Watch: Ruaidhri O'Connor and Cian Tracey preview Leinster's crunch URC final with the Bulls at Croke Park
Leinster will bid to end their silverware drought at Croke Park this Saturday when they face South African outfit the Bulls in Saturday's final at Croke Park.
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Extra.ie
2 hours ago
- Extra.ie
All on the line for Leinster as Leo Cullen's side seek first trophy in four years
Leo Cullen has pretty much seen it all at this stage. But the Leinster head coach couldn't help but marvel at how this competition has evolved. Cullen was part of a Leinster side which won the inaugural Celtic League in 2001, beating Munster in a thriller at the old Lansdowne Road. Back then, the competition had Welsh sides like Bridgend, Pontypridd, Ebbw Vale and Caerphilly providing the opposition. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile The league would expand its borders and go through various rebrands from the Magners League to the RaboDirect Pro12 (yes, you read that correctly) to the Guinness Pro14. Teams such as the Borders, Celtic Warriors, Aironi, the Southern Kings and Cheetahs came and went. For a long time, the league went a bit stale and when Leinster sealed their fourth consecutive title (in third gear, really) in 2021, it was clear that something needed to change. Neither Leinster nor the tournament organises were satisfied with the standard of the competition. The tournament was an easy target for a long time and there were no shortage of naysayers, this writer included, when it was announced that the Bulls, Sharks, Stormers and Lions were coming on board to join the newly-branded URC four years ago. How was a cross-hemisphere league going to work? In fairness, the URC has been a roaring success. The South African teams and their fanbases have bought into it and, as Leinster have discovered in recent seasons, the URC is a tough title to win. As Cullen observed recently, if someone had told you that Leinster and the Bulls would be contesting a league final at Croke Park a few years back, it would have been met with a healthy dose of scepticism. GAA headquarters is the setting for Leinster's last stand this season. And it feels like a potentially era-defining game for this playing group and the under-fire coaching team. Pic: Piaras í' Mídheach/Sportsfile Victory against a talented and powerful Bulls team this evening will dampen down a lot of the negative noises around this operation of late. Leinster are well used to criticism at this stage. When they're winning, they're branded a superclub with too much resources and favouritism from the IRFU. When they lose, they're chokers who don't have the mental fortitude to see tight knockout games home. They'll be pilloried for going four seasons without a trophy if they slip up today. If they win, they won't get too much kudos outside of their inner sanctum either. This is mighty Leinster after all. They should be winning a league they regularly top – with plenty to spare – season on season. Internally, they know what's at stake. Landing a URC won't heal the Champions Cup wounds but it can accelerate the healing process and banish some demons when it comes to winning titles. Win today and the Leinster squad will depart for the summer break with a spring in their step. A dozen personnel – and potentially a few more – will be heading away on Lions duty. Another crew will be getting some exposure on the Ireland development tour. They can bring those good vibes back into Leinster camp ahead of the next campaign and with an All Blacks superstar like Rieko Ioane on the way, Leinster can plot their next European tilt with some fresh optimism. Defeat today, however, will only amplify the feeling that Cullen and his current coaching team have taken this squad as far as they can. Cullen's job is not on the line today. It shouldn't be. For all the well-documented knockout woe, the former Leinster second row has built the province into a European force. The club's power brokers and the IRFU wouldn't be so reactive and short-sighted either. It's worth remembering where Leinster were when Cullen was appointed head coach almost a decade ago. He'd been thrown in at the deep end rather prematurely after Matt O'Connor had been handed his P45. Succeeding Joe Schmidt was never going to be easy, but the Aussie never looked like a good fit from the early days. So, Cullen got the call. The province were at a low ebb, finishing bottom of their Champions Cup pool during a grim 2016/17 campaign, culminating in a 50-point hammering at the hands of Wasps in Coventry. Cullen never panicked. He backed his academy. Within 12 months, a youthful Leinster were winning the tournament. That 2018 triumph in Bilbao has been Cullen's sole triumph in Europe and the chase for that fifth star has become an obsession. Yes, Leinster have fallen at plenty of hurdles in the meantime but they have continually been banging on that Champions Cup-shaped door every year. Cullen has a lot of credit in the bank, with the IRFU, his own employers and his players. Still, there may be some awkward conversations in the off season if Leinster fail in yet another final. And this won't be easy. The Bulls are contesting their third final in four years and they are hungry to land a maiden URC. For head coach Jake White and this group, there is no sense of this trophy being something of a late season, consolation prize. White, who has serious pedigree as a coach when it comes to knockout rugby, said without hesitation this week that winning the URC would be up there with the Super Rugby triumphs in 2007, 2009 and 2010 when the likes of Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha and Fourie du Preez were lording it in the southern hemisphere. 