Leo Cullen ‘hugely excited’ by Bulls challenge after Leinster steamroll Glasgow

Leinster 76 Glasgow 14

Wearing his coach’s hat, Leo Cullen had two versions of how to read Leinster’s 12-try win over Glasgow. The first was such a runaway roasting six days away from meeting the Bulls in the United Rugby Championship semi-final was too one-sided to be wholesome preparation.

The other was dominating a team to such an extent and freely scoring after Glasgow’s opening four minutes of fury to take a 7-0 lead, will lift the players after a downbeat journey to France last week for the Champions Cup final.

“It’s not ideal, that’s fair to say,” said Cullen of the Glasgow rout. “But you’ve got to deal with what you’ve got to deal with, and for us, yeah, it gives some guys a bit of confidence. Does it really matter going into next week? No, because it’s just about getting through to the next round.”

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To add to his headache two-try Jordan Larmour won man-of-the-match. The reappearance of his dancing feet on the perfect RDS surface brought a collective smile to the 9,346 attendance. He did, as they say, put his hand up.

But as Cullen pointed out, the Bulls will demand respect. That the match is in Dublin is consequential given they travel from Pretoria, just as Ulster get on the plane to face the Stormers in Cape Town. But the Bulls and former World Cup-winning coach with South Africa, Jake White, is a familiar friend and foe to the former Irish lock.

“Jake is a wily old coach,” said Cullen. “Been around the block. I was coming to the end of my first year in coaching. He gave me a fair bit of advice. I went away to a Six Nations coaching conference. It would have been 2016. He was very, very helpful to me in terms of someone with bits of advice and understanding his philosophy on the game as well.

“So, yeah, we’ve come up against each other with Montpellier in Europe as well. He has plenty of experience of being here in the RDS so he will know what’s involved. I’m sure he’ll have a few tricks up his sleeve. He’s been good for the Bulls in terms of the experience he’s brought, the continuity, stability around selection.”

From his personal intel and the recent games in the URC, Leinster expect big set-piece plays from the South Africans as well as individual influencers having their say. In Marcell Coetzee, who spent five years with Ulster and was a serial man-of-the-match winner, Leinster know the range of his backrow ability.

“Physically very, very strong both sides of the ball,” says Cullen of the Bulls. “The backrow, they have Coetzee. So, he’s one who is a very, very influential presence on their team. The halfbacks are good, a strong kicking game and they’ve strong back three in terms of their kick, chase, aerially and from breaking ball as well, the speed and pace that they have.

“Mostert [Juan] in midfield [is] very, very strong, a direct player probably one of the key guys similar to Coetzee for them. Depends who they pick Louw [Elrigh] or [Arno] Botha they have other backrowers very, very powerful. They are sort of a complete team.”

It is a quality Cullen hopes Leinster can revive. He knows the team can be much better than they were in Marseille against La Rochelle, and with 10 players on Saturday’s try-scoring sheet, with hooker Dan Sheehan getting two, there are plenty of shirt claims going around.

Leinster started slowly against Glasgow with Scotland prop Zander Fagerson bundling over and Ross Thompson converting after four minutes to trigger a ferocious response from Leinster. It began when Richie Gray drew a yellow card for hitting Jamison Gibson-Park over a ruck and within seconds of the lock leaving Leinster had mauled in Sheehan for his first try on 16 minutes.

Then on 19 and 23 minutes gave Larmour and Joe McCarthy opportunities before Sheehan’s second arrived just before the break, again breaking away from a Leinster maul. That was 26-7 and Leinster were out the door and never looking back.

Caelan Doris, Michael Ala’alatoa, Gibson-Park, Garry Ringrose, Larmour again, Ciarán Frawley, Luke McGrath and Jimmy O’Brien added to the visitors’ humiliation until the game stopped at 76-14. It was Glasgow’s heaviest defeat in any competition since they were hammered 90-19 by Leicester Tigers in the 1997 Heineken Cup. The only other time they were beaten by a wider margin was when they were smashed 76-9 against Montferrand in 1996.

“It’s a very new flavour to it, isn’t it. It’s the proper jolt that the competition needed,” said Cullen of the South African arrivals. “And I just go back to when I was a kid watching Gary Teichmann play for the Sharks, Ollie le Roux, a former Leinster great and some of the former greats that they had for years and years.

“The Bulls had a very successful period in Super Rugby where they were the dominant force. You think of some of the titles that they won by literally steamrolling teams. That’s hugely exciting for us.”

It will give the meeting a different texture. No bad thing. The teams meet on Friday night ‘in the RDS.

Scoring sequence – 4 mins: Z Fagerson try, R Thompson con 0-7; 16: D Sheehan try, R Byrne con 7-7; 19: J Larmour try, R Byrne con 14-7; 23: J McCarthy try, Byrne con 21-7; 38: Sheehan try 26-7. Half-time. 43: C Doris try, Byrne con 33-7; 48: M Ala’alatoa try, Byrne con 40-7; 54: J Gibson-Park try, Byrne con 47-7; 56: G Ringrose try 52-7; 60: G Horne try, Thompson con 52-14; 64: Larmour try 57-14; 69: C Frawley try, H Byrne con 64-14; 70: L McGrath try, H Byrne con 71-14; 77: J O’Brien try 76-14.

LEINSTER: Jimmy O’Brien; Jordan Larmour, Garry Ringrose, Ciarán Frawley, Rory O’Loughlin; Ross Byrne, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Ryan Baird, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris.

Replacements: Michael Ala’alatoa for Furlong (40 mins); C Healy for Porter, S Cronin for Sheehan, L McGrath for Gibson-Park (all 55), R Moloney for Ryan, R Henshaw for Ringrose, J Conan for Van der Flier (all 57); H Byrne for R Byrne (67).

GLASGOW WARRIORS: Ollie Smith; Josh McKay, Sione Tuipulotu, Sam Johnson, Rufus McLean; Ross Thompson, Ali Price; Jamie Bhatti, George Turner, Zander Fagerson; Rob Harley, Richie Gray; Ryan Wilson, Gregor Brown, Jack Dempsey.

Replacements: O Kebble for Bhatti, F Brown for Fagerson, G Horne for Price (all 52 mins); L Bean for Harley, K McDonald for Wilson (both 58); D Miotti for Thompson (69).

Referee: A Piardi (Italy).

URC semi-finals

Friday: Leinster v Bulls, RDS, 7.35

Saturday: Stormers v Ulster, DHL Stadium, Cape Town, 2 Irish time