Leo Cullen is not worried about the past - it is not just a foreign place, it was a foreign country and Leinster were not involved! That's a reference to the signing of Rieko Ioane, the acknowledged pantomime villain of the 2023 Rugby World Cup Ireland-All Blacks quarter-final in Paris. There is nothing new in spats, things said on a pitch or after a game says the Leinster coach pointing out he took a fair bit of flack himself when he played. “But that’s part of the game as well, sledging is part of the game and there was more made of it than it actually is," says Cullen. "I used to get sledged as a player but I didn’t take it personally. I used to get called all sorts of awful things! That’s just part and parcel. Training yesterday was pretty competitive but there’s a kiss and make up part to it as well and we all move on.” Certainly the Leinster-New Zealand connection is proving to be a success on and off the pitch. “There’s many benefits, Jordie Barrett has been fantastic. Initially we just said we've seen that they (All Blacks) do sabbaticals so we said 'okay, how do we make that work?' That’s the idea that we had initially because you get a top-end player.” Leinster, he revealed, were starting to worry that they had too many home-grown players and not enough voices with away-from-the-club knowledge. “Do you send them off on sabbatical, which is something that we’ve talked about as well. Do they go away somewhere else to play and broaden their horizons? “That’s hard to manage because of the length of the season and we have players coming and going at different stages. So to get someone from the outside and bring in that top-end experience… “We were talking about Jordie specifically because he was finished with his November tour with the All Blacks and all that IP he has. Tyler had come in from the Hurricanes also and they had a good relationship there. “I would see the Hurricanes do things the last couple of seasons and be drawn to that and Tyler as a coach so we start to make approaches and we had different conversations off the back of that." The success of Barrett helped prompt looking for more of the same. "So with Rieko we would have had long discussions because every situation is different and Jordie was renegotiating an extension on his contract with the New Zealand Rugby Union at the time. “We would have had a lot of discussions with them around how we could make this work. One of the things is that you wouldn’t have seen Jordie feature during the Six Nations because we had an agreement that we would look after him. “So they are getting a player back that has physically and mentally and rugby-wise benefited from the experience so he has become a better rugby player. That’s what he has bought into so there is a bit of confidence there. “The Rieko scenario is slightly different. He has won 81 caps with the All Blacks, he’s with the Blues who went on to win Super Rugby so I am naturally drawn to that because Vern has gone in there and I’m curious about the things there." This might even become a regular feature at Leinster season on season. “I honestly haven’t thought that far ahead. It was simply, ‘sabbatical, could we make this work?’. "Then it was, ’who are the players we could go after? The Barretts! Lets go after all three of them’. That’s the way it sort of started. What about the three Barretts? They used to come from Meath. Then it’s a case of what is the contractual situation of those three brothers? That’s how it started.” All Black second-row Brad Thorn, Champions Cup winner with Leinster in 2012 was the initial catalyst. “Listen, I was a player when Brad Thorn was there and someone taps me on the shoulder and said, ‘just so you know, Brad Thorn has been signed until the end of the season’. "I was like ’great’. I know I play the same position but it was a chance to play with Brad Thorn and learn from Brad Thorn. That’s unbelievable. Leinster were coming to me at the time asking if I was going to be a bit offended by this but I thought it was the best thing of all time. "He was such value off the pitch too. There’s the IP piece where they get embedded in the group and everyone takes a little bit from it. The clever players are very clever in taking stuff from other players who have been around a long time or someone they’ve just been introduced to. “How many cards do we get to play, like? Even when we get the opportunity to bring in a coach it’s ‘lets get the best person we can’. Whether that person is sitting next door or on the other side of the world, let's try and make that work." This is not just adding to Leinster, it is beneficial for getting players to international level. “We also understand that we have a remit which is to get players playing for Leinster and for Ireland and that’s something that we take seriously as well. We want to make sure that we expose the players to as much as we can to make them a world-class player for Leinster. "If they’re a world-class player for Leinster then they’re probably going to get picked for Ireland as well. So we need to do everything we can to make that happen. Casper Gabriel is out of school and was away in South Africa and having regular conversations with Jordie. "That’s outside of coaching. Players will generally listen to players. Coaches are parents or teachers versus that peer-to-peer thing which can be more powerful, particularly with someone they respect from the top-end of the game.” Meanwhile it won't be Ioane who will be playing this weekend against Ulster nor will it be Barrett as Robbie Henshaw and Garry Ringrose are at first and centre respectively for a game Cullen expects to be a livley encounter. “Exactly, yeah, we lost a round 17 game last year up there, which was the week before the Champions Cup final. “There's been really positive momentum coming back from South Africa, with the group of young guys getting an away win out there, against a fantastic Sharks team. Whereas, if you remember last year, there were many ways we lost a bit of momentum in South Africa, two games, two heavy defeats, 42-12 and 44-12 I think, which led into the Northampton semi-final in Croke Park. “It's just trying to keep that positive momentum in some of the performances. And by making changes, it allows guys to be able to attack the week, rather than being stiff and sore and sort of slowing their way through it. So, the group has been good this week, and hopefully we see that in the performance. Because again, it's great. Back to Aviva. “The games are selling well, and the fans are turning up, which helps us fuel the business side of the club, which, obviously, has been probably front and centre this week.” Leinster (v Ulster, The Aviva, 7.35pm Sat, TG4 PremierSports): Jamie Osborne; Tommy O’Brien, Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, Jimmy O’Brien; Ciarán Frawley, Luke McGrath (capt); Jack Boyle, Gus McCarthy, Thomas Clarkson, Joe McCarthy, Diarmuid Mangan, Alex Soroka, Scott Penny, James Culhane Replacements: Dan Sheehan, Andrew Porter, Tadhg Furlong, RG Snyman, Max Deegan, Fintan Gunne, Sam Prendergast, Liam TurnerUlster: Michael Lowry; Zac Ward, Jude Postlethwaite, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale; Jack Murphy, Nathan Doak; Andrew Warwick, Rob Herring, Tom O’Toole, Alan O’Connor (capt), Cormac Izuchukwu, James McNabney, Nick Timoney, David McCannReplacements: Tom Stewart, Callum Reid, Scott Wilson, Matthew Dalton, Kieran Treadwell, John Cooney, Stewart Moore, Matty Rea Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email.