'It would be exactly the same,' he declared earlier this week. 'In South Africa, winning is what every franchise wants to do and I'm not talking from a standard point of view.'People have had this debate about whether southern hemisphere and Super Rugby are anything like URC rugby. 'I just think the achievement of winning something when you've spent as many weeks as any team has in preparing for a game like this becomes as important as any other competition.' The visitors are motivated. White will have a smart tactical plan. The Bulls have a monstrous scrum, spearheaded by giant tighthead Wilco Louw. They have the capacity to make this Grand Final a real dogfight. Leinster, despite missing some serious Ireland personnel, still have the talent and depth to get the job done. Cullen and his coaching team have been tactically outmanoeuvred too many times in big games. White has managed it twice in URC semi-finals. Ronan O'Gara, Ugo Mola, Phil Dowson and Graham Rowntree have done the same, either in European knockout games or the business end of this competition. Cullen and his backroom team need a win. The players – a so-called golden generation – desperately need to end this title drought. Ditto the coaching team. There is much more than just a trophy on the line today.
RTÉ News
2 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Road-raging Bulls swap home comforts for 'camaraderie' with Leinster's perfect home record on line
Beware the rampaging Bulls, who have swapped home comforts for camaraderie. But Leinster know more than anyone the dangers posed by Jake White's road warriors. It was in Dublin where the first big URC shock happened when Leinster, who had come off a 62-point thrashing of Glasgow the week before, came a cropper at the hands of the Bulls back in the 2022 semi-final. The inaugural tournament saw the Pretoria side stun Johnny Sexton and co. at the RDS, winning 27-26, with Leinster scoring a converted try in overtime. While they went on to lose the final to Stormers in Cape Town, Bulls demonstrated that they meant business in their new environment. Of the 27 knockout games that have taken place in the URC since the first season in 2021/22, seven have been won by the away team. Five of that tally was made up from Munster and Glasgow Warriors wins over the last two seasons, which famously resulted in titles for the away teams. "I wouldn't say we take anything from that," Bulls skipper Ruan Nortje told RTÉ Sport when asked about those feats. "Every year is a new year, [it's] a new game, and a new final, so we can't read too much into what's happened in previous years. "We can just go on with what we've been doing this year. "We've been really good away from home this season for some reason, and the group has been getting on quite well especially on tour." He's not wrong. Bulls have won seven of their nine URC games away from Loftus Versfeld this season and a seventh road win at Croke Park this afternoon would result in their first ever URC title. They've lost two previous finals, both in South Africa, but this is their first decider away from home comforts. "We've actually toured quite well this season," Jake White, the Bulls' charismatic director of rugby, said. "Our win record is better than most. I don't know why it is, we happen to have played really well away from home. "It's a little bit reminiscent of when I was at the Brumbies [in Super Rugby], we went 11 games unbeaten away from home. "Sometimes when you've got that recipe going for you it counts in your favour; you enjoy being together, you enjoy the players spending time together. "And when you win, those memories, those feelings that you have when you get back as a group is special as well. "It doesn't matter where you play, whether it's at Croke Park, Aviva, RDS, South Africa, the challenge is exactly the same, you are going to have to play well to beat them." For all the fine work the Bulls have done in others' fields, Leinster have a fine record on their own patch as well, including winning all four of the games played in GAA HQ. Their Champions Cup loss to Saints, devastating as it was, is the only blemish this season, while they have averaged 22-point winning margins in their 11 home URC victories to this point. Add in handsome wins against Harlequins and Glasgow in the European knockouts and it's even more impressive. In fact, no team has even come within a score of Leinster by the final play, Connacht and Glasgow's losing margin of eight the closest they have been run. Leinster lost their regular-season clash with Bulls to a late penalty by a point and today's game is shaping up to be a one-score affair as well.
