The thing that Leo Cullen won't apologise for... and he's right
Leo Cullen wasn’t having any of it, Anglo-Irish potshots about the dominance of the Leinster operation. Last weekend, it was the Ulster boss Dan McFarland withering on about demographics and such in the wake of his team’s Heineken Champions Cup round-of-16 pasting. This time around, it was interim Leicester coach Richard Wigglesworth having a whine about money after his Tigers had been savagely shredded in the quarter-finals.
It didn’t sit well with the long-in-the-tooth Cullen. Now 45 and nearing the end of his eighth season in charge of the province he represented as a player from 1998 to 2014 (bar a two-year mid-career stint at Leicester), he damn well knows what it’s like to be an also ran.
He was in the trenches on multiple occasions when the province was written off as a banter club, a bunch of underachievers caught up in their own D4 celebrity and not adept at the real business of winning rugby matches. That, at the time, was the preserve of Ulster and Leicester, clubs that respectively conquered Europe in 1999 and 2001 & 2002.
Leinster, in stark contrast, were nowhere and even when they did threaten a rising, they humiliatingly botched it. So much so Cullen admitted the other night to still having the match programme from the 2003 Lansdowne Road semi-final crash to Perpignan by his desk reminding him of an awkwardness that left him embarrassed to head outside his front door.
He, for sure, has the itchy scars of those dark Leinster days and it’s the very reason why he now won’t make apologies for his club being so good at what they do, reaching a sixth European semi-final in seven seasons and topping the URC heading into the quarter-finals.
They have had to work damn hard to be a consistent success on the pitch and their popularity off it hasn’t come easy either, Cullen explaining how low RDS crowds last June prompted them to take a very hard look in the mirror and vow to connect better with their fanbase. With Friday’s 27,000 attendance having merrily skipped away into the long holiday weekend, the woe-is-us quotes from McFarland and Wigglesworth were tossed in Cullen’s direction at his post-game media debrief. There was an initial incredulous laugh. Then he swatted the curveball out of the park.
“I don’t know,” he chuckled before getting all serious. “Not long ago we were having a conversation about the (negative) gulf between us and other teams, French teams in particular.
“English rugby is going through a tricky patch at the moment, so they have had to shrink their budgets on the back of what has gone on in the game, you know I mean, clubs going out of business. That’s called sensible business, isn’t it? Yeah, I don’t know.
“We are just focusing on trying to do what we can. I always think we are only scratching the surface of what potential we have. One of the things leading into this season we were most conscious of, if you think back to the tail end of last season where we were struggling for crowds.
“Like we had what, 6,000 against Glasgow and whatever it was, 9,000 or 10,000 against the Bulls. So we went to have a good look at ourselves because there was some sort of disconnect there.
“Were we not doing enough to get out and about, to really engage with supporters and the 12-county part of Leinster? Maybe we weren’t doing enough in that space, so we tried to push that. So that is what I am focused on.
“I’m not really focused on what other teams are doing, other teams are saying. I’m focused on what we can do, what we can do better because that is what is in our control so we will continue to do that. So, what other teams say, it’s sort of wasted energy me commenting on it, isn’t it?”
But why are Leinster now so dominant compared to bleak times past? “We are very fortunate we have got a great staff. There is a group of people there who are unbelievably passionate about the team. Like, we have players who are unbelievably passionate about playing for Leinster which is what you want and that is probably a legacy piece over time.
Man in the bin…1??0?? points in the bag@LeinsterRugby are ruthless ?#HeinekenChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/EhLR55M7qb
— Heineken Champions Cup (@ChampionsCup) April 7, 2023
“Like, 20 years ago, 2003, we lost a semi-final here against Perpignan. I was involved in the game and you were a little bit ashamed of walking out your front door because we underachieved. We were watching other provinces lifting the European Cup. Ulster, late 90s. That is off the back of Ulster winning what, 10 interpros in a row, 10 or 11 in the 80s/90s which is when I started watching rugby. That is my formative years of watching rugby – complete domination by Ulster.
