Nathan Johns

It's funny, that kind of came up when we were speaking to the players and coaches after the match.

A journalist from England asked Caelan Dorris, the question wasn't addressed to Leo Cullen, but he asked Caelan Dorris, you know, how do you work through the psychological scars of constantly losing finals?

And the subtext of the question was very clear.

He was talking about European finals.

And Doris was happy to answer the question.

He wasn't annoyed by the ignoring of domestic finals, but Leo was.

And Leo jumped in and said, well, were you at the URC final last year?

And it was just kind of like, right, okay.

I don't think he's being disingenuous.

He clearly believes it, but he's trying to emphasize to people what you just said there, that there is a difficulty still to winning the URC.

And it's still important, even if the majority of the fan base puts far more importance on Europe.

100%.

But because the league is thriving, you know, Cullen said he got asked by a French journalist, why are top 14 sides consistently winning Europe?

And he said it was the pace they play at in the top 14.

It's the competitive nature of the league.

The fact that every single team is looking to put pace on the ball, to make heads up decisions, to take advantage of opportunities as they come and the speed of thought.

the speed of ball, speed of ruck, all that type of stuff.

Don't have that speed in the URC.

Leinster want to try and play.

He said Leinster want to try and play that speed, but it's hard to then switch it on when you're not playing against that week in, week out was kind of the emphasis.