Leo Cullen may regret his choice of words. Normally cautious in his public pronouncements, the Leinster head coach was unusually controversial when he summed up the domination of Saracens in European competition just under a year ago.
“Saracens,” Cullen said, “you see their accumulated losses: £5 million, £5 million, £6 million, £5 million, £4 million. We have our way of doing things and that’s a sustainable model that we have.
“We can’t control what other teams do, we can’t accumulate €50 million of losses. That’s not the way it works. I think Saracens have this thing called ‘making memories’, but it’s making memories and racking up a huge debt at the same time. How do you compete with that? We don’t compete the same.”
They have to now, though. After fate proved unkind to the Irish province in yesterday’s draw, Leinster were paired with Saracens in a Champions Cup quarter-final that is nothing short of mouth-watering.
Two years ago, when Cullen was facing questions about his suitability for the top position at his province, he would have gladly have swapped the witness stand for the position he is now in. Back then, people doubted if he, or his team, could hack it at this level.
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Now, they are favourites, in some quarters, to win this year’s competition with Saturday’s win against Montpellier, the biggest-spending side in European rugby, proving that they can grind out victories as well as achieve them in style.
For the record, their other five wins in Europe this season came against Montpellier at home, and both Pro14 Conference A leaders Glasgow Warriors and the English champions, Exeter Chiefs, home and away. Little wonder, Isa Nacewa, is struggling to contain the hype.
“We have done our job so far but we have a long way to go,” Nacewa said.
Discovering that they have to get past Saracens first, then possibly La Rochelle in France, to just reach the final, will certainly sober the drunkest of enthusiasts.
Munster, too, will have to cool the hype brigade after their fine 45-point victory, yesterday. Even though they are maturing nicely, the reality remains that doing a job on Castres is one thing, but beating Toulon, the champions of 2013, 2014 and 2015, is something altogether different.
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“I know that,” Johann van Graan, the Munster coach, said afterwards. “They’re an unbelievable team and brand, but I’m just pleased the quarterfinal is here at Thomond Park. This is a magic place.”
Ulster is anything but magic at the minute, though. Once again they fell agonisingly shy of a quarter-final slot, their old failings coming back to haunt them, not just yesterday but throughout this year’s competition.
Four victories out of six proved insufficient to help them escape from their pool either as group winners or as one of the better runners up.
Their downfall stemmed from the fact they captured just one bonus point from six games.
Les Kiss, their embattled director of rugby, refused to blame anyone and certainly not himself.
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“We’re disappointed,” Kiss said. “We had control of the pool. We gave them too much. The way we have gone about the competition has been good. We wouldn’t change our preparation.
“We just have to move on. We’ve got a chance to do something in the other competition and we have to.”
Rory Best, their captain, added: “It’s bitterly disappointing. Our physicality by and large was there, it was just a lack of accuracy. Every time we got a foothold, we lost it. We’ve just got to nail the Pro14 and make sure we’re in a position to fight for a trophy at the end of the year.”