Leo Cullen relieved Leinster avoid major disruption despite Covid cases
Despite the confirmation of three positive tests within his extended squad, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen is happy to have avoided major disruption in advance of tomorrow’s Heineken Champions Cup Pool A opener against Bath at the Aviva Stadium (kick-off 3.15pm).
After being tested outside of the eastern province’s own PCR testing window, the three unnamed players are currently self-isolating and are ruled out for the visit of the English Premiership outfit to south Dublin.
A further round of testing carried out by Leinster on players, coaches, and backroom personnel on Thursday morning led to one positive result – for a member of their staff – out of 94 tests in total. While it is a headache he could have done without, Cullen finds himself with a much stronger hand to pick from than some of his counterparts – most notably Munster’s Johann van Graan.
“It’s always concerning. Even from a personal point of view, I’ve young kids in school. Kids in one of my kids’ class were out with Covid. It always feels like it’s very, very close. A couple of guys it has taken out this week. It is what it is. Thankfully, the guys, they’re all okay and we just manage them through,” Cullen explained at a remote press conference earlier today.
“We’ve had some cases over the last while. Thinking back to last Christmas, that was quite a messy period. We lost a couple of people at that stage, particularly around the close contact bit as well. We’re learning all the time about how we best manage it. We’re doing all we can in terms of mitigating the risk and even this week, extra testing and all the rest.
“There’s other teams out there which are in a much more challenging scenario than we are, it’s fair to say. We’ve got a big group of players registered for Europe this year. Way more than we would have had in the past. That certainly allows teams a lot greater flexibility as well. We had a lot of people being tested this week and for the most part guys are okay.”
Given there are still 13 senior internationals within their starting line-up – 10 of whom featured for Ireland in their unbeaten march through the Autumn Nations Series – Leinster will be the hottest of favourites against a Bath side that are rooted to the bottom of the Gallagher Premiership with eight straight defeats.
Nonetheless, Cullen is still wary of the challenge that lies in wait from the Somerset men.
“I think people look at Bath and go ‘well, they’re bottom of the table, haven’t won a game yet this year’. They’re definitely a team that are maybe low on confidence, it would be fair to say, from watching them play. I thought they really put it up to Exeter a couple of weeks ago. That’s the bit that we need to make sure we’re prepared for. We can only focus so much on Bath.
“You look at their team, there’s still plenty of quality there. A lot of good young players that they’ve placed a lot of faith in this year. There’s always a bit of danger in that. I’m sure they’ll come with a bit of a nothing-to-lose attitude, fresh start into a new tournament.
“This week is another chance for us to build as a group. Continue some positive momentum off the back of last week [a URC victory over Connacht]. It’s just about putting in a big performance and then we’ve the big challenge going away to Montpellier the week after.”