Leinster boss Leo Cullen has revealed a pre-planned tactic that paid dividends in his side’s United Rugby Championship victory over Munster.
It was rather one-sided on Friday evening in Limerick as Leinster ran in four tries to Munster’s one in a rather emphatic 28-7 Irish inter-pro derby.
While Leinster opted to rest many frontline players like RG Snyman and Jordie Barrett, Cullen still had several top stars at his disposal including Ireland’s first-choice loosehead prop Andrew Porter who was named on the bench.
Leinster flip replacement ploy
However, the front-rower still notched up almost an hour of game time despite there being no injuries to the starting props.
This was after starting number one Jack Boyle was replaced just 23 minutes into the victory and the Leinster boss has confirmed that the substitution was an intentional as part of an “experiment”.
Rassie Erasmus and his Springboks coaching team have become renowned for the use of their substitutions famously being dubbed the ‘Bomb Squad’ and with the game becoming very much a 23-man effort, Cullen’s experiment seemingly takes inspiration from the tactic although they did flip it on its head.
“That was pre-planned, a pre-planned experiment we’ll call it,” said Cullen.
“We just wanted to see Jack starting a big game. We wanted to get some decent time into Andrew as well. We’ll consider it again, yeah.”
Boyle has quickly become a regular feature in Leinster’s matchday squads of late, starting five times this season. According to Cullen, the 22-year-old prop quickly bought into the idea.
“He knew it was happening so it wasn’t a big shock to him, so that was the important bit. An experiment, we’ll call it,” the Leinster boss added.
Munster fightback nullified
The performance of the replacements impressed Cullen in the second half with Munster pressing to fight back into the derby.
“Munster came back pretty strong in the second half and get in for a try, but it’s good that we managed to hit back straight away,” he said.
“Those periods were quite important during the game.
“All the bench guys added pretty well, so it was a good 23-man effort. It’s great to get a win down here, because it’s difficult to win down here, and it’s difficult to score four tries down here.”
The result closes out the year for Leinster who top the United Rugby Championship table after winning all nine of their first matches and have claimed seven bonus points.
