A dejected Leo Cullen admitted he and his players would have to learn some hard and harsh lessons after coming up short in their URC semi-final defeat by the Bulls at the RDS on Friday night.
Everybody in the squad, including himself, would need some self-reflection after a performance which he conceded had not be accurate enough.
“It is pretty sick in there, yeah,” Cullen admitted in the wake of the 28-27 loss which ended their five-year winning hold on the competition. “There’s so much work that goes into getting the team to knock-out games and to fall short here, particularly at home in the RDS at this time of year, is disappointing.
“They were very clinical when they got down our end, they came with a good plan and it is painful for our guys in there at the moment.
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“As I have said previously to our young guys, it is a hard lesson, you need to learn sometimes.
“The Bulls are a quality team, they came with a good plan, they were well coached and once they had a lead and played that pressure game, they didn’t have to do huge amount, but they just put the squeeze on us.
“And we just weren’t really accurate enough when we were chasing the game. We created plenty of opportunities but, you know, when you come to semi-finals against top-end teams, you need all your players sort of in an eight, nine, 10 out of 10 in terms of how they play the game. Unfortunately for us some of us, some of us were just not good enough today.”
Coming a week after their 76-14 win over Glasgow, which Cullen hinted may have lulled his squad into a false sense of security, the loss of three lineouts within five metres of the Bulls’ line was endemic of a patchy display.
“That’s what it comes down to, it’s execution in the big moments in the big game. Across the board, we just weren’t quite there today. We talked about the potential for that.
“Complacency is probably the wrong word, but it takes a little bit of the edge off when you have a big win and you try to reset to go again. Having said that we did start the game okay, but we give away some pretty important turnovers which allows the Bulls build a lead.
“When it comes to these high-stakes pressure games, particularly when the conditions deteriorate a little bit as well, it became harder to chase the game. Unfortunately, we weren’t accurate enough over the course of 80 minutes.
“You see the South African teams play, they don’t change much. They’re very cohesive, they don’t make many changes in the course of the year, they do what they do and aren’t trying to hide anything. But they’re effective at what they do.
“For us, you have to learn some pretty harsh lessons at times, but the South African teams will add a lot to this competition, you’ve seen it already now.
“For our guys, I don’t know is there a little bit of an expectancy we’ll get through to the next round, that’s just not how it worked. Credit to the Bulls, they came with a plan, executed it well on the day, and our guys were just not quite good enough unfortunately.”
Asked if he sensed there had been any element of complacency in the build-up to the semi-final, Cullen said: “It was a short week but we tried to prepare well. We made some changes to try bring freshness which is important this time of year, and had plenty of experience all through the 23. From our point of view, you have to give the Bulls credit, they were better on the day than us.”
Running in a dozen tries against Glasgow was perhaps, in hindsight, not the ideal preparation for such an altogether more physically bigger and aggressive opposition.
“You always have that in the back of your mind,” admitted Cullen. “There were certain things in that game [Glasgow] that came a little bit easy to us.
“As I said, we started the game okay today, but we lose our way when we play. That’s the great debate about how the game is refereed, and for us as coaches, how do we set up the team? Sometimes you get in trouble playing too much. It’s great when you get into the flow like we had last week, but if you’re not quite in the flow, and the other team are being aggressive ...”
As even Jake White admitted, the advent of the rain left Leinster playing catch-up in more difficult conditions.
“South Africa play pressure rugby better than anybody and they’re successful on some of those big days so that’s the bit that we need to try and figure out when it comes to these big days, because lots of really positive stuff and things have gone into the course of this season.
“We blooded a lot of young players and we’re bringing young players through all the season and gained that bit of experience, but even the young guys they come up short when we’re away in South Africa, even though they do lots of great things when they’re out there.
“So yeah, it’; unbelievably disappointing and it’s hard to verbalise because as I said there’s so much work that’s gone in to get us to this point, but you need to be able to deliver on the big days and unfortunately for us we weren’t good enough on the day.
“I don’t think we were quite at our best today, and that self-reflection needs to take place by everybody from an individual point of view but then we need to do that collectively as well.
“But yeah, unfortunately, we’ll be watching the final this year. We’ve been involved in finals in the last number of years. We’d love to be there again. It’s bitterly disappointing for our players who are coming to the end of their Leinster careers as well, whether they’re retiring or moving on to new challenges.
“We all want to give everyone the perfect send off but unfortunately we’re not going to have the perfect send off this year.”
