![Leo Cullen: "Munster? What was that [Heineken Cup success] based on? A strong group of players who worked really hard for each other... People have funny memories, haven’t they?" Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho](https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/QBCZKMS2RPRM3KZXM334TL356I.jpg?auth=485978e00007509a8c808147c0eaca0e76fa35bfaacd0212b9f28829b13ce292&smart=true&width=1024&height=710)
This could have been a bite-the-tongue, stay-schtum-and-move-along week.
Coach Leo Cullen, however, chose not to borrow from the stoic playbook, batted around a few ideas and vented some as Toulouse arrive in Dublin for their Champions Cup semi-final.
On Monday Cullen defended no small matter: the team culture created in Leinster, his position and that of his staff.
It centred around the perception put out by a few coaches, of a rugby divide between the haves and the have-nots, with Leinster “accused” of being part of the former and that being the reason for their success.
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Cullen seemed affronted by Leinster’s standing being reduced to one word, “demographics” uttered by Dan McFarland after they lost 30-15 to Leinster. It has had a greater impact than the Ulster coach might have imagined.
Demographics: social characteristics and statistics of a human population, the study of the size, age structures and economics.
Whether McFarland, and after him Leicester’s Richard Wigglesworth, intended it or not, the suggestion was that Leinster’s eminence is derived from being camped in a large, well-resourced city.
“It’s challenging isn’t it? It is what it is. I can’t change the demographics,” said the Ulster coach. “They’ve [Leinster] just won the Grand Slam. Sorry, 14 of them have just literally won the Grand Slam.”
McFarland is not pointing out or making claim to anything that is unfair. What is open to question is whether he was simply stating a fact or being churlish?
After their recent match against Leicester, which Leinster won 55-24, Tigers coach Wigglesworth continued the theme.
[ Back-handed compliments about Leinster dominance are misguidedOpens in new window ]
“The gulf is in what you have available to spend. I’m not saying that’s right or wrong,” he said. Chutzpah in spades from the former lad from Saracens, the club that broke the English club salary cap and then chose relegation rather than open its financial records for a full forensic audit.
So, Leo Cullen this week engaged. His team won nothing last season, he dolefully pointed out. They haven’t won the Champions Cup since 2018, when they beat Racing ‘92. But that wasn’t quite the point of his frustrated voice.
Sitting in his office in UCD listening to the comments and possibly reading social media, through those filters he could have reasonably concluded that the work done by himself, Stuart Lancaster, Andrew Goodman, Robin McBryde, Emmet Farrell and Sean O’Brien, was being framed as largely inconsequential.
It was to suggest that Leinster cannot fail because of the volume of players and the size of their support base. It is essentially a numbers game, at least when they are winning.
It’s the demographics, stupid.
Cullen’s exasperation is easily felt. When they were losing for the first 13 years of the Heineken Cup, Leinster were the Lady Boys. Cullen, as a player before moving to Leicester, was one of them.
Then Michael Cheika arrived from Randwick in 2005 and metaphorically did ju-jitsu on Leinster’s entire program from portacabins to mindset and they began to steer in a better direction.
The cold winds of the early years and the great-shot-but-no-cigar curve of Leinster in Europe was a standing national joke. Where exactly they became a product of demographics is difficult to pinpoint. Now, everyone would dearly love some.
The reality is whoever believes sport an equal opportunity enterprise for teams is drinking the Kool-Aid. The idea of trying to bulk up, or slim down sides to some kind of equitable middleweight is not only impossible but folly.
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In rugby as in GAA or soccer, the idea from the get-go is to unlevel the level playing field. Competition doesn’t start on the whistle. It never has.
The French, English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish and South African teams each have their own views on how to create the strongest rugby model.
What they have come to understand is what makes teams win is not a foolproof equation that money equals trophies – although it has a huge influence. It’s a complex algorithm that nobody has yet entirely worked out.
Winning is as much about Richie McCaw holding the door open for the player behind or sweeping the changing room floor after an All-Blacks match, as the size of Dan Carter’s pay cheque.
“Munster? What was that [Heineken Cup success] based on? A strong group of players who worked really hard for each other,” said Cullen.
“Yeah, people have funny memories, haven’t they?
“Twenty years ago in 2003, we lost a semi-final here against Perpignan and I was involved in the game, but to the point where you were a little bit ashamed to walk to your front door because you underachieved.
“I have that [match] programme. I can tell you exactly where it is. It’s on my desk.”
Cullen’s timing on choosing to challenge the shortchanging of his team on demographics was timely. He was obliged to challenge notions that Leinster’s evolution into one of the strongest clubs in the world was won on a war chest from a place of privilege.
He was knowledgeable enough from his early days with the club to confront the perception and had the savvy to go after the comments as critical swipes, not bland observations.
Cullen knew the players and staff would have expected as much. So, this week he didn’t bite his tongue.
