Leo Cullen has key demand of Leinster players in Christmas week ahead of trip to Munster
Leinster top the URC table after eight straight victories but the 20-12 defeat of Connacht was another patchy display. Several more frontliners are set to join the fray in Limerick, however.
Leo Cullen wants a fast start at Thomond Park and so wants his players switched on when they have to be in Christmas week.
Leinster stretched their winning run to 10 games since the start of the season on Saturday when they got the better of Connacht at the Aviva Stadium.
It was another performance of fits and starts but head coach Cullen can point to a much-changed line-up that included several academy players and a week off for plenty of big names.
READ MORE: Leinster break Connacht hearts with late penalty in Dublin
Next up is the annual trip to Limerick, albeit the fixture is taking place two days after Christmas this year instead of on St Stephen's Day. "Quite often it comes down to the preparation leading into these games," Cullen said.
"Thinking back to a couple of games where we might have struggled where a couple of things haven’t gone our way and you're in the game, and it has this snowball effect.
"When you prepare well and start well in the game down there, then you can exert some of the dominance and put the opposition under pressure. So, that’s very 101. Saying it is the easy part, doing it is the hard part."
The last time that Munster beat Leinster at Thomond Park was in December 2018. Asked if the famous ground was still the fortress that it was in his own playing days, Cullen replied: "What do you mean by fortress? Knights at the gate? It’s very hard to win there, I would suggest, so I don’t think it's that much easier.
"It’s a short week, a six-day turnaround. It’s trying to be in the moment. For the lads it's to try and recover and some of the guys coming back in who have had some time off, they just need to get back up to speed because you take a week off you need to turn it back on again.
"Then we all need to know that we're in the moment. So, if you are off, you are off enjoying family time and your loved ones. That’s important. So, it’s about getting that balance right.
"There's no point training when you are thinking about family time and when you're in family time thinking about training because you need to be in the moment of what you're doing. It’s the skill at this time of year. It’s easy to say, it's so much harder to do it. It will always be a great occasion regardless."
It remains to be seen if Sam Prendergast returns at No.10 for the festive encounter or whether Cullen gives Ross Byrne another run-out after he split the posts with two penalties and two conversions. "Yeah, he's nailed his kicks, they're so important in the context of the game," said the Blues boss.
"And the decision to take the penalty (at the start of the second half) put us 17 points in front and we just needed to dog out a win, so we're really pleased.
"We get four, Connacht get zero. I think everyone could look around and get too ambitious looking for four tries too early potentially in that exact moment, and even at the end then to take the bonus point away from Connacht, so it's important for us as well.
"And it just keeps us ticking along in the league and that's what it's all about, just grinding out wins - particularly this time of year when you have a lot of disruptions with players being away and some young guys even with exams.
"There's so much going on at the moment so for us to have Lukey (McGrath) and Ross out there is fantastic for us, we're very, very lucky to have the two of them."
And McGrath, who partnered Byrne in the half-backs, remarked: "These games are always amazing to play just because of the crowds you get for these games, they're pretty special occasions.
"One of the lads' favourite games of the year is that one in Thomond, it's always an amazing atmosphere to go down there. I'm sure it will be like that this week."
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