'We're little old Ireland, small demographics. We're fighting as a minority sport'

LEO CULLEN DOESN’T usually do the Monday press conference in Leinster. So when he walked into one of the meeting rooms at the province’s training base in UCD yesterday, you sensed that things might be about to get interesting.Firstly, he’s not happy with the hype around his team.

“Limerick won last year, we didn’t and that’s all I remember,” said Cullen as he flagged Leinster’s defeats in last season’s Champions Cup final and URC semi-finals. While praising the might of Toulouse again – highlighting how they used to be “on a different stratosphere to Leinster” in the early Heineken Cup days – Cullen even flagged their most recent Top 14 opposition.

Given everything he had said about Toulouse’s quality and pedigree, there was a tongue-in-cheek suggestion to Cullen that Leinster shouldn’t even bother turning up for this Saturday’s.“But that’s what we’re up against, it’s the top teams in Europe and the world you could argue.”While on that topic, Cullen was keen to stress that this weekend’s semi-final is an EPCR event rather than a Leinster event, meaning the province aren’t in charge of ticket sales.

Indeed, his focus on flagging potential dangers even extended to Leinster’s home quarter-final in the URC at the Aviva Stadium in two weekends’ time. As for Leinster’s recent two-game tour of South Africa in the URC, Cullen was also determined to get a couple of points across. “It is trying to control the hype word because we were pretty realistic,” said Cullen. “Even in the dressing room, we were like, ‘Lads, we need to be really clear about what is to come with the Bulls.’

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