Leinster head coach Leo Cullen said that his players lacked composure after their first defeat in two years to Munster. Despite taking the lead in the game to go 7-0 ahead, Cullen also added that his team were not battle-hardened after conceding four tries in the 31-14 defeat in Croke Park.
“We started the second half pretty well, I thought, and we’re in good position,” said Cullen. “We have a lineout and we have lots of these pick-and-go opportunities close to the try line.
“But Munster are just so effective and we’re just lacking a bit of composure there. Is that because it’s the first game of the season for a lot of guys or whatever that is? Or is it Munster are very good and we’re just not quite accurate enough? There’s a few different factors there at play.”
One of the biggest kicks in the teeth on the night was that Munster outworked Leinster to get the deserved win and then when the pressure came on they were able to knock back the blue shirts, preventing them from scoring in the second half until the game was practically over.
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“You’ve got to understand, to get to the pitch of a game, you’ve got to play some games,” said Cullen.
“A lot of those guys for Munster ... listen they’ve played at least two of the three URC games and some of them played in the warm-up games before, so that’s the battle-hardened piece. We’re just not battle-hardened at the moment.
“I’m not sure exactly what the solution is for us moving forward. How we get to that physical pitch and speed of playing games.
“Listen, we need to analyse what we do there for future seasons because what we’ve done this year clearly hasn’t worked out. We’ve lost three of the last four games.”
Cullen added that while it was a tough defeat for Leinster to take, serendipity may kick in and the loss could provide some immediate benefits for his players with the next URC match against Italian side Parma.
“It’s a good wake-up for the group, isn’t it? We had a group that was out in South Africa, and we have a cohort of the Lions guys. It’s always going to be a bit of a sticky start to the season for us. We’ve talked about it over the last while and now we’re seeing it unfold,” said Cullen.
“You talk about it and hope that that’s not going to be the case, but you’re marking everyone’s card, our own in particular. We’ve still got to go through it and we weren’t good enough today. But the big thing is composure, taking opportunities. Munster were a hell of a lot better than we were.”
Although Leinster had plenty of their Lions players available, it was Munster captain Tadhg Beirne who stood out with a typical physical and gritty contribution, especially when Leinster flared up just after the break.
Cullen was asked if that was another disappointing aspect of his team’s performance.
“Yeah. It’s disappointing. It’s disappointing for the fans who turn out to watch,” said the Leinster coach.
“I’m disappointed we didn’t give a better account of ourselves for sure because we’re down that end of the field. We’re doing everything bar getting to that last one or two metres.
“How many times do we get held up versus Munster take the corner and they get in for that try, which looks relatively easy. We’re in the position, sequences of probably 12 sequences where you might have five to six carries that are similar to that. So if I’m looking back at the review, that’s what I would be looking at, first and foremost.
“Why are these guys that bit hungrier than us? Are we talking about saying we’re this and this. It’s making sure that we all try and own it.”
