Advertisement League of Ireland Horse Racing TV Listings GAA Fixtures The Video Review Sport meets news, current affairs, society & pop culture Rugby Weekly Extra Dive into all the news and analysis 3 times a week The Football Family Weekly insights from the week’s big talking points Advertisement More Stories Jordie Barrett after Leinster's defeat to Northampton.Laszlo Geczo/INPHO Another scar for Leinster but Cullen denies 'wild' estimates of budget The head coach is contracted until 2027 and believes he’s the right man to lead Leinster. 6.01am, 5 May 2025 Share options LEINSTER ALREADY BORE the scars of previous Champions Cup defeats. Now there’s another one, perhaps the worst yet. Whatever about losing three consecutive finals to excellent La Rochelle and Toulouse teams, coming up short in a home semi-final is another thing altogether. Northampton produced a brilliant performance on Saturday. Really, the story of this game was the Saints. They attacked with ingenuity and the kind of accuracy that evaded Leinster too often. Their big-name players delivered. So did the fellas who never get any headlines. Their coaches came up with clever plans that worked. But had all of that been true of Leinster, they would have won. The reality is that Leo Cullen and Jacques Nienaber’s side didn’t produce their best on a big occasion. They were rightly fancied for this semi-final in Dublin but came up short. There were already concerns that Leinster’s near misses in this competition and their shortcomings in the URC have left them mentally shaky. Now, those worries are only magnified. Cullen recognises the need for his team to find greater composure in times of pressure. “What you’re touching on there, if you wind the clock back very far around Leinster as a team before they won any European titles, there was a little bit of that for sure and sometimes as a group you’ve got to go through that,” said Cullen on Saturday evening. “But I would be a strong believer in that once this group does get over the line, maybe we will lose some of that desperation. But you’ve still got to go and do it. The players, to be fair to them, have touched on that straight away.” Going behind to Northampton early on and then trailing 27-15 at half time exposed the doubts that now seem to be part of this Leinster set-up. Cullen wants Leinster to win the URC now.Laszlo Geczo / INPHO Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO “With all the bits that go before, you’d love to be ahead for starters, but certainly be further ahead when you’re coming down the final stretch,” said Cullen. “But then you’re in that moment at the very end and we’re just not quite accurate enough to be able to execute, even though you could argue we did score a try, but it’s not given as a try. “There’s bits of the first half, it’s not that we’re chasing the game too early but we just lacked a little bit of accuracy and Northampton are very effective in the sucker punch part. That’s where a little bit of the jitters come in.” Those jitters were apparent in all aspects of Leinster’s game at different times but the fact that they conceded 37 points was particularly jarring. Northampton’s attack is clever and classy, but Leinster are a team who have put a massive focus on their defence under Nienaber. Saints deserve huge credit, yet the space they were able to exploit and the collisions they won for some of their five tries were surprising against a Leinster defence that has been excellent in the last two seasons. Advertisement “There will be a bit of head scratching there in terms of some of our mentality around defence and were we really clued in enough for some of the threats Northampton have,” said Cullen. “We’ve seen them attack. The players have seen them, they know, but that’s a big score to concede in a play-off game.” As much as players’ execution now comes under scrutiny, so do the decisions of Cullen and Nienaber. They decided to leave Jordie Barrett on the bench, opted for Max Deegan in the starting back row ahead of Jack Conan or Ryan Baird, and chose Cian Healy instead of the in-form Jack Boyle. Healy was in the starting XV, with Andrew Porter used off the bench in the first half. None of those calls worked out, although sticking with Tommy O’Brien on the right wing was vindicated. That said, they could hardly have left him out given his form. Cullen knows his position will come under question from supporters and media following this defeat to Northampton. He understands that Leinster will face stinging criticism and hopes the group will “stay tight.” Cullen is contracted until the summer of 2027, the IRFU and Leinster having decided to extend his contract by another two years earlier this season. On Saturday, Cullen stated firmly that he believes he is the right man to continue leading Leinster. There is a widespread perception that they have underachieved under Cullen since their last Champions Cup title in 2018. A dejected RG Snyman at the final whistle.Laszlo Geczo / INPHO Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO That is linked to perceptions that Leinster’s resources are light years beyond what others are working with. There have been many guesses about their hypothetical player salary budget, including the portion paid directly by the IRFU for national contracts. A figure of €16 million per season has been floated in the French media, while the estimates have gone as high as €17 million in the English press. Those figures would be the highest for any club squad ever assembled and Cullen stringently denied the suggestions. “There’s a lot of inaccurate numbers out there,” said the Leinster boss. “It is wild. That’s miles off. Unfortunately, people can write whatever they want but none of those numbers… as we know, the system here is a little more complex than in other countries but we don’t have a published salary cap. “So I don’t think it’s a conversation for this moment in time. But I’ve seen some of those figures and they’re just not accurate, unfortunately. But how do you correct people who write things that aren’t true in the current media?” Still, it’s indisputable that Leinster have playing and coaching resources that most clubs could only dream of. And whatever that hypothetical budget is, it’s more than what most have to work with. This season, RG Snyman, Jordie Barrett, and Rabah Slimani came into a playing squad that was already made up of a large group of frontline Ireland internationals and lots of high-quality squad players. Cullen is also part of a staff that includes two-time World Cup winner Nienaber, while attack coach Tyler Bleyendaal joined the set-up this season to succeed fellow Kiwi Andrew Goodman. With all of that mind, it is only fair to wonder whether Leinster should have more trophies to their name. Their most recent silverware came in 2021 when they won the PRO14 before the four big South African franchises joined and it became the URC. Max Deegan, Hugo Keenan and Jamison Gibson-Park.Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO “We all want to be more successful for sure, but we need to understand how difficult these competitions are to win,” said Cullen. “Unfortunately, what we do and what we control is how we prepare and get ready for games, so it’s bitterly disappointing.” Cullen was keen to highlight that Leinster’s ability to retain top-class Irish players and sign big names from abroad is “generated off all the great work that goes on” within the province to sell tickets and make money. He also stressed that Leinster’s squad has “a majority of homegrown players” thanks to excellent development work. Cullen hopes that Leinster will provide a big contingent to the Lions this summer. “I can’t, unfortunately, comment on how you get judged on over a long period of time,” he continued. “If you wind the clock a bit further back, if you asked us what in 2009 – where are we sitting now, 2025 – in 16 years’ time you’ll have, what, four Champions Cups? In the previous 14 years, we had a doughnut [zero titles].” “Listen, we’d have loved to have won more. If you ask every team in the competition, they would have loved to have won more. But we know how bloody hard it is to do it.” He said this semi-final defeat will leave a “horrible feeling” for the entire group but stressed Leinster’s determination to go and win the URC next month. “You have to give Northampton credit. They processed the disappointment of losing the semi-final last year [against Leinster] and got better. “They won the Premiership and they’re on the way to a final this year so we need to have the same mindset now. “We need to show what it means to play for Leinster as well because that’s what fans demand.” Leinster learning lessons from Northampton won’t sit well with everyone, but winning a trophy would certainly take some of the pressure off. Both from external sources, but also surely in terms of relieving some of those jitters among the Leinster players. Murray Kinsella Send Tip or Correction Embed this post To embed this post, copy the code below on your site Email “Another scar for Leinster but Cullen denies 'wild' estimates of budget”. Recipient's Email Feedback on “Another scar for Leinster but Cullen denies 'wild' estimates of budget”. Your Feedback Your Email (optional) Report a Comment Please select the reason for reporting this comment. 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