Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

Leinster confirming Cullen to step down at end of next season after Indo reported on it this morning.

A massive hire to get correct.

Yes confirmed by Leinster rugby Leo is leaving at the end of the season, smooth transition which I feel is a great benefit. Tacky of Sindo saying he will be remembered by the near misses which is an insult to the teams that participated, 7 trophies in 11 years and getting to so many European finals to me speaks of his tenure marked by consistency at the highest level. Hope they can get the right replacement as it’s everything

It's no understatement to say it is arguably one of the very most pivotal decisions to be made from an Irish rugby perspective too.

Nothing is ever guaranteed. We've been one of the very best club sides in world rugby for the best part of a decade, but despite what utter spoofers like Ruadhri O'Connor et al would have you believe; these guys don't just roll out of Williamstown Castle and straight into the test arena.

It's a supremely difficult job for one person to manage. You need to be able to navigate:

• the huge expectations of the fan base.
• keeping a large squad of quality players happy
• Losing roughly half your squad a couple of times a season to the Irish squad, the inevitable injuries etc that come from that
• The mandatory rest / rotation of players, allied with ensuring to give sufficient development minutes (and in the right way) to our younger prospects.
• Restrictions on your ability to recruit.

I'd go along with @Clegg's earlier shout of Felipe Contepomi. He knows the place well, knows a lot of the players still (was back's coach as recently as 2022), would understand a lot of how the Irish system works and his Argentina side play great rugby. It also gives them 12 months to seriously kick the tires on Scott Robertson, someone who is one of the very most successful club coaches in the history of the game.

In the world we live in today, often what has been achieved in the past is taken for granted in the future. And the focus is on what was not achieved in the past. Tiny margins meant not winning a couple more European trophies.

So what does Leo's successor need to deliver - winning in Europe, and playing more attractive rugby more often? that's going to be harder than ever, future reality is we have less income (gate receipts down, may improve with more attractive rugby and return of RDS), more expense (cost of IRFU players), less access to our best players (more "relevant" games).

And the new Leo will also need to keep doing all the other excellent stuff - youth development, academy, giving younger players a chance.

Lots of uncertainty ahead. Leo is a smart guy and maybe realises now is a very good time to move on.

I am glad that they've announced it early, at least now we can go about recruiting a new guy without the need for cloak and dagger stuff.

While it's probably time for Leo to move on, it's hard to see his successor being quite so successful but what can we do but try? I think the player pipeline is at its lowest level in a few years and as some of our legends retire post-RWC (presumably), the new guy will have a job on his hands to even keep up the current level. Assuming Nienaber will depart at the same time and there's no strong internal candidate, it will be a total change, which might be precisely what we need.

Razor Robertson won 7 titles with the Crusaders as well in 7 years, albeit some of those were the considerably softer Super Rugby Aotearoa Championships, where he was just up against the other 4 NZ franchises.

Maybe we should count Leo's Irish Shields in his trophy haul?!

I'd say a lot of people are feeling like that. A lot of fans have called for him to leave and it's worth remembering (as you do here) that we don't want him to leave because he's an arzehole or not working hard enough. He's just been there a long time and while he has achieved a lot, it's time for a new head coach.

I admire him deciding to leave early to help with the transition. He's a Leinster man througha and through. Ego has never been the problem, but he wouldn't have achieved all he has in his career as a player and manager if he wasn't resilient and believe in his ability to fix the problems. So he was never going to resign in a huff and leave them in the lurch (even though some fans wanted him to resign straight away after the final)

This is a good balance of control and transition.

Sorry but it's very unfair to blame a journalist for a putting out a story.

A lot to be critical of ROC (and I don't like him by any means), but this isn't one of them.