Leo Cullen stood in front of the cameras in Bilbao on Saturday with the same calm look he has worn after the four Champions Cup finals before this one. Asked by Premier Sports whether the 41-19 defeat to Bordeaux was the toughest of his five losing finals, the Leinster head coach refused to grade them.
"I don't really know," Cullen said. "I don't rank them in any particular order. First and foremost, these are amazing occasions to be part of. You wouldn't have it any other way that you're at this point battling it out. You could have the argument that losing a final is failure. It's failure for us today because we had strong ambitions to try and win the game today."
Leinster were always going to be up against it. Bordeaux travelled to Bilbao as defending champions, with the in-form back three in European rugby and a pack that has added genuine steel over the past 12 months. Cullen made the underdog point himself, then turned to where the game was decided.
"We knew it was going to be incredibly tough. Bordeaux have shown amazing form in the last couple of seasons," he said. "I thought we had lots of opportunities in the game. They were just far more clinical. We're just nowhere near clinical enough — and Bordeaux are. That's what makes them the champion team that they currently are."
The pre-half-time intercept try summed it up. Leinster had territory and the ball; one stray pass and Bordeaux were 7 ahead and away from the field. "A classic example is the intercept try before half-time," Cullen said. "Before that there's a try. Ball's in the air, we have the ball. JSON loses it, then they go on to score. It's in a flash, isn't it? You've got to give Bordeaux so much credit for that."
Despite the scoreline, Cullen refused to characterise the season as a disappointment. "There's no shame in what our guys have produced in this competition this year," he said. "No one likes losing finals, but we have, and we need to turn the page on to the next thing — which is we have a quarter-final next week."
That quarter-final, in the United Rugby Championship against Glasgow at Aviva Stadium, gives Leinster a chance to win silverware within four weeks of their European disappointment. "It's back on the horse for us next week," Cullen said. "Just on to the next challenge. We have a chance to win another trophy in the next, whatever, four weeks. The URC is building and getting better every year as a competition — the competition is fierce."
The inevitable question came: with five losing finals, is there a pattern that needs disrupting? Cullen shut it down without raising his voice.
"No. You're very close to it," he said. "It's almost a home tie for Bordeaux — it's a three-hour drive up the road. We just need to keep putting ourselves in that position. We have tons of good quality in the group, and we just need to keep investing in a lot of our young guys, getting them opportunities and bringing them through. That's not an easy process, but that's the way the set-up is with our clubs."
He finished with the line that will be carried in Irish headlines for the week. "There's a lot of banging going on there, but we need to keep banging at the door ourselves," he said. "That's the thing going through my mind. We just need to keep banging away at the door and eventually we'll smash it open. I believe."
Cullen will rotate the squad for the Glasgow quarter-final. Sam Prendergast watched the final from the stand, and the fly-half question — and the wider question of whether the Leinster defensive project under Jacques Nienaber needs a reset — is unlikely to wait for the URC playoffs to be over.
