Leinster’s latest Champions Cup post-mortem is underway after they were soundly beaten by Bordeaux-Begles in Bilbao last weekend.
It was a fifth consecutive final defeat for Leo Cullen’s Leinster, who are without a European final win since beating Racing 92 at the Spanish venue back in 2018.
Leinster did take an early lead but were soundly beaten by the time the half-time whistle came, with a brace of tries putting it prematurely beyond doubt.
Cullen’s pre-match squad selection prompted some debate, with tighthead prop stalwart Tadhg Furlong settling for a bench role as Tom Clarkson got the nod.
Bordeaux’s powerful defence complimented their electric attack as they ran out 41-19 winners to make it consecutive Champions Cup trophies.
Furious O’Callaghan slams Leo Cullen’s Furlong call
Munster legend Donncha O’Callaghan cut an emotional figure as he vexed with the coaches’ decision to leave Furlong – one of the premier props in rugby history – on the bench, as Leinster were cast aside.
Furlong was later introduced as Leinster put in a better second-half showing but it was too little too late as their Test quality squad fell to another agonising defeat.
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O’Callaghan was speaking on The Offload podcast with former fellow Ireland international Tommy Bowe as he shared his contempt with the decision to overlook Furlong for a starting role.
Cullen and his staff copped a lot of criticism for controversially opting not to start All Black Jordie Barrett in Leinster’s semi-final exit vs Northampton over a year prior.
However, O’Callaghan was adamant that the call to overlook Lions veteran Furlong was even more of a blunder than the now infamous decision to leave out the New Zealand superstar in Dublin.
When you don’t start Tadhg Furlong, you know what I mean?” he said.
“I know everyone will go on about the decision with Jordie Barrett that time, but Furlong not starting is a bigger mistake than that one.
“One of the best tightheads to ever play the game is Tadhg Furlong and you have him in your ranks.
“He’s going nowhere, he is going to the next World Cup and you don’t start him.
“I always feel the players know the team that should start – everyone in there would genuflect to Furlong.”
He continued: “Everyone banged the drum about Barrett but I thought this call was crazy.
“It is madness, it has been madness all along. You have to nail selection – it is the most important area.”
O’Callaghan shared his hope that Clarkson can go on and achieve eveything Furlong has done, but stressed that the passing of the torch came too soon, with Furlong fixing the scrum once introduced.
He added that Ireland boss Andy Farrell would never make such an egregious selection error, when it comes to such a legend of the sport.
‘Would Andy Farrell leave Tadhg Furlong on the bench? And he is one of our greatest coaches. He just wouldn’t f*ckin do it.
“That is why people need to fall out and say ‘you’re f*cking wrong man’, he rocks into every team in the world. He does. He’s earned the right. Even if he is not playing out of his skin – he is different.
“That one is huring me because I feel like that was disrespectful – it really pissed me off.
“You’re not togging out Tadhg Furlong? What are you at?
“Tadhg Furlong has to prove nothing to no one. Just be respectful, it is driving me nuts. It is worse than Barrett. F*ckin’ Tadhg Furlong on your bench? F*ckin’ crazy.”
O’Callaghan also had plenty of criticism for Leinster’s offensive regression, noting how they had fallen from being the ‘LA Lakers’ of offensive rugby and singled out attack coach Tyler Bleyendaal.
Bleyendaal is a former teammate of O’Callaghan’s at Munster but the former lock has little empathy for the South African – who he said deserves more blame than senior coach Jacques Nienaber.
‘They are all pointing fingers at Jacques but Tyler Bleyendaal – he must go into training with a balaclava on because he is robbing them.
“There is nothing going on with their attack.”
Clare native Noel McNamara, attack coach with Bordeaux, pointed to Leinster’s offensive bluntness as early inspiration in their European final win.
“We defended particularly well and we made them work very hard for the try,” he reflected.
“There was a bit of confidence in that they did score but they had to go 20 phases to score.”
He continued: “We just forced Leinster to work very, very hard.
“In that heat, when you have to go through very long sequences of attack, it takes it out of you as well.
“Leinster leaned a lot into the fact they had already won at that stadium in Bilbao but there was loads of little things for us as well.
“We had five Basque players that were presented with jerseys by Athletic Bilbao before the game with their name and number on the back.”
Tough times for the URC champions, who take on the Lions as they look to preserve their status as league champions.
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