Cullen minding the present with an eye on the future
Leinster Head Coach Leo Cullen. Photo: INPHO/Ben Brady
LEINSTER Head Coach, Leo Cullen, surveyed all around him like a mother hen as he watched his squad, without those on Ireland duty, go through their paces in a 90 minute session on the pitch and the many kids and parents who had turned up to watch the Open Training session in North Kildare RFC this week.
The visit to The Maws was another in the regular visits the genial coach has been making to clubs in the 12 counties of Leinster as he brings the Leinster message to the masses in the hope of perhaps capturing a couple of the watching kids for future Blues Squads.
“We've been unbelievably lucky over many years but this season, in particular, we've had amazing support. We're out of the RDS with a couple of games in the Aviva and a game in Croke Park against Munster, which was amazing day, over 80,000 people there for a Round 4 URC game. So, for us, it's important that we return the favour and come out to clubs,” he explained to the Kildare Nationalist.
“North Kildare is the home of Will Connors so there's a pride of place in that as well,” he added. While it may have been an event in itself the session was as intense as you might expect for the beginning of the week.
“Obviously, we have a good chunk of players away with the Irish Squad at the moment, so for us, it's a sort of a mix of some senior guys and some Academy players, and even with some sub-Academy guys; some lads there are literally just out of school as well. For us as coaches we get an opportunity to see them, get to work with them and build those relationships and that rapport with the players and try to grow our shared understanding of what we were trying to achieve,” the Leinster Head Coach tells us.
Leinster are six games unbeaten into the URC with a match against Ulster to come in two weeks before they embark on their pre-Christmas ERC campaign with matches against Bristol away and Claremont in the Aviva.
“Against Ulster, it’s the same weekend as Ireland play Australia so again, we'll be stretched around resources at that stage, and again, for us, to try and bring some young players through is important this time of year,” Cullen continued.
While things didn’t go well for Ireland against the All Blacks, Leo Cullen doesn’t have any concerns that his players might come back lacking in confidence if that trend were to continue throughout the Autumn Series.
“It's important, obviously, for the group that are here, that whatever sort of state guys come back in, that we're bringing fresh energy to them, and they're coming back in, they're excited and energized. We want to try and grow the competition here, particularly with some of the young guys so when guys come back in, they've got to fight to get their way back in the door.”
Leinster have used 47 players so far this season. “At this time of year, when we get the opportunity, we try and help bring some young players through. Even for young guys to understand getting out and they see young kids here with jerseys on their backs. They're getting kids looking for their signatures, probably for the first time for some of these lads which is great thing to go through for them,” Leo Cullen said.
The Kildare contingent continues to rise within the Blues Squad with Sam Prendergast and Diarmuid all coming in.
“Diarmuid’s younger brother, Ciarán, is here as well this week. We were up the road in Clongowes this morning so there is a good Kildare feeling about the squad,” Cullen smiles. “I see a picture of my old friend Bob Casey inside the clubhouse. Big Dev Toner was a good North Kildare man and Cian Healy recently overtook Big Dev as Leinster’s most capped player. So it's really important that we keep that connection and as I look across at some of the kids there and hopefully we want those kids someday as well,” the Head Coach proclaimed.
