Leo Cullen claims Leinster ‘not a million miles away’ after Champions Cup final humiliation
Leinster boss Leo Cullen and the players dejected after another Champions Cup final defeat.
Head coach Leo Cullen did not appear too downcast after seeing his Leinster side absolutely annihilated by Bordeaux-Begles in the Investec Champions Cup final.
The Irish giants were thrashed 41-19 by the French outfit with the game already lost when the teams headed in the changing rooms for half-time.
By that point Bordeaux had opened up a 28-point buffer after moving 35-7 ahead following 40 minutes of action.
It was comfortably their biggest defeat in a Champions Cup showpiece and suggests that Leinster are as far away as they ever have been from the competition’s true elite.
Fifth successive loss in the final
However, Cullen, who presided over his fifth successive European final defeat, was philosophical following the catastrophic loss.
“It’s not like we’re a million miles away. I know there’s a decent gap in the scoreline today but I think if you reflect upon on what’s gone on in the game, the stats in the game, that would maybe be a bit of a reflection in terms of how clinical Bordeaux were,” he told reporters.
“The speed with the way they do things is very impressive. That’s the bit we need to get after. The speed of the way the game is.
“It’s something that we need to reflect on and take stock. How do we move forward as a group? What do we really want to chase down because, listen, we weren’t good enough today.
“Unfortunately when you sit here on the losing side, you’ve clearly just not been good enough on the day. And that’s something we need to reflect upon and get better at for the future.”
Cullen, whose job will once come under scrutiny after this reversal, also looked to deflect matters in slightly bizarre fashion by immediately looking ahead to their United Rugby Championship quarter-final next weekend.
“Can we get better at it and go on and try to win the URC? Let’s hope so. Can we get better to get to another final and win another final in this competition next season?” he said.
“That’s quite a long way down the track, isn’t it? But that’s what everyone’s at all of the time. Nothing stays the same forever in sport, does it?”
Cullen was not angry with their performance despite losing the game in the opening half with a performance which made it a bit too easy for the Frenchmen, especially with their lack of defensive resilience.
‘A pressure cooker’
“It’s unfortunate the game just got away from us a little bit in the first half,” he added.
“There’s lots of great stuff in terms of trying to get back into the game, and we scored a couple of good tries in the second half, and we still left so many opportunities out there.
“It’s a pressure cooker out there. It’s very frustrating, because you want to give a better account of yourselves, don’t you, because you want to be with that ruthless mindset in terms of execution, where we’re just not quite there.
“They [Bordeaux] haven’t had an easy run to the final, beating Bath, Toulouse the Bulls away, so they’ve shown that again at certain stages.
“But we just let the score get away from us a little bit in the first half.”
READ MORE: Comment: Leinster’s ‘drive for five’ goes wrong as Bordeaux-Bègles prove they are no ‘fleeting star’
