Former Leinster out-half Andy Dunne joined OTB:AM in studio earlier to preview Leinster's Champions Cup final against Racing 92 this weekend.
Trying to imagine it from Racing's perspective, Dunne found it hard to foresee what areas of Leinster's game the Top 14 side would pin-point in the run-up to kick-off this Saturday eve. As he noted, the three-time champions will be incredibly hard to topple.
“If you’re trying to counter the current Leinster squad physically they’ll run around you. Or they’ll offload better. Or they’ll attack space through attacking kicks.
“They have multiple ways to win. It’s probably the reason I’m not a coach because I can’t think of a way I would attack them.
“I can’t imagine they’re going to sit down and identify three key weaknesses there. I think they just have to accept there are very few weaknesses.
“They’ve got to look for an exceptional performance from within their own group as opposed to hand-picking three or four holes in the Leinster set-up because I don’t think they’re going to find any.”
Dunne also later talked about the overwhelming influence Leo Cullen has had on the players as a coach, since making the step-up as player himself to the world of coaching in 2014. The rapport with former English head coach Stuart Lancaster was one notable point Dunne observed in what has been another successful season for Leinster.
“I think teams always reflect the personality of their coaches. Where they’re coaches try to avoid that or not, it comes out into the group.
“It's so plainly obvious that Leo and Stuart are -- there’s no power battle between them, there’s no ego.
“Its a huge mark of Leo’s leadership skills that he sought out a guy like Stuart Lancaster to come in when Leo had a tricky first year.
“It's a hugely impressive thing to do as a young coach. I think it’s taken pressure off Leo.
“It's allowed him to do what he does best, he’s well known to be a cerebral type of guy, he’s not all that bollocking and emotional, he’s going to be analytical, he’s going to be technical.
“I think the mutual respect working between the two of them is great to see and it’s ironic that he could be the first guy to do it [to win the European Cup as a player and a coach] and to do it with the kind of level of humility that he's done it [with], it’s a lovely thing to see in the game.”
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