Cullen Believes Leinster Must Improve Despite Champions Cup Victory

Despite securing a 15-7 victory against Clermont Auvergne, marking their ninth consecutive win to commence the current season, Leinster’s head coach, Leo Cullen, conceded that his team has “not at the level” required, particularly noting that they only managed to score three points after the 24th minute of the match. This Champions Cup triumph against the Top 14 side was primarily secured by two tries scored within four first-half minutes by Garry Ringrose and Jordie Barrett, with the Irish team’s only other points coming from a Sam Prendergast penalty. Throughout the match, their line-out presented difficulties, and the contest’s structure significantly deteriorated as weather conditions worsened during the second half. Cullen expressed that Leinster’s current performance does not reflect the caliber of play demonstrated by last season’s co-finalists, Toulouse, who commenced their title defense last week with a dominant 61-21 win over Ulster. “There’s is a lot more in us,” Cullen stated. He elaborated, “If we want to be successful and go on in this competition, we are not at the level of probably where, as an example, I watched Toulouse last week, where they are. “They are in unbelievable form at the moment so we’ve plenty to work on.” Leinster, scheduled to resume United Rugby Championship play against Connacht on 21 December, have accumulated nine points from their initial two Champions Cup matches, which includes a prior victory over Bristol Bears at Ashton Gate. Cullen further commented, “If someone said you were going to get nine points from the two games, you’d probably be quite happy, but when you score two tries in the first half of the second game having got five points last week, it sort of feels like there are things there that we can be better at,” He also conveyed the team’s sentiment: “The dressing room is frustrated at how we performed because we want to put on a better show in front of our home fans but at the same time, you’ve got to win against a team that is used to these sort of arm-wrestles in the Top 14, where they’re currently sitting third.” He concluded, “They’ve ton of experience. It’s good to get a win.”