Leinster coach Leo Cullen has struggled to explain his team’s poor start to the new Vodacom URC season.
Following the defending champions’ humbling 31-14 defeat to bitter rivals Munster at Croke Park on Saturday, Cullen admitted he is “not sure exactly what the solution is”.
After being outmuscled by both the Stormers and Vodacom Bulls on tour in South Africa, the defending champions again looked short of rhythm and physicality as Munster handed them a third defeat in front of more than 50,000 fans in Dublin.
“I’m not sure exactly what the solution is for us moving forward – how we get to that physical pitch and speed of playing games,” Cullen admitted.
“Listen, we need to analyse what we do there for future seasons because what we’ve done this year clearly hasn’t worked out. We’ve lost three of the last four games.”
The Leinster boss gave full credit to Clayton McMillan’s Munster side for simply wanting it more.
“I heard Clayton talk about hard work, grit, and determination. They showed that in spades, didn’t they? Whereas we were second in hard work, grit and determination and we just need to take that on the chin and be better next time.”
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Cullen conceded that the uneven pre-season and staggered return of international players had left Leinster short of battle-hardened match fitness, but stopped short of making excuses.
“It was always going to be a bit of a sticky start to the season for us. You’ve got to understand, to get to the pitch of a game, you’ve got to play some games. A lot of those guys for Munster have played at least two of the three URC games, and we’re just not battle hardened at the moment. It is what it is.”
Photo: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images
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