“More recently if you think about that period, 2003, Munster were the dominant province in Ireland, weren’t they? We got beaten by Perpignan that day 20 years ago in a semi-final. I’ll look for where that programme is, I have it somewhere. I can tell you exactly where it is – it is sitting by my desk at the moment because they stick in the memory. People have short memories. I, unfortunately, have a longer one.
“It’s a moment in time, isn’t it? But in terms of the coaching piece, we have coaches there who were working the game on Friday but they trained another group of players that morning, so there is a huge amount of work that goes into it. So it is not just by accident either.
“We had a number of young guys, academy players, sub-academy players, and you have Stuart (Lancaster), Robin (McBryde), Andrew Goodman, all the academy coaches out there delivering a session, going through some of the things we want to focus on over the next couple of weeks with that group.
“So yeah, it’s hard work. There is no secret to success. You have got to have people who are willing to put in hard work and yeah, the minute you get complacent there is someone else waiting to take your spot.
“What would you say Ulster’s domination in the 80s and 90s was based on? Probably a really strong group of players that worked really hard for each other and all the rest. That is what we are trying to create here and have all the time, a strong group of players that want to work hard for each other. It’s not rocket science.
“Munster, what was that based on? A strong group of players that worked incredibly hard for it. We were hugely envious of that at the time, and they had a period of domination for what, 10, 12 years. People have funny memories.”
Funny memories. Sour grape potshots. Leo Cullen definitely isn’t having any of it.
Comments on RugbyPass
Dissapointed that after 7 years Crusaders could not have found a coach that believed their system and improved on it. What was he expecting?
6 Go to commentsPlaying the boks twice in a season is the definition of an abusive relationship…Jenny, get help
1 Go to commentsWatching the SA series no AI will motivate players like a Human can cause no matter your IP if you lack the hype to be super human or the level to go to the deep dark places you simply can’t win big games. France Ireland All Blacks and SA will surely get this AI but the end of the day it's luck and believe that matters
18 Go to commentsGet him and we need more having just watched chasing the sun series building test teams takes a lot of time and pain. We have to believe we can win the 2027 RWC. Whilst you at get Rod McQueen as Rugby Director. Is he still around?
11 Go to commentsRather AI than the disastrous and disappointing human errors of the last RWC final.
18 Go to commentsI still think Swinton is a better 6 than Valentini or Leota as he works harder in D and is a way better lineout operator. His carrying has improved out of sight over the last 12 months too. I’d be happier with: 6 - Swinton 7 - FMR 8 - Bobby V
11 Go to comments‘Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.’ - Mark Twain.
1 Go to commentsThe AI will find the 1 scenario out of 100 to win. But then so will the other teams AI do the same (to prevent it). So then it will just be 99 losses and maybe a draw? All of this is fine and dandy, but assumes that the players and coaches will be able to move flesh and bone around the training pitch and on game day to implement against whatever it was the AI scenarios predicted.
18 Go to commentsI am not so sure it will have that a big effect in the next 10 years. To have a a.i giving you extra info doesn't mean you have a team that can implement the plan. It will take years for humans to adato be able to use the a.i's data
18 Go to commentsthose graphics are cool but not very helpful when one team is black and the other is nearly-black 🤣😅
1 Go to commentsThanks Nick Cale is certainly a talented guy, and could develop quickly like Eales did. Mind you, I thought the same when Harry Wilson appeared a few years ago, notwithstanding that Wilson has only recently started lineout jumping. Somehow I think coaching has held a lot of forwards back over the last 20 years in Australia. It’s hard to put into words, but when a player has the ability to do things far better than his coach ever could or ever understand then that talent is not only not developed further, but not utilised. I’ve seen this with Timmani, Skeleton, Wilson and a host of props. Sticking with Cale, I am not convinced that he has the best coach on the planet, particularly after the Brumbies inept performance on the weekend.
