Leo Cullen: 'Don't label Bulls as failures'

REACTION: Leinster coach Leo Cullen praised a ‘great’ Bulls team, saying both teams that reached the Final need to be celebrated.

Cullen, speaking after Leinster’s 32-7 victory, praised the South African side’s quality and used the moment to push back against a narrative that frames runners-up as having fallen short, despite making it to the final day of the competition.

“It’s a very difficult competition to win. Just the nature of the way the season is, and there are a lot of great teams involved.

“The South African teams have been an amazing addition to the tournament. The Bulls are a great team.”

Cullen also used the moment to comment on how finals are often framed in the media, pushing back on the notion that falling short equates to failure.

“We had this question yesterday, wasn’t it? Is your season, when you get to a final, is it a success or a failure?

“Unfortunately, you guys, the way you write, the losers of a final suddenly are failures. Whereas you get to the last day of the competition, I think you need to celebrate the two teams that are in the final.

Leinster ended their trophy “drought” after four years.

They were the best team from minute one to minute 80, but they’ve been the best team all season.

The question was whether they could get over the line in knock-out games.

They were really good against Glasgow last week, and they turned up again.

Cullen has felt the pressure from their supporters the last four years, often being the top side but never being able to play, or win, a Final.

“Obviously, we’ve been on the flip side of that in the past. Does that deem us failures? I personally don’t think it’s a failure. We win today, it’s great, but we’ll move on to the next challenge, and that will be… We’ll watch the guys that are on tour with Ireland and the Lions.”

🤜🫳🎤#LEIvBUL #NeverLessThanEverything pic.twitter.com/nSAwRC3WCf

— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) June 14, 2025

Skipper Jack Conan described the victory as “incredibly special”, adding: “It’s not something you could ever dream of when you were growing up or even in the last few years because obviously it has been long since we had played here as a club.

“So, it’s not something that was ever on your radar, but it’s just fantastic. I know it wasn’t full today, but there were 46-odd thousand people and we could feel every single one of them.

“We could hear their voices, and they got behind us. They stayed after the final whistle for us to do a lap.

“I’m just delighted for the lads, they performed. That’s what we spoke about during the week. We didn’t want to be outcome-focused; we wanted to be performance-focused. And I think we did that in spades today.

“For 80-odd minutes, I think the lads showed up really well, were incredibly physical, and that’s what we asked of each other.”