Leo Cullen has backed Sam Prendergast to recover the form that had the out-half as a potential Lions bolter.And ignoring his semi-final place-kicking meltdown - missing five from eight semi-final attempts at goal - put him in to start against the Bulls in the URC Grand Final at Croke Park tomorrow.Naming Prendergast puts a moratorium on what's been a lively debate as to what is best for Leinster in the short-term and best for Leinster in the longer term as they look to win a first trophy in four seasons.It is all very well coaches and pundits claiming Leinster are the best club in the rugby-verse, the one with the best pathways and Academy but if those very coaches are repeatedly walking off with the silverware and the pundits are building plinths to be toppled over, it stands for very little.Leinster dominated their first two Champions Cup knockout games, keeping successive teams scoreless, but would lose to Northampton in the semi-final.While they have also dominated their two URC knockout games, neither Scarlets nor Glasgow - despite Prendergast's mis-fire - causing them any real problems., They need to win just this one to take the trophy.A backdrop against which Cullen has put his faith in Prendergast but, calculatedly included Ross Byrne on a five-three bench split as back up, and world class All Black Jordie Barrett at no12, a cool head if needed.The hope is that with Jack Conan's leadership at no8, Jamison Gibson-Park at no9 and Prendergast, Barrett at 10-12, there is enough experience and leadership for the collective, a lot of whom have never won a trophy with Leinster, to get over the line.Said Cullen: "You want to go out and do your best on any given day and not look too much at the outcome part but, unfortunately, the reality is once you get closer to something that's what people tend to look at and they can quite often trip themselves up."So making sure we have the right mindset, focus on playing well is important because that's the bit we can control, the outcome and some of the other variables, we can't control those."Bulls will test us in lots of different ways, so in making sure we have a good plan to be able to deal with the technical tactical parts is on part and then there's the mindset part of that as well."There's tons of experience in the group but Bulls have lots of experience as well, so we must ensure we go out and play our best game in a final."Barrett is no stranger to the big occasion.“We’re very lucky to have Jordie, he has hopefully added in lots of different ways to the group because at the end of the day we’re a tiny country in terms of playing population and we’re up against a juggernaut team who we would have watched play Super Rugby and dismantle teams over the years so we know we’re in for a serious bloody challenge."At which point Cullen dials up the underdog complex, little ol' Ireland against the mighty South African payload."People talk about resources and all of that, we’re producing players. You go to South Africa, they’re a people of what, 64m people? We’re a country of how many people, 8m? Where does rugby sit in terms of sport, fourth. In South Africa it’s no1 or it’s close to no 1.“In terms of the rugby-playing population, what would they have? 12 times the amount of players we have registered, maybe 15 times? We’re a drop in the ocean in terms of what we’re up against."When we get the opportunity to bring in a player such as Jordie, it’s fantastic to be able to do that but it’s off the back of all the support we actually get."It gets reinvested into the group ultimately because you can only bring so many players in because part of our job spec is to produce players to play for Ireland."Something Leinster have spectacularly good at, they have 13 players going on the 2025 Lions Tour and another 12 touring with Ireland this summer.It is enough for the bookies to have installed Leinster as huge favourites and prompting the questions as to why there are so many doubters and, in turn, why they have failed to get over the line since 2021. “We know we’ve a serious challenge on our hands," shrugs Cullen.Leinster (v Bulls, Croke Park, 5pm, Saturday, TG4, SuperSport, Premier Sports, Flo Rugby & URC.tv)Leinster: Jimmy O’Brien, Tommy O’Brien, Garry Ringrose, Jordie Barrett, James Lowe, Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park, Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Thomas Clarkson, Joe McCarthy, James Ryan, Ryan Baird, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan (CAPT)Replacements: Rónan Kelleher, Jack Boyle, Rabah Slimani, RG Snyman, Max Deegan, Luke McGrath, Ross Byrne, Jamie OsborneVodacom Bulls: Willie le Roux, Canon Moodie, David Kriel, Harold Vorster, Sebastian de Klerk, Johan Goosen, Embrose Papier, Jan-hendrik Wessels, Johan Grobbelaar, Wilco Louw, Cobus Wiese, JF van Heerden, Marco van Staden, Ruan Nortje (CAPT), Marcell CoetzeeReplacements: Akker van der Merwe, Alulutho Tshakweni, Mornay Smith, Jannes Kirsten, Nizaam Carr, Zak Burger, Keagan Johannes, Devon WilliamsReferee: Andrea Piardi (FIR, 55th league game). VERDICT: Leinster to win, justify favouritism and have a handy last quarter against a weak Bulls bench Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts.