Cullen calls for fair play for fans as Croke Park beckons

• Published date: 15 April 2024
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

Cullen highlighted the role played by Leinster’s supporters in their 40-13 quarter-final win over La Rochelle last Saturday, a repeat of the last two finals which drew a noisy 51,700-capacity crowd at the Aviva Stadium with just a week to sell those tickets

“We’ve had amazing support today and amazing support last week, and if you get a big crowd there, it’s a great thing. It’s a special occasion.

“Hopefully EPCR price the tickets appropriately for an 82,000 venue because you want a big crowd, don’t you? Obviously, it’s an EPCR event, it’s not a Leinster event. That’s the big thing you’d ask because you want a proper crowd there. You want to entice people to be there, to make it a special occasion rather than rip people off.”

Leinster have earned home country advantage for the third successive semi-final but, tellingly, EPCR have failed to sell out either of their last two, both of which were against five-time winners Toulouse. They drew attendances of 42,067 and 46,823 to the Aviva. Tickets are expected to start going on sale next Thursday.

“You don’t want to rip people off,” said Cullen. “So hopefully it’s a proper game now as in we get a big crowd, because if we turn up and whatever, there are 20,000 people — 20,000 is a lot of people but if it’s in an 82,000-capacity stadium then it’s a different kettle of fish, isn’t it?”

Cullen was Leinster’s captain for the 2009 semi-final at Croke Park when they dethroned Munster with a 30-6 win in front of a then world record crowd for a club game of 82,208. That marked a shift in the balance of provincial power in Irish rugby, and something of a starting point in Leinster becoming a European superpower as they went on to beat Leicester to win the cup for the first time.

There appeared to be plenty of hurt from the last 11 months distilled into last Saturday’s performance, their best of the season thus far, but Cullen maintained Leinster were not motivated by revenge.

“This point about losing in a final, the opposition is a bit irrelevant. I know that people like to make a lot of that part, but it wouldn’t bloody matter, would it? As in, you lost in the final of the Champions Cup and the players are desperate to be in this tournament.”

Change of scenery

Cullen will take a squad to South Africa tomorrow for their upcoming games against the Lions and the Stormers, with some frontliners perhaps to travel for the first of those games before returning home in advance of the second. The Leinster head coach admitted a...