Ex-Leinster great claims Leo Cullen ‘is wasting his time’ and the selection ‘risk’ they need to take before facing Bordeaux in the final
Leinster boss Leo Cullen at an Investec Champions Cup media briefing and, inset, Sam Prendergast (INPHO/Ben Brady)
Luke Fitzgerald has taken issue with Leo Cullen, his former Leinster and Ireland teammate, over some of the things said in the aftermath of last weekend’s Investec Champions Cup semi-final in Dublin.
Head coach Cullen’s Leinster side defeated Toulon 29-25 to reach their fourth final in five seasons and he came out swinging at the post-match media briefing, criticising the media for negative coverage of the team and insisting that reaching a final was something that should be celebrated.
Having played on the three European Cup-winning teams that Cullen skippered in 2009, 2011 and 2012, Fitzgerald suggested what came out in the wash last Saturday was an emotional outburst after a patchy season for Leinster.
However, he believed that his old pal was wasting his time trying to tackle the media, and Fitzgerald also took great umbrage at this suggestion that reaching the final was an achievement. He instead stressed that winning the May 23 decider in Bilbao was the only thing that mattered.
“Not going to apologise for calling it like I see it…”
“I’m not going to apologise for calling it like I see it; he [Cullen] is wasting his time getting concerned what people are talking about,” said Fitzgerald on the latest edition of The Left Wing podcast. “It’s important to note it, but he should be managing it rather than inflaming it.
“There could be a positive out of this where you get this siege mentality, but I don’t know. I sense that there has been a lot of talk about getting to the final and what an achievement that is, but you have got to win them. No one cares.
“You let that kind of mindset seep in that it’s an achievement. I just disagree with him on that. The achievement is in winning. You’re there for the gold medal and I just fundamentally disagree with it [the reaching the final is great mindset]…
“I don’t get that way of thinking; I don’t think it is helpful if you are on the journey to be thinking that way. You need to be straining every single sinew to win, and it’s win at all costs to me.
“I hope that hasn’t seeped in there that they think, ‘Oh, it’s great we have got to another final, pat on the back’. You have got to win it; that’s the pressure that comes with the job. You are talking about juggernauts of the game; Leinster are a juggernaut of the game.
“The bit you control is the bit on the pitch, so spending time going on about that [the media coverage], is that helpful? We’re now talking about this, and this creates a focus amongst the media as well. I don’t know if it’s a good thing. It’s a distraction for him to be thinking about that.
“There wouldn’t be a brain power issue with Leo; there’s no doubt about that. He is a very bright guy, very clued in… He went off-piste a little bit, which is not like him because he is a smart guy and generally very considered in how he responds. Knowing the guy, it felt like an emotional response. You could tell in his voice and the cadence of it, he was emotional, he has been upset by it and he is human.”
Reflecting on how Leinster fared in a Champions Cup match they were comfortably winning 29-11 before enduring a concerning finish which left them on the back foot and defending a four-point lead, Fitzgerald claimed Cullen is subjected to different selection rules compared to Leinster’s French rivals and clubs in England.
When Fitzgerald, the 2009 British and Irish Lions winger, was part of the Leinster set-up, the leading players would nearly always have a two-week lead-in to a European Cup match to ensure they were at their freshest.
However, with the IRFU now managing the playing minutes of its centrally contracted players more closely, Leinster found themselves in a bind in recent weeks. Having defeated Edinburgh and Sale in successive Champions Cup weekends, they opted for a largely second string in the league at Ulster before putting a strong team out at Benetton seven days before facing Toulon.
“Unlike some of the French and the English teams, the Irish players seem way more restricted in the minutes they can play and where they can play them. It makes it tricky to pick teams,” he said.
Bernard Jackman responds to Leo Cullen’s outburst as Leinster boss ‘trying to create a narrative’
“I bet you a big part of why they picked for the Ulster and Benetton matches was because of the player management system. They have this thing where you can’t play three in a row because apparently the injury percentage of injuries goes way up in that third match, or maybe after that third match, whatever it is.
“It was something to do with that because in our day we always played two weeks before the big cup match and then you got to rest the week before and you came into it super fresh and you still had that match sharpness. To me, that’s the massive mistake [the team picked for Benetton].”
Another error he felt was not naming Ciaran Frawley as the back-up on the bench to Harry Byrne against Toulon, as Leinster went with Sam Prendergast instead and he was central to their late-game defensive fade when sent on at full-back.
“It looks to me from the way they selected the bench that it sounded like they were trying to keep Prendergast happy, which isn’t a good idea for him, it’s not a good idea for the team either which is most important,” Fitzgerald said.
“Frawley is the guy to pick. They need to make sure they get him some decent time at 10 in the last two league matches (against the Lions and Ospreys). That is important; they have got to take a risk with him now. It’s an interesting time; it’s going to be important what they do there.”
Fitzgerald added that the kicking errors Byrne experienced in the semi-final will help him in the final. “I felt like it was just nerves, the occasion (of the semi-final). There is an opportunity for him to be in a position where he is trying to prove doubters wrong in the final because all the chat is going to be, ‘Wow, (Matthieu) Jalibert is on fire’.
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“There is a big difference between both teams there, and that can be a nice place for someone like him [Byrne] to be. ‘I was a serious quantity before injury and different things like that, I’m a top-class player as well, and let’s not forget what I have done at different points in this competition, some big kicks and things like that. I have had a decent competition myself without having the same kind of fluency of having the coach’s backing from the start of the campaign’.
“He has been solid in attack. Everyone points to there being a big difference between him and Prendergast. I’m not really sure there is a big difference between the two going forward, particularly at the moment.
“Now Prendergast’s confidence is probably a little lower and certainly Prendergast has that bit of a defter touch, that delayed pass, but he has fallen in love a bit with that to be honest with you and Byrne has been running it very well in attack.
“Very, very solid, and that is all you need to be with a lot of great players around you in Leinster, you don’t need to be the hero there. But what he does need to do is cut out those mistakes…
“He will settle down, he will be better for that experience at the weekend, they got through it, which is the main thing for someone like him. Feeling the pressure of those moments, it will be an advantage.
“There will be more pressure in the final but it might suit him, he will have felt those moments, he’ll know what he was thinking and hopefully he will be able to clear his thoughts and make sure that he simplifies it in those brief moments and just deliver on a skill we know he is very good at. He will be essential.
“It’s very clear now, and I have been very clear on it all season about who should have been the 10 at Leinster aside from perhaps Frawley. But it has become even clearer in the last month, so he should be comfortable in his own skin… He is quite clearly ahead of Prendergast.”