IT’S EARLY YET in the Pro12 season and, with two wins from three, Leinster have enjoyed a relatively steady start. Yet there’s one set of numbers that head coach Leo Cullen really wants to see his side drastically improve on, and soon.
Last year’s beaten-finalists have struggled in the second half of their three games to date, relying on a high early scoring rate that has seen them notch 60 first-half points, with just 18 scored after the turnaround across three games.
Last weekend in Edinburgh, the first-half showing was enough to withstand a rallying home side, but both that game and their loss to Glasgow bore the familiar characteristic of hosts mounting big comebacks against Cullen’s men.
“We definitely need to improve on our second half.” Cullen said after naming his starting XV yesterday.
“But you’ve got to give a bit of credit to the opposition that we’ve played as well: they came back strong in in those games. But yeah, it’s something that we’ve got to be conscious of.”
A factor that will aid consistency over the full 80-minute stretch will be the gradual improvement in players’ match sharpness.
“Nothing beats playing. You can do all the training that you want but there’s nothing quite simulates that, that’s a challenge when you’re trying to get guys up to speed.”
Especially when it comes to forwards.
“When a player comes back, it’s maybe not as much of an issue for the backs, but for the forwards when they come back in there’s a realisation that they’re going to be blowing pretty hard.
“We’re playing 22 Pro12 games… last year you play a semi-final, you lose a couple of players leading into a final and it’s important that everybody is able to step up, so we need to be able to rely on more than 23 players over the course of season that involves 22 Pro12 games, six Champions Cup games and hopefully five play-off games after that.