Leo Cullen's Leinster will arrive in Bilbao for an Investec Champions Cup final next weekend with an edge that has been notably absent from previous knockout campaigns — and according to Ben Youngs and Dan Cole on For The Love Of Rugby, a single jab in the head coach's post-match media round captured exactly why.
The provocation came in a stilted exchange with reporters after Leinster's 29-25 semi-final defeat of Toulon at the Aviva. "After this game in Leo Cullen's post-match media rounds, there's a quote saying you guys just love throwing the boot into us when he's talking to the media," Cole recalled. "The bigger quote is, 'You guys love throwing the boot in, don't you, guys, love throwing the boot in when things don't go well.'"
For Youngs, the comment crystallised a vibe that has been building around the four-time European champions all season. "There's a bit of a vibe around Leinster which is what I've not really felt before," he said. "Leo Cullen's coming out firing and they probably made a big thing of it because it might have been the only quote from the press conference. But that combined with Leinster being a bit of an underdog — there is, you know, there is definitely a different feeling around Leinster this year."
The match itself was less comfortable than the score line suggested. Leinster led for almost the entire game, their back row of Caelan Doris, Andrew Porter and Jack Conan dominant, but a Baptiste Serin-led Toulon revival turned the closing minutes squeaky. Hugo Keenan's scrambling tackle and offload chase to deny Jack Wilson summed up a back-foot finish.
"The fact that it came down to almost the final two minutes — they were chucking everything at them, weren't they?" Cole said. "Toulon were chucking everything at them at the end. And that feeling of, you know, when you're in control of the game, you're thinking 'no, like, this — how is it suddenly?' How are we 29-25 in the space of 10 minutes? How they got themselves in this situation?"
The discipline that allowed Toulon back in particularly worried Youngs. A four-penalty stretch in one passage of play earned Andrew Porter a yellow card for a head-on-head, and Leinster were down to 13 men at one stage of the second half. Cole's verdict was that the side ultimately managed it well — "they're smart, even when they were 13 against, what was it, 14 — Leinster double-shunted them, got the penalty" — but he flagged it as the area Leinster cannot repeat against Bordeaux.
Cole also kept faith with the goal-kicking depth chart even after Harry Byrne pushed an attempt notably wide while Sam Prendergast was in the bin. "I've been there myself in a Prem final," Cole said. "In fact, mine went about another 10 metres left than yours did, Gary. But fair play for stepping up. I'm not sure though, come the final, if he'll get another shot at it after that attempt."
Both pundits also chose to confront a more uncomfortable subtext — that Leinster carry the weight of being Ireland's most resented success story. "I always feel like they don't want Leinster to succeed. They don't want Leinster to win," Cole said of fans of the other Irish provinces. "It is this sense that they they don't there's this animosity towards Leinster. And I don't know whether it's because it's the system they have, the school system that, that sort of like the academy that brings it through. I'm not quite sure, but there does seem to be a big element in Ireland where a lot of those provinces don't want to see Leinster go and win."
Youngs argued Cullen's defensiveness is a direct response to that pressure. "He's trying to protect the team, trying to protect the players because they do get a lot of heat. They have got a shedload of stars within their team and therefore their expectation from the outside is that they should win and they haven't managed to do that for a long time with that calibre of player." He added that Cullen could lean into the underdog frame: "You build the sort of, you circle the wagons and you make that 'world against us'."
Bordeaux Begles, riding wing Damian Penaud's flair and scrum-half Maxim Lucu's metronomic command, are favourites in Bilbao. But Cullen's snap at the Aviva suggested a side that would rather be cornered than coddled going into the biggest week of the season. Robbie Henshaw's injury, with the Ireland centre giving the crowd a thumbs-up as he was helped off, was the one note of genuine concern. The rest, in Cullen's own words, was just the boot going in.
