'Like Ireland v Bulls' - depth key to Leinster's URC win
Leinster's strength in depth has long been the envy of many squads in the United Rugby Championship and it once again came to the fore in Saturday's final win against the Bulls.Despite missing three injured Lions in the form of Tadhg Furlong, Hugo Keenan and Jamison Gibson-Park, the Irish province still fielded an incredible nine players who will travel to Australia with Andy Farrell's squad. Garry Ringrose, Josh van der Flier, James Lowe, Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Joe McCarthy, James Ryan and Jack Conan all started while Ronan Kelleher came off the bench in the comfortable 32-7 victory against the Bulls in Dublin to end the province's four-year trophy drought.They also had another eight players that will be part of Paul O'Connell's Ireland squad for this summer's tests against Georgia and Portugal.Throw in All Black Jordie Barrett, Springbok RG Snyman and French international Rabah Slimani and that means that young scrum half Fintan Gunne was the only uncapped player in the match-day squad.
'They only had 22 internationals!'
Bulls head coach Jake White was typically dry in his post-match press conference when addressing the quality that his opposite number Cullen could call upon. "I said during the week that Leinster would have 23 internationals, but it wasn't quite so bad, they only had 22!" he joked."I have said repeatedly that it is like bringing a knife to a gunfight. "We have plenty of experienced players, but we finished the game with eight non-internationals and Leo is able to throw on the likes of RG Snyman for a run-around. It is like Ireland v the Bulls out there."Two of Leinster's four tries were scored by Irish stalwarts turned Lions, with captain Conan getting the first and back row partner van der Flier the third. Barrett's beautifully improvised effort was sandwiched between the two as Leinster blitzed the South Africans in the opening 22 minutes, before shutting them out at half-time and going on to pick up a comfortable win after Gunne's late try.
Fitness scares and good performances in mixed bag for Lions contingent
Those on 'Lions watch' would have been concerned with the late withdrawal of Gibson-Park but Cullen was upbeat about the scrum half's fitness."Jamison picked up a bit of a knock on his glute in last week's semi-final and he just couldn't shake it off. It's nothing too serious so he'll be ok for the Lions," he said.Second row Ryan appeared to be limping slightly clutching the bottom of his back when he was substituted two minutes after the restart.He did reappear at full-time to join his teammates in collecting their medals and Cullen was also upbeat about his health."James certainly looked alright celebrating in the dressing room!"There is less than a week until the Lions kick off their summer adventure with a warm-up game at the Aviva Stadium against Argentina.How much game time the Leinster players get against the Pumas remains to be seen but they will certainly bring with them an air of positivity when they join the camp. Cullen is looking forward to a summer spent watching his charges on the world stage."A big part of what we do here is player development, so we are very proud of all the boys heading away this summer. "They have all earned it and I'm looking forward to keeping a keen eye on them when they are away."While Cullen and the Leinster staff can put their feet up for a couple of months, the show goes on for a large chunk of his talented squad and they will be hoping they can bring their success in blue to red and green respectively.
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