Munster Produced The Shock Of The Weekend But Leinster Now European “Favourites” After…

Munster Produced The Shock Of The Weekend But Leinster Now European “Favourites” After…

 Top performance

Leinster will meet URC champions Glasgow Warriors in the Champions Cup quarter-final while Munster remain on the road and face Bordeaux.

The four games, to be played this weekend, are Leinster v Glasgow Warriors, Bordeaux v Munster, Northampton v Castres and Toulon v Toulouse.

This came following seven home wins and Munster, single point victors in La Rochelle, progressing.

Thus while Munster produced the shock of the weekend, Leinster’s was the most impressive performance.

Bordeaux were matched by Ulster – who won the last hour 31-22 – for long periods while Toulouse were 10-15 behind at halftime against Sale.

“Glasgow are URC champions, going really well under Franco Smith since he’s come in and they have a hell of a lot of threats across the board,” says Leinster boss Leo Cullen.

“They have so much experience from Scottish internationals littered throughout their squad and dynamic in the way they play.

“They have a very big backline that can cause a lot of trouble, a lot of pace, and are a very good mauling team once they get you in their 22, usually their hooker will score a lot of tries off the back of mauls.

“You saw particularly away from home last season, winning away in Thomond in the semi-final, and then they won away in Loftus in the final so they are pretty comfortable being on the road.”

Continued Cullen of Leinster’s 62-0 win over Harlequins at Croke Park.

“There was lots of positives although the start of the game was pretty tit for tat, we weren’t probably that accurate in the first 10 minutes.

“Quins came out and physically we maybe fell off one or two tackles as well but we managed to scramble well and sometimes that is what is required.

“Then we hit back and we get in for a couple of good tries back to back and we don’t look back too much after that so we were pretty clinical overall.

“There were lots of really good passages of attack, and there’s some good passages of defence as well.

“Quins lose a couple of players and we know what that was like with the Bulls from our week against them in particular, we had that disruption. We lost four guys to HIAs in the first half and know exactly what Quins had, it was something very similar.”

Harlequins coach Danny Wilson was complimentary about Leinster afterwards at the Aviva although there was an odd reference to the English Premiership’s ‘salary cap’ as an inhibiting factor for them.

The ‘Saracens surrender’ option was not considered and, to their credit, Harlequins remain committed to being competitive in the Champions Cup

“Our experience last year is we got to a semi-final and had a brilliant run in the competition, knocking over Bordeaux over there and then going and playing Toulouse and we weren’t far away in that game.

“We have had some decent wins against URC teams as well in this campaign. Today we were completely blown away, but it is Leinster and, to me, I have experienced playing against them and having tough days and they are a very good outfit.

“What do they have, 21 in the Ireland squad? You go through that team today and if it’s not an Irish international it’s RG Snyman, Jordie Barrett on the bench, a Test match All Black. It’s phenomenal.

“What they have created here is the consistency of a lot of good players and a system that brings through player after player. It is the envy of other people and it is going to finals and winning them is the cherry on the cake for them to finish off.

“I would only focus on Leinster and not the league, the differences in the league. We are in a salary cap competition, France and others aren’t. Or aren’t in the same position, let’s say, but we and Northampton got to the semi-finals of Europe last year.”