‘Cool, quirky, lots of character’: Leo Cullen wants Laya Arena to be special place to play

It’s a quirky ground, as Leo Cullen puts it, and strictly speaking a showjumping arena amid a thicket of Dublin 4 rugby clubs for more than a century and which has only become Leinster’s home since 2007. Yet Leinster are home again.The former CEO Mick Dawson described the move to the RDS as “one of the best decisions Leinster Rugby ever made” on foot of signing a new 25-year lease with the Royal Dublin Society in 2022 ahead of redeveloping the new, three-floored Anglesea Stand as part of a €52 million refurbishment.Now, after an absence of two years and four months, Leinster will host their first competitive game at what is now called the Laya Arena when facing Cardiff on Saturday (kick-off 7.45pm) in the United Rugby Championship (URC).Fans, players and coaches alike have missed the place.READ MORE“It’s a very unique ground. There’s lots of rugby clubs in and around the RDS, and that sort of stands on its own as not a rugby club, traditionally, if you wind back the clock when all the rugby clubs were being formed 100 years ago,” Cullen said.“It’s an insane amount of rugby clubs in a very small area. And then we’re in the showjumping arena, playing rugby. It’s an amazing thing, because obviously my mum breeds horses and ponies, as some of you may well be aware of. I’ve been going there since I was literally a baby.“It is a cool venue. It’s quirky, but it’s got lots of character. It’s just different to every other rugby ground that’s out there.”[ ‘It’s a proper club ground’: Captain Dan Sheehan relishing Leinster’s return home ]His first memory as a player were the “prefab dressingrooms” that were “beyond basic” before being moved to the back of the old Anglesea Road stand, which “for a long time [had] a feeling it was about to fall down on top of you.”The dressingrooms have now been moved across to the grandstand.“It’s always like you’re pushing things into different spaces around the place. It’s not like your natural pristine stadium, is it. It’s multipurpose. I would be very nostalgic towards the place. I think it still has lots of character,” Cullen said.“We haven’t been there for two years, so we need to work on making it quite a special place to play the game. Sam Prendergast has been named in the starting XV against Cardiff on Saturday. Photograph: Tom O’Hanlon/INPHO “What we can control as a team, as a group of coaches, is trying to get a performance right that fans ultimately want to come and see and support.”Only “a few” of the 20,500 tickets had still to be sold for Saturday evening’s game.Nine of the matchday squad were involved in the last competitive game here, a 33-7 win over Connacht on May 31st, 2024. Six of the 23 on duty for this homecoming have never played at the ground.More pertinently, Cullen has named nine of Leinster’s 16-strong contingent in Ireland’s southern hemisphere expedition for the Blues’ seasonal reappearance in a completely changed starting XV, as well as Sam Prendergast, a replacement in last week’s 26-20 loss to the Sharks.Dan Sheehan captains a side also featuring Tadhg Furlong, Joe McCarthy, James Ryan and Jack Conan up front, as well as Jamie Osborne, Garry Ringrose, Hugo Keenan and Jimmy O’Brien, who scored his second and Leinster’s fifth try in that aforementioned last game here.Leinster will thus have used 40 players in their opening three games and the only summer tourist yet to feature this season is Jamison Gibson-Park, who should return “next week or the week after”, Cullen said. “He’s not far, but this week is too soon. He just hasn’t done enough training with us.”In his absence, Cullen has given 22-year-old academy scrumhalf Oliver Coffey a full debut after four appearances in total off the bench.“He has very good basics. He’s a good communicator, he’s a good leader in his academy group. He’s into year three now in the academy, but we would have worked quite closely with him from a leadership point of view as well over the course of last season,” Cullen said.Leo Cullen spoke highly of debutant Oliver Coffey. Photograph: Tom Maher/INPHO “It’s just trying to get time into some of these guys. They need to start somewhere and we just thought it would be worthwhile him starting.“All these things come with a little bit of risk, but there’s plenty of experience around him, so the players need to make sure they look after him, particularly the fellas in front of him, and he is able to deliver proper service, so he can deliver on his basics, which he’s very, very strong at.”Harry Byrne as well as Hugo McLoughlin were ruled out with head knocks, meaning backup outhalf Caspar Gabriel will be one of the six RDS newcomers, as Joey Carbery’s prodigal second debut had been delayed by “a minor setback”.Cullen said their two-week, two-game trek to South Africa in the URC was “overall, hugely positive” after taking three points rather than one from their comparative safari at the start of last season. The players looked fitter and better conditioned, he said, this time, although it was “frustrating” not to win one of two matches that he felt were winnable.“Lots of territory, lots of possession, more entries into the opposition 22 than the opposition, but we’re not clinical enough,” the Leinster head coach said.“This week, Cardiff, a totally different challenge. They’re two from two. We’ve made a lot of changes to our team. Some of those coming in for the first game of the season. Obviously, it’s gearing up because we’ve got the Champions Cup next week [away to Clermont] and then Munster the week after.”LEINSTER (v Cardiff): Hugo Keenan; Joshua Kenny, Garry Ringrose, Jamie Osborne, Jimmy O’Brien; Sam Prendergast, Oliver Coffey; Alex Usanov, Dan Sheehan (capt), Tadgh Furlong; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Max Deegan, Scott Penny, Jack Conan. Replacements: Rónan Kelleher, Peter Dooley, Thomas Clarkson, Alan Spicer, Josh Ericson, Fintan Gunne, Caspar Gabriel, Robbie Henshaw.