{"id":465727,"date":"2026-05-25T05:10:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T05:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/465727\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T05:10:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T05:10:18","slug":"leo-cullen-slammed-for-irish-coaching-slavishness-by-ex-leinster-fly-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/465727\/","title":{"rendered":"Leo Cullen slammed for Irish coaching ‘slavishness’ by ex-Leinster fly-half"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Former Leinster fly-half Andy Dunne insists that coaching in Ireland needs to change otherwise they will continue to lose big games.<\/p>\n

An Irish side succumbed in yet another big game on Saturday as Leo Cullen\u2019s men went down 41-19 to Bordeaux-Begles in the Investec Champions Cup final.<\/p>\n

That followed Ulster\u2019s heavy 59-26 defeat to Montpellier in the Challenge Cup showpiece event, who are led by Richie Murphy, in what has been a poor weekend for the provinces.<\/p>\n

Also seen at Test level<\/p>\n

With the national team failing to get beyond the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup, Dunne insists that the coaches unwillingness to move with the times is holding them back.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, there\u2019s a rigidity in Irish coaching, a slavishness to say: \u2018We will always work hard, we\u2019ll always play possession football, we\u2019ll always hold possession and more often than not we will be successful\u2019,\u201d he told Off The Ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will against the Dragons and the Scarlets when no one\u2019s watching in the URC but when it comes to knockout rugby it\u2019s like everyone else has worked out that less possession, better kicking, disciplined defence, a good lineout, a good scrum is generally enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe keep doggedly going out, trying harder and we don\u2019t need to. We\u2019ve actually got the raw materials and we just need to think better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leinster<\/a> have now lost five Champions Cup<\/a> finals in a row under Cullen<\/a>, leaving them without a continental title since 2018 when they defeated Racing 92 in Bilbao.<\/p>\n

They were outplayed and, according to Dunne, outthought by Bordeaux-Begles who, despite playing some thrilling rugby, were also adaptable and sensible with how they approached the contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople coming away from that game will remember the flair of Bordeaux and the breakaway speed and tries, but they kicked the ball 30 per cent more than Leinster \u2013 that\u2019s a simple stat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJalibert kicked it almost every time he got it in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leo Cullen claims Leinster \u2018not a million miles away\u2019 after Champions Cup final humiliation<\/a><\/p>\n

Take the points<\/p>\n

Dunne was also angered by Leinster\u2019s insistence to go for the try earlier in the game when a simple three points was often on offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFloyd Mayweather springs to mind, the great boxer, the undefeated boxer. He was never the biggest hitter in his division, he wasn\u2019t the biggest physically, he certainly wasn\u2019t the most powerful, but he was tactically the best and he never got beaten,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe avoided getting hit. Leinster were shooting themselves in the foot on repeat, individual unforced errors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pattern that really grated with me was the refusal to take a kick at goal. If you\u2019re going to do that with the immediate history in cup finals for Leinster, and you\u2019re going to opt for the lineout, they didn\u2019t get a single jumper off the deck and lost the lineout, and the game changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could see the momentum shift. Bordeaux held them out, the cameras went to the Bordeaux management on their feet, it panned around the stadium, every supporter was on their feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs opposed to just knocking the kick over, running back, conserving energy, putting points on the board in knockout rugby. That\u2019s a repeat error in cup finals by the same group. That puzzles me.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Leinster v Bordeaux-B\u00e8gles: Five takeaways as \u2018untouchable\u2019 champions play \u2018rugby from the gods\u2019 on Irish side\u2019s \u2018worst day in modern history\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Leinster fly-half Andy Dunne insists that coaching in Ireland needs to change otherwise they will continue to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1100,61,98188,60,10562,28577,43,112],"class_list":["post-465727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-home-page","tag-ie","tag-investec-champions-cup","tag-ireland","tag-leinster","tag-leo-cullen","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}