Leo Cullen says Leinster was ‘scared’ by the beginning of the Saracens and never recovered

Leo Cullen believes Leinster was “freaked out” by a poor start in the Champions Cup quarterfinal loss to Saracens and never fully recovered.

The Blues received hefty tips entering the game at Aviva Stadium following a 25-game undefeated streak and due to relegated Sarries issues, including the loss of Owen Farrell to suspension.

But Leinster fell behind 22-3 at halftime after being bombarded by the reigning champions and Cullen admits the province must improve to deal with the issues posed by the best teams in Europe.

“They have an element of power to their team and their game and we couldn’t do enough (to counter that), to be honest,” Cullen said.

“That’s the most important thing, we have to fix some of these great games against the best teams in Europe.

“We got to the final (last year) and we were beaten by the Saracens, they have had some player losses and I think people just assumed that with the loss of players they wouldn’t get much.

“But you go from 1 to 15 and they are still a very strong team with a lot of experience, guys who have been involved in a World Cup final at the beginning of the season.

“They are guys who have produced on the bigger stage before.” Cullen added:

“We just need to be better. We need to find out how we can be better.

“We are not a million miles apart. We stretch and test them. We just have to be a little more clinical and take advantage of some of the opportunities and not give them easy access to the game.

“It’s frustrating. Last year’s game (the Champions Cup final won 20-10 by the Saracens), I thought we started the first 35 minutes of that game, we handled it pretty well in Newcastle.

“We got into that situation where we were the ones 10-0 ahead.

“We didn’t get that period at halftime and even at the beginning of the second half, we had a lot of opportunities where we missed them.

“But (today) we were scared by some unusual mistakes early in the game.

“We don’t go back into the game at any point … well, we go back to the game, but we couldn’t continue that positive momentum that we had around 60 minutes.”

Cullen regrets that Leinster did not seek to maintain possession more in the first half while playing with a strong enough breeze.

“You see some of the kicks that were hanging, we weren’t getting a great distance from them, but then there’s a challenge playing against that strong brick wall,” he mused.

“It’s something that we had talked about in the lead-up to the game. We could have been a little more precise with some of our cleanup work around the ruck, and again it’s that little bit of an edge.

“I thought we freaked out a bit from kick-off, we don’t quite handle it and the Saracens score. We fight to get into the game and we play directly into their hands in so many ways.

“Go back to that mentality that we know they have – 3, 6, 9, 12 (on the scoreboard). And we gave them those opportunities. On those runs, Elliot Daly did well to set them up from 50 yards – plus.

“It’s all the things we knew going into the game, but we couldn’t deal with them.

“The Saracens, you go through their team and they have a lot of high-level experience and they probably handled the big occasion better. It is a great occasion, I know there are not many people here, but it is still a great occasion.

“We have had the distraction of the semifinal and the final for the last few weeks and they had a very unique approach.

“These games come down to small margins and we didn’t get enough in the first half and we got into a pretty big hole.

“The guys showed character in the second half, but we couldn’t do enough to get out of it.

“It is a very difficult team to pursue the game for that very reason.

“Obviously Munster’s game is slightly different because they were the ones chasing the game and we were able to deal with that threat at the time.

“It’s the classic cup rugby games: pressure, a pressure game. Set pieces dominance, which I think clearly outperformed that side of the game.

“After that, once you have an advantage, for them it’s about making sure they make it to the semi-final. If you have a potential customer, you are trying to protect them at all costs.

“The problem for us was that we were chasing leadership. We brought some boys from the bank. I thought they added a good impact.

“We wanted to have some of those guys on the bench because if we put ourselves in that position, it was important to have that ability to carry the ball.

“People like Ronan (Kelleher), Ryan Baird, Josh van der Flier. Unfortunately, it was too late. “