{"id":467663,"date":"2026-05-04T09:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T09:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/467663\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T09:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T09:20:13","slug":"irish-rugby-fans-prepare-to-descend-on-bilbao-as-leinster-and-ulster-chase-glory-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/467663\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish rugby fans prepare to descend on Bilbao as Leinster and Ulster chase glory \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

All planes, trains and automobiles will lead to the Basque Country in three weekends\u2019 time when, for the first time ever, Irish sides will contest both the Champions Cup<\/a> and Challenge Cup<\/a> finals.<\/p>\n

Leinster<\/a> will meet Bordeaux-B\u00e8gles<\/a> in the former, which is already a sell-out, while Ulster<\/a> will face Montpellier the night before, and the clamour for tickets, and any remaining overpriced hotel rooms in Bilbao, will be intensified by Bordeaux fans being less than a four-hour drive away.<\/p>\n

Leinster will be underdogs against the reigning champions when the sides meet for the first time on Saturday May 23rd (kick-off 3.45pm local time\/2.45pm Irish). But Leo Cullen<\/a> is picking up good vibes about a return to the San Mam\u00e9s Stadium, the scene of Leinster\u2019s fourth and most recent Champions Cup success, a 15-12 victory over Racing in the 2017-18 final.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to go to Bilbao again, against whoever that will be,\u201d said Cullen after his side\u2019s 29-25 semi-final win over Toulon at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday and before Bordeaux-B\u00e8gles beat Bath 38-26 in the Stade Atlantique.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe English champions are just getting better all the time over the last two seasons and Bordeaux have been the best team in Europe and you see the X-factor they have and Noel, who we would know very well,\u201d said Cullen of the Bordeaux attack coach Noel McNamara<\/a>, who had various coaching roles in the Leinster pathway from 2016 to 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cBilbao is a cool place, isn\u2019t it, and [so is] the Sam Mam\u00e9s Stadium,\u201d added Cullen, picking up those vibes again. <\/p>\n

This will be Leinster\u2019s fifth final since that 2018 triumph and a record ninth overall, something for which they don\u2019t receive nearly enough credit.<\/p>\n

\"Leinster'sLeinster’s Tommy O’Brien reacts as the final whistle in the semi-final confirms Leinster will be heading to another Champions Cup final. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a failure going to a final. Not getting to the competition, that would be a team failure,\u201d said Cullen, whose team has continued to bounce back from knock-out blows ever since that 2018 final.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what it\u2019s about, isn\u2019t it? What else would you be doing? It\u2019s a great way to feel alive. My poor son, he had to leave at half-time,\u201d said Cullen with a chuckle in reference to the challenge posed by the yellow cards shown to Andrew Porter and Harry Byrne in quick succession at the end of Saturday\u2019s first half. \u201cHe said: \u2018Dad, we\u2019ve no chance, we\u2019ve 13 men now\u2019. He had to leave and go home. He couldn\u2019t take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, as at half-time on Saturday, his players and coaches keep regrouping, despite still nursing scars from last season\u2019s semi-final loss to Northampton. <\/p>\n

Cullen was in quite prickly mood after the game. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt won\u2019t be easy, will it? We\u2019ll have no chance anyway. We\u2019ve been bloody useless this year,\u201d he said sarcastically.<\/p>\n

Cullen is evidently still annoyed about his side not being awarded a late penalty try in last season\u2019s 37-34 semi-final loss to Northampton, when Henry Pollock went off his feet under the Leinster posts. This was also part of a general broadside at the media in which he thrice used the words \u201cyou guys love putting the boot into us\u201d.<\/p>\n

So what brought that on?<\/p>\n

\"Leinster'sLeinster’s Josh van der Flier is congratulated after his try against Toulon on Saturday. Photograph: Brian Lawless\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t necessarily want the credit, it\u2019s just balance about what happens in the game. Some strange things happened in that Northampton game and nobody wanted to report on them, did they? Did you report on the penalty try not awarded at the end of the game? Did you report on Pollock \u2013 should have been a penalty under the posts?<\/p>\n

\u201cBad news sells,\u201d he said, before agreeing that Leinster reaching the final was \u201cgood news\u201d.<\/p>\n

Leinster laid a few ghosts to rest against Toulon, but Cullen admitted the strength of their yearning for an elusive fifth crown affected Saturday\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see that there\u2019s a natural bit of, I don\u2019t know, is it tension or what is it? There\u2019s definitely something in the performance there that we\u2019re not quite \u2018free\u2019. They\u2019re all humans. They\u2019re all trying to learn as they go along because they want something so badly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the thing about the tournament. You\u2019ve heard some players talk about an obsession. It\u2019s a magic tournament, isn\u2019t it? That\u2019s why it\u2019s so amazing. Teams put everything into it. You\u2019re down to the last four teams but think of some of the teams that are not in the last four. There\u2019s some unbelievable teams not there.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn we go. Bilbao here we come, but we\u2019re here against the Lions first,\u201d he said of next Saturday\u2019s URC game at the Aviva Stadium against the team above them in third place on points difference.<\/p>\n

Eight of the 23 against Toulon were in the matchday squad in the San Mam\u00e9s Stadium eight years ago, and two others, Tadhg Furlong and James Lowe, will hope to prove their fitness in one or both of Leinster\u2019s two games before the final.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will clearly be changes for that because it is freshness, it is giving guys who are fully motivated and invested, and there are still places up for grabs for the final as well because lots of things can happen, as we know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All planes, trains and automobiles will lead to the Basque Country in three weekends\u2019 time when, for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[56840,56839,18,19,17,12861,53475,132,23200],"class_list":{"0":"post-467663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-challenge-cup","9":"tag-champions-cup","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-leinster-rugby","14":"tag-leo-cullen","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-ulster-rugby"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116515571542922640","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}