Leo Cullen insists he's still the man to lead Leinster despite ‘horrific' Champions Cup exit

The Irish Sun

03-05-2025

LEO CULLEN has backed himself to continue leading Leinster after more European heartache.
After three final defeats in a row, the province found a new way to fall short,
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Leinster head coach Leo Cullen insisted he's still the man to lead the Blues after the Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton Saints
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Leinster boss Cullen described the defeat to The Saints as 'horrific'
The defeat - despite the high-profile additions of
But Cullen - who extended his contract until the summer of 2027 last November - insisted he was the right man to lead the team forward.
Cullen said: "Yeah, I think I am. Yeah. I believe that I am, yes.
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"I think we've worked hard to try and improve the group year on year on year and I think the group is very strong right now.
"That's not something that's just created last week.
"We've lost three finals over the last three years, yeah, but I believe we've a stronger group now than we've had and that's the way I will continue to approach the day to day in terms of preparing in the short term, medium term, long term.
"So, yes. And I'm very committed to that as well."
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Slimani claimed Leinster should have been awarded a penalty try in the last minute when Alex Coles was yellow carded for not releasing as the ball spun out of Josh van der Flier's grasp before Ross Byrne grounded it.
Slimani said: 'I don't understand the decision because if it's a penalty and a yellow card, I don't know why it's not a try."
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Cullen paid tribute to Northampton's performance but added: 'Quite often when you fall behind we get a little bit jittery and we're not quite accurate enough and we compound errors.
'On the flip side we do lots of good things. We get ourselves in lots of good positions and towards the end of the game we look the stronger team finishing the game.
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'But we're just not quite accurate enough and then there are a couple of calls that don't go our way and that unfortunately can be the game sometimes.
'In the dressing room it's a pretty sombre place as you can imagine. You set off at the start of the season and you know the final is in Cardiff. Everyone is imagining themselves there in the final.
'There is so, so much work goes into a team getting to a semi-final, when you lose it is pretty horrific and that is the feeling we are experiencing at the moment."