Leo Cullen cut a contented figure after his side recovered from deficits of 14-0 after eight minutes and 21-19 at half-time to pull clear of Bath with a 47-21 win which ensured Leinster of first place in Pool 2 in the Champions Cup.
This guarantees them a home tie in the Round of 16 on the weekend of April 4th-6th, potentially against Castres, which the province could look to move to Croke Park as the Aviva Stadium is not available.
Should they win that tie, Leinster have also ensured themselves of a home quarter-final and, unless Toulon move above them in the seeding by beating Sale Sharks away by 37 points or more in Sunday’s final game, Cullen’s team will also secure a top-two seed. That would offer the prize of home advantage all the way through to a fourth successive final were they to progress that far.
Leinster reputedly reaped more than €1.7 million by moving their URC game against Munster last October to Croke Park, although a Round of 16 tie could prove a harder sell.
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[ Leinster demolish 14-man Bath to go undefeated in Champions Cup pool stagesOpens in new window ]
Reflecting on something of a rollercoaster win over Bath, Cullen admitted: “We were worried all week, worried since the fixture was announced. Six-day turnarounds are always a challenge within that.
“We know Bath are going incredibly well in the (Gallagher) Premiership, we know (Bath head coach) Johann (Van Graan) knows the group, Ross Moloney knows our group incredibly well.
“But ultimately Bath have a lot of quality, they have plenty of internationals throughout their squad and they are a team with a lot of confidence.
“So, it is easy to say nobody will give us a chance and all that type of narrative and they are fired at us physically right from the start.”
The Leinster head coach added: “We are 7-0 down and pretty quickly after that we conceded another try, so thankfully we showed good composure, Robbie scores two tries which gets us back in the game.
“Bath were very physical; they were coming off the line and hitting people hard, sometimes without the ball which gave us penalties and field position.
“It focuses the half-time conversation, which is a good thing because people are focusing on solutions. What is the way to go? And how do you go about the second-half?
“I think we got a better balance in the second-half. RG Snyman and Caelan Doris came in and gave us plenty of energy. It is a 23-man effort.”
Acknowledging that Bath suffered when reduced to 14 players for the final quarter, Cullen said: “Overall we are delighted, there was a great big crowd there which, at this time of the season, was amazing. It is a totally different challenge this week. They seem to be targeting our game versus the game with Racing.”
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“We are excited by the challenge next week, after which we can have a pause,” added Cullen in relation to next Saturday’s URC game against the Stormers at the Aviva.
Similarly, he was largely satisfied with another four-game clean sweep in the pool stages and their 18-point haul, which was book-ended by bonus-point wins over the Premiership’s top-two, Bristol and Bath, and tougher wins over Clermont and La Rochelle.
“They are four very tough games. Bristol, go back to round one, the cohesion that they have versus our guys that had been involved in four Tests that was always going to be interesting, how guys pitched up that week.
“And credit to the lads the way they have gone about their work. Short turnaround into Clermont, very sticky team. They’re just a bloody tough nut to crack – all those Christophe Urios teams have been over the years, and the conditions were tricky that day as well.
“Then you go away to La Rochelle, and ROG has I’d say, what, a strong dislike for Leinster to put it mildly?” said Cullen with a smile about Ronan O’Gara, his counterpart at La Rochelle who suffered a surprise 32-25 defeat away to Benetton on Saturday. That result also heightens the possibility of La Rochelle hosting Munster in the Round of 16.
“So, their team was going to be very focused on that game and you’ll have to deal with a few sort of other bits as well,” added Cullen cryptically.
“Guys came through that well and again, another six-day turnaround into Bath, who are riding high at the top of the Premiership, playing with a lot of confidence, and they have got some X-factor players that can cause you trouble.
“So, listen, to get four wins is great. We will see where we sit at the end of it. We have tried to do our bit anyway, which is to battle away for every single point that is available, we maybe didn’t get them all, but anyway, we have gone pretty close, which is good.”
And man of the match Robbie Henshaw too admitted that Bath had troubled them.
“I think they attacked us in that short kicking space of the drop-off and they got unstructured attack against us. They played quite wide to wide, Finn Russell hit a cross-kick to width and then they scored on the far side, so they did have a good plan to attack to width and probably had quick ball on the back of that which kind of stopped our linespeed.
“They had a good plan and came out of the blocks pretty early.”
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