LEO CULLEN has admitted getting cohesion will be Leinster’s biggest challenge against Bulls.
The URC table-toppers host the team immediately below them at the RDS tonight with the Bulls knowing a win could see them leapfrog their opponents.
Leinster’s fringe players racked up three bonus-point wins during the Six Nations but Cullen has welcomed back a host of Ireland Six Nations title-winning stars.
That is with a view to both consolidating their place at the summit and getting their frontline players back in the groove ahead of their Champions Cup clash against Leicester next weekend.
But Cullen admitted there has been little time to try to marry the two groups of players together in advance of this clash.
He said: “You have two proper training sessions ultimately for a Friday game. There is only so much you can do.
“For us as coaches it’s trying to get the balance right. You can’t bombard them with information.
“It’s trying to get that sweet spot always – what’s enough information, what is the correct amount to give?”
The Leinster starting XV includes 10 players – including Robbie Henshaw, who got married last week – who helped Ireland retain their Six Nations crown, with a further four on the bench.
And Cullen said: “I’s always trying to get the balance, isn’t it? Everyone is coming at it from a slightly different situation.
“We are looking at some different combinations. It’s a proper game for us, first against second in the league.
“Last week was a good opportunity for the guys that have been involved in the Six Nations to have a break and a bit of a blowout just to release that pressure that’s there over the previous couple of months.
“On the flip side of that, we have had a young group mixed with some experienced guys that have managed to play three games during the Six Nations window and pick up 15 points.
“So, they couldn’t have done any more, which was fantastic.
“It’s a great challenge to focus the minds because the Bulls are stacked with internationals now as well. From what I can see that’s pretty much as good a line-up as they have picked all season.
“And Jake White, as we know is a very astute coach, so he will have plenty of tricks up his sleeve no doubt.
“The Bulls have a sort of a blueprint of how they like to do things, it’s in their DNA from a long, long way back now and it’s brought them a hell of a lot of success over the years.
“If I’m talking about the Bulls, my mind goes back to playing in Pretoria where you’d Bakkies Botha, Victor Matfield and Fourie du Preez, some of the great player that they would have had there.
“Their game is based on forward power and physical dominance. It hasn’t steered a million miles away from that to what they currently produce.
“But if you look at their back line now in terms of some of the outside backs they have and the pace that they have, like unbelievably experienced guys.
“A number of whom played in the World Cup final not so long ago, Willie Le Roux and Kurt-Lee Arendes, and Canan Moodie obviously played at the World Cup as well.”
Cullen is hopeful that the regular exposure to physical South African sides in the URC will aid their quest to win a fifth European title with his old club coming to the Aviva Stadium tomorrow week.
Cullen – who was coy on Leinster’s interest in Australian prop Taniela Tupou as a replacement for Clermont Auvergne-bound Michael Ala’alatoa – said: “That’s what you hope for, for sure.
“It’s such an amazing addition. Maybe not all the public are aware of the strength because it’s a proper bloody battle isn’t it?
“You see those derby games, the Bulls play Stormers recently in Pretoria and it’s a sold-out crowd.
“We’re lucky where we get to play some of our provincial games which are sold out, that same level of intensity on a more regular basis across the competition is what fans want isn’t it?”
LEINSTER: Larmour, Russell, Henshaw, Osborne, Lowe, H Byrne, McGrath (captain); Healy, Kelleher, Ala’alatoa, Molony, McCarthy, Baird, van der Flier, Conan.
Replacements: Sheehan, Milne, Furlong, Jenkins, Doris, Gibson-Park, R Byrne, Turner.