 23 there who will hopefully represent everybody well.
“It’s amazing being here and we’re all very excited with the game tomorrow. We’ve had unbelievable support along the journey to get us here so a big thanks to everyone.
“All the work that goes on behind the scenes — we’re talking about the 23 players but there’s the rest of the playing squad that all contribute to getting us to this point, then you’ve a backroom team who work their a**** off all year to make sure the players are in good shape to deliver, hopefully.
“There were some tight calls in terms of the team piece, but that’s the nature of the competitive squad we have.”