11 Go to commentsHope Radwan gets picked up by a good side next year and kicks on before it's too late.
1 Go to commentsHe’s a proper athlete with some great instincts but he’s played half a dozen games. The WC is a more realistic goal than the Lions
11 Go to commentsDon’t know who’s gonna win the next one but I’ll make a prediction and say that England will be knocked out at the pool stages. Why’s that? Since 1995, however far Australia go in a World Cup, England do the same in the following World Cup, with 2015 being the only year to buck the trend. Let me explain: 1995: Australia out in the knock out stages 1999: England out in the knock out stages. Australia win the World Cup 2003: England win the World Cup. Australia runners up 2007: England runners up. Australia out in the knock out stages 2011: England out in knock out stages. Australia out in knock out stages 2015: (the only to buck the trend) England out in pool stage. Australia runners up. 2019: England runners up. Australia out in knock out stages 2023: England out in knock out stages. Australia out in pool stages. 2027?
18 Go to commentsThats professional rugby for you. You rest your players the week before and still end up losing the must win clash you prioritised. Says alot about Munster and their quality and also about the Bulls and their priorities
1 Go to commentsInteresting article on a player who has come from nowhere. Thanks, Nick. I have not seen enough of Charlie Cale to form an opinion yet. Just thinking of players who have come from nowhere. Beauden Barrett, Hugo Keenan spring to mind. If Cale is in Schmidt’s sights, he could be another.
11 Go to commentsIt remains to be seen how AI will impact sport in general, it certainly will have a big effect like you say. Humans in the system will have to get used to choosing what to use and what not to and how to beat the odds. Its a human sport played by humans on the field and so execution matters and error rates may come to be the thing that determines matches as opposed to strategy which will be guided by AI. Nice article here
18 Go to commentsAI models are really just larger and less transparent variants of the statistical models that have been in use since Moneyball was invented. And a big difference between the Icahn centre’s results and AI today is that ChatGPT-like Large Language Models can explain (to some degree) how they reached their conclusions. In terms of what impact they will have, I suspect it will have two primary impacts: 1) It will place a premium on coaching creativity 2) It will lead to more selections that baffle fans and pundits. Analysts will be able to run the models both ways: they will see their own team’s and players’ weaknesses and strengths as well as the opposition’s. So they will have a good idea at what the other team will be targeting and the decisive difference may well be which coaches are smart enough to think of a gameplan that the other side didn’t identify and prepare for. For players, it places a premium on three key things: 1) Having a relatively complete game with no major weaknesses (or the dedication to work on eliminating them) 2) Having the tactical flexibility to play a different game every week 3) Having a point of difference that is so compelling that there isn’t a defence for it. (3) is relatively rare even among pro players. There have been only a handful of players over the years where you knew what they were going to do and the problem was stopping it - Lomu would be the classic example. And even when someone does have that, it’s hard to sustain. Billy Vunipola in his prime was very hard to stop, but fell away quite badly when the toll on his body began to accumulate. So coaches will look for (1) - a lack of exploitable weaknesses - and (2) - the ability to exploit others’ weaknesses - ahead of hoping for (3), at least for the majority of the pack. Which is likely to mean that, as with the original Moneyball, competent, unshowy players who do the stuff that wins matches will win out over outrageous talents who can’t adapt to cover their own weaknesses. Which will leave a lot of people on the sidelines sputtering over the non-inclusion of players whose highlights reels are spectacular, but whose lowlight reels have been uncovered by AI… at least until the point where every fan has access to a sporting analysis AI.
18 Go to comments“he’s one of the guys we will be looking to build the team around” “One of” If there is a single player that Newcastle could build their team around its Redshaw.
1 Go to commentsLove your work Nick - always crystal clear in your analysis.
11 Go to comments