‘Maybe we’ll go on a boat!’ – Leinster facing into logistical challenge trying to get to South Africa for Bulls semi-final

The tight turnaround meant they couldn’t reserve seats for the 45-strong party who will make the trip to Pretoria, with Leinster hoping to get everyone out tomorrow in order to get used to the conditions at altitude for their URC semi-final.

The Bulls defeated Benetton at Loftus Versfeld this afternoon and will remain at home this week.

They are also looking to get back to Ireland as quickly as possible to be ready for a final in either Dublin or Limerick depending on the result of the other semi-final.

“A week until we’re there playing a rugby match, it’s a very unusual dynamic,” Cullen said.

“I don’t to bore you about the dynamics of how airlines do/don’t operate on the weekend, but there is multiple moving parts.

“I don’t know if you’ve booked many trips for 45 people on a Saturday night? If anyone has any advice?

“I don’t know (when we leave), the bags are packed. We’ll be setting sail alright. Maybe we’ll go on a boat!

“It depends what’s available. It’s very at this time of the year, the middle of June, to travel at the best of times so it’s a little small 45-person working party. We will get out there by whatever means possible.”

Although the Bulls will be without three of their World Cup winning Springboks after Kurt-Lee Arendse joined Marco van Staden and Caden Moodie on the sidelines with a fractured cheekbone, Cullen is anticipating a big challenge at altitude.

“I only saw a little bit of that Bulls game earlier on but you’ve seen them over the course of the tournament,” he said.

“Munster had a good win over there, Glasgow had a good battle with them, Benetton played them a few weeks ago as well recently enough so we’ve seen a few of those games.

“They’re a good team over there and it will be a great challenge.

“Whatever group does travel, we owe it to ourselves to put in a performance.

“Nobody’s going to give us anything, are they? We need to deliver a big performance for ourselves, it’s not about owing anybody.

“It’s owing the people who have done so much work over the course of the season. It’s for the fans.

“I don’t know if we will have thousands of Leinster supporters over there, but for the fans at the give play-off games we have had, if you think we’ve played the last 16 here against Leicester, a quarter-final against La Rochelle that was packed out in a week, you go to Croke Park which is sold out with 82,500 people, to a final in London where there is at least 30,000 Leinster fans, maybe 40,000.

“It’s amazing to see that sea of blue when you arrive there, so that’s who we owe it to, would be my opinion.

“That’s the type of pressure that’s involved in this team, the internal pressure that comes from your supporter base and a competitive group. That’s enough motivation, to be honest.”

Cullen was happy with the way his team fronted up in today’s 43-20 win over Ulster at the Aviva Stadium.

“There’s plenty of character in the group, that’s for certain. You don’t get into these knockout games by accident, so everyone is going full blooded at these games, so to still be going and have a sixth play-off game to look forward to is no easy feat.

“There’s the players that are on the field, the players that have contributed to get us to this point… you have to juggle the resources across the season to still be able to fire at this point of the season.

“Overall, the health of the squad is in decent shape and that requires… you think back to round one, we started against Glasgow who had all of their internationals back after the World Cup whereas we didn’t have anybody.

“That was one of the games we lost, Glasgow got off to a flier because they were fully loaded on day one. That’s what you’re up against across the competition which people tend to forget when they look at the table at the very end.

“There’s lots of different dynamics, that’s the beauty of the competition.

“How you navigate your way through… we’d love to have a home semi-final, but this is the challenge and the next adventure that we have which is a trip to South Africa.”