RTÉ News
2 hours ago
- RTÉ News
'Studious' Jordie Barrett gone after today but not forgotten
Leinster head coach Leo Cullen has hailed All Black Jordie Barrett as a "fantastic" signing on and off the field ahead of his final game in blue in today's BKT URC final. If the eastern province do reign victorious, a fair share of plaudits will rightfully be directed towards last summer's three marquee signings. Frenchman Rabah Slimani has been a revelation at tighthead prop, proving age is just a number, while RG Snyman has taken to life up the M7 with ease, and will be keen to become the league's first two-time URC champion. For utility back Barrett, he has hit the high notes you come to expect from a player of his calibre. The Bulls showdown will be his 15th and final game in blue, and he will be aiming to add to his medal collection, and six-try haul. Remarkably, a URC winners medal would be the first club honours won by the youngest Barrett sibling, and it would be just reward for his time in Dublin. He has also left an undeniable legacy off the field according to Cullen. "He has been a joy to have in the building, he's been great," the Leinster coach said ahead of today's final against the South Africans. "He goes about is business, he is studious in himself, and I think it's some of those behavioural pieces that hopefully rubs off best on not just our young players, but all the senior guys as well. "He's been great and fantastic to have around." On the field, with four tries and five assists this season in the league, there's a jack of all trades versatility to the silky playmaker. It would have been easier for Cullen to list weaknesses rather than his attributes. "His ball playing ability, his ability to carry when he has to as well, his passing game, and to be able to see space, his kicking game as well in terms of being able to see space in the backfield or whether that's on the kick pass," said Cullen of Barrett's on-field expertise. "His ability and willingness to be able to try things as well. "They see him practice certain things all the time in training. "He's practicing something that he is willing to put into practice on the field and then have the confidence to implement that on the field." As was the case with the other great New Zealand signings of the past, like the legendary Brad Thorn or Doug Howlett at Munster, Barrett carries a personality adored by young fans, and younger team-mates eager to learn. Cullen added: "Even just to see how he interacts with fans at different stages during the course of the year, like the open sessions we've had during the year, and how giving he is of his time. "He's been fantastic and hopefully he goes well on Saturday and produces another big performance because ultimately that's what we want to see from him. "You mention Hugh Cooney and Charlie Tector, Jordie has played with both of those guys at different stages, over the course of the season, you'd have to ask those guys what did they really learn, but it's the day-to-day habits." Another advantage of Leinster's pulling power is how they can avoid an insular mindset with outside perspectives. Barrett, Snyman, Slimani and next season's signing Rieko Ioane will help to keep opinions fresh and broad in UCD. "You don't want it to be same, same," said Cullen, who knows all too well the importance of outside voices. "You're always trying to add, you get a coach or a member of the backroom staff. "Again, it's just different views and I'm very open to that. I don't want to have that, would you call it, that group-think mentality. "You want to be able to spread it wider and challenge our own way of thinking. "I'm only promoting they're here in the first place because I strongly believe they do add but maybe that's just justifying the position we're in." Dan Sheehan recently echoed Cullen's words about the value of outside voices. He described Barrett, Snyman and Slimani as having had a "massive impact" who help bring the right combination of perspectives to the fore. Leinster captain Jack Conan last week admitted to the extra motivation to secure that coveted medal for the departing. Barrett is one of seven departing senior players for Leinster this coming summer, a list which includes the legendary Cian Healy and out-half Ross Byrne. "It's been a motivation for the last few weeks to give them another week in the club and do right by them," said the Lions number 8. "We want to do right by all those lads. It's something we've touched on a lot. "I think it's part of the reason why we were so on it [against Glasgow in the semi-final] because we want to give those lads the send-off they deserve but, again, it won't count for much if we don't push on and be better." If Leinster are to raise the 20kg URC trophy aloft this evening, Barrett's presence is sure to be a driving factor. Non-Ireland qualified players have long helped the provinces reach the peak of their powers, and although European glory slipped by, a first domestic crown since 2021 cannot be sniffed at.
