Leo Cullen spoke to the media after Leinster’s win over Munster in Aviva Stadium about his team’s performance in the game and the crucial final few weeks of the Guinness PRO12 schedule before the playoffs.
Leinster claimed victory in the bruising derby match thanks to 16 points from Johnny Sexton.
Sexton kicked 11 points, and scored Leinster’s only try of the game in the first half to give Leinster a 10-6 lead at the end of the opening 40 minutes.
Reflecting on his team’s performance after the match, Leo Cullen felt there were opportunities missed in the first half, though Leinster did strike through Sexton after Munster’s Robin Copeland was sent to the sin bin.
“I thought we created a lot of good opportunities, particularly in the first half,” Cullen said,”I thought at half-time they [Munster] looked to be tiring. We talked about the importance of the start of the second half but the reverse actually happened; Munster came out firing – they looked like a different team – they looked like a team that was desperate. They took their try well.
“I thought we built our way back into the game pretty well. In the first half, looking back, there was a lot of opportunities, a lot of execution parts in our own control. Again, credit goes to Munster because they put us under a lot of pressure. We definitely need to be a little bit smarter. I think we’ll make steady improvements. I thought we had some really good sustained pressure post that yellow card. The players made a really brave decision to turn down the three points and go for the try and that paid off with Johnny scoring by the posts.”
Cullen also spoke about about Leinster’s next game against Edinburgh which sees the team return to the RDS Arena.
Tickets for Leinster v Edinburgh are available now from €;20, and Cullen is hoping to see a packed RDS drive Leinster to another crucial win, as the supporters did in Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
“Hopefully we get a full house. It was great having that crowd today, over 40,000 people. It’s an electric atmosphere. It makes such a difference to the occasion. We’ll refocus now on Edinburgh, reassess the bodies, see how players have pulled through. It was a very bruising encounter, which you’re going to get with these type of games, two teams going hard at it.
“We keep our position in the top two, which means we’re not relying on other permutations. All that work goes in all season. It’s definitely a slog to get to this point. We’ve used 56 players to get to this point. That 56 doesn’t go into the 23 that are going to play over the course of the next three weeks.That’s important for the guys that do get the opportunity to play in the next few weeks. They’re running out of time, everyone wants to play in these big games come this end of the season. It’s nice the fact that we are in reasonable control of what we’re trying to do.”
Tickets for Leinster v Edinburgh in the RDS Arena on 15th April are available from €;20.
