Leo Cullen wary of Scarlets’ potential as Leinster focus on quarter-final test

On the face of it, Scarlets don’t strike as much fear into teams as Premiership side Northampton.

But Leinster coach Leo Cullen sees some similarities between the team that knocked Leinster out of the Champions Cup at the semi-final stage and the Welsh side that hopes to knock them out of the United Rugby Championship (URC) at the quarter-final stage when the sides meet at the end of the month in Dublin.

“Definitely, yeah,” said Cullen on whether Scarlets could rattle Leinster’s cage as Glasgow had just done on Saturday.

“And similar to Northampton as well, they kick a lot. The halfbacks are good in terms of controlling the game, so it’s making sure we don’t get frustrated by that, making sure we gain energy from them kicking the ball away.

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“They are well coached. Dwyane Peel and Jared Payne, those two in particular have a very good understanding of the provinces from their time here with Ulster. So, yeah it will be a good challenge for us.”

Cullen recognised the inaccuracies that killed Leinster momentum at times against Glasgow. A few knock-ons, a couple of misplaced passes and continuity intermittently breaking down made a difficult match against the team that finished fourth in the table into an uphill battle for the home side.

“That’s the thing, it’s just being a little bit more clinical probably,” said Cullen. “Some of the cohesion and some of the changes may be a part of that as well. So it’s making sure we use the week and the game week itself to make sure we build that level of accuracy, so whether that’s some of the set pieces, a couple of little technical things, just how we manage that part of the game.

“It’s sometimes better to have some of these tight games, isn’t it? I’m not sure some of these blowout games, I’m not sure what we have learned from a few of them, So, listen, it was good that we had to figure things out today.”

Munster's Tadhg Beirne celebrates with Conor Murray after the victory over Benetton at Virgin Media Park, Cork. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho

Munster will have to travel to South Africa for their quarter-final against Sharks in Durban on Saturday, May 31st. They kick off in the Shark Tank at 5.30pm with Leinster’s kick-off time in Dublin at 3pm.

After beating Benetton 30-21 on Friday evening in Cork to earn sixth place on the table and the knock-out place, Munster captain Tadhg Beirne expressed hope that the last few games Munster have played will have given them the confidence to keep going for what would be four more weeks before the final takes place on June 14th.

“It’s two big weeks in a row for us on the back of three poor weeks,” said Beirne. “We needed a little bit of confidence. They say winning is a habit and I think on the back of two wins it will give us a good boost into these last, hopefully, three games.”

It’s worth recalling that Munster were winners in 2023, when they beat the odds and Stormers in the final in Cape Town.

“We know we’ve got to do it the hard way,” said Beirne. “We’ll be away from home for all of them. We all know how hard that can be, but this group has gone over there [South Africa] before and won so we’ll quietly back ourselves and we’ll get our work done behind the scenes. We know the quality that is there. We’ve done it before and we’ve confidence in ourselves to do it again.”