'They've learned from pretty painful stuff over the last couple of years - lets face it'

LEO CULLEN SALUTED his Leinster side’s fortitude and identified Ryan Baird’s try early in the second half as the moment from which the eastern province were able to turn the screw as they finally got one over on La Rochelle in a Champions Cup knockout game.

Leinster’s head coach admitted that the leads blown to the same opposition in the previous two finals played on his mind when Louis Penverne crossed for La Rochelle to narrow their deficit at the stroke of half-time.

Cullen, however, was pleased by the extent to which his team kicked on in the second half, with tries by Baird and Dan Sheehan all but killing the contest in the third quarter.

“Jaypers, down in that same end… Obviously, they scored before half-time so we go from 17 points ahead to 10 points,” Cullen said.

“You’ve got the eight points, nine points, now 10 points in your mind over the last few years.

“It’s learning from the past, isn’t it? So making sure you keep playing.

That’s been the big thing in those games we’ve lost against these guys: we’ve probably gone into our shells a little bit and not quite fired enough shots in those second halves.

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“So much better in terms of the intent, second half, overall,” Cullen added. “Ryan Baird scored a try and Dan scores. They’re big moments. So, three tries in the second half to nil, versus some of the previous outings.

“I know there’s other factors — travel and all the rest — that maybe play into that, but from our point of view, what can we control? Probably fire a few more shots.”

Cullen also paid tribute to Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle, who at the sold-out Aviva Stadium suffered what was their first Champions Cup knockout defeat since their 2021 final with French rivals Toulouse.

The Leinster boss again acknowledged the difficulty of La Rochelle’s travel schedule over the last fortnight: their return trip to Cork from Cape Town alone took almost 30 hours.

And Cullen stressed the difficulty of trying to win a third European title on the spin, a feat which has been completed only once — by Toulon between 2013 and 2015.

“We’ve played against a great opponent that won the tournament the last two years,” he said. “Once upon a time, we were the team that won the tournament two years in a row but the year after that, we couldn’t qualify from our group because we lost to Clermont home and away so we were dropped into the Challenge Cup. So, we know how bloody hard it is.

“The way the tournament is now, La Rochelle made it into the knockout stages but they had to go a hard route. They had to go to South Africa so we know how bloody tough it is to go three-in-a-row.”

Leinster will host Northampton Saints at Croke Park at the semi-final stage, and Cullen hopes the Leinster rugby public will continue to show up for his team after back-to-back huge attendances for their last two knockout games at the Aviva Stadium.

“The main thing from our point of view is how appreciative we are of the support that’s out there. 40-plus thousand last week, 50-plus thousand there today: it’s amazing for the group to have that level of backing because… Yes, they’ve gone through a lot of learning from pretty painful stuff over the last couple of years — lets face it.

“You want to have performances, like, they support what they see, [that] they’re proud of.

“We have a three-week lead-in to a semi final and it would be amazing to get a big crowd in Croke Park because you couldn’t take that for granted.

“There’s a lot competition for attention as we know. That’s what I mean: we’re so appreciative of the people that were there.

“It means a hell of a lot to the team. Hopefully that stays strong — and the crowd — but that’s a few weeks away.”