Leo Cullen understands the value of squashing uprisings before they become revolutions.

In this, he’s gotten Leinster’s current position in Irish rugby and what it means better than any coach in this country since Declan Kidney. Leinster are the hegemon of Irish rugby. They have been since 2017/18 after a period of flux for about three years where no one was dominant in the immediate years post-Schmidt and during Sexton’s two-year spell in Paris. In that spell, Munster made two PRO14 finals, Connacht won one right before Leinster started to build again. Still, the key for Leinster in that period was a slow build of quality in that they added two or three – or more – players that would wind up being quality operators down the line when they needed them. These are rarely NIQ signings because the Irish system can’t run on big signings like that in the way that Toulon did, for example. Rugby at this level is usually the product of snowballing production of talent one year after the next and “all” you really need is two or three players max per year before adding in your “win now” guys.

In 2017/18, Leinster’s “win now” guys were mostly already present along with ascended talents that had been embedded in the squad since 2013/14. Cian Healy returned from a long-term injury and played almost out the gate at peak levels with Jack McGrath – then a British & Irish Lion – splitting the position. Leinster had already added Scott Fardy and a returning Isa Nacewa along with Jamison Gibson-Park to the squad along with Johnny Sexton entering a generational peak in production at 33 in his second season post-return.

The biggest factor in that European Cup winning season, in my opinion, was the combination of all these previous factors along with;

• Dan Leavy getting one full year of fitness.
• Leinster signing Robbie Henshaw the previous off-season to complete their 10-13 with elite IQ talent.
• The emergence of James Ryan and Andrew Porter as elite talents while both were in the second year in the full Leinster system. Both players had joined Leinster’s academy in 2016/17 and had shown a level of comfort for elite rugby that all but the freakiest freaks are capable of.

That was the perfect alignment of talent to push Leinster to a PRO14 and European Cup double that season and they followed up that with multiple league titles in a row while falling foul of Peak Saracens and La Rochelle in Europe.

The addition of guys like James Lowe, the ascension of Van Der Flier as an elite talent right when Leavy hit his injury troubles, Hugo Keenan turning into a super solid fullback right when Kearney retired and Caelan Doris coming into the set-up with the same kind of early physical readiness as Ryan and Porter before him doubled down on their advantage in Ireland. Combine a settled coaching unit with that 2013-2017 accumulation plus two top talents at hooker and you have an Irish hegemon.

That used to be Munster in the early to mid to late 2000s. We stacked talent on top of talent year after year, multiple years in a row, and arrayed that talent around the core of top-class internationals that powered the whole thing.

Horan, O’Connell, O’Callaghan, Hayes, Wallace, Quinlan, Leamy, Foley, and Flannery were augmented with guys like O’Driscoll, Sheahan, Halstead, Mafi, Tipoki, Howlett and Payne but the main man was always Ronan O’Gara. We have won absolutely nothing as a club without him at #10 because none of what you want to do as a top club will work consistently without a top-class, elite-level flyhalf. The hegemon always – always – has a top-class #10. It’s their defining feature. Until we have one, we will either be imposed upon by those that do, or scrapping for parity with all the other sides that don’t.

As the hegemon, Leo Cullen has understood that you stay that way by cutting off potential rivals at the knees before they’re fully on their feet. He gets that he has to focus as much – if not more – on Munster and Ulster as he does on the likes of Toulouse and La Rochelle because trouble at home is always, always what catches you out when you’ve got your eyes on bigger things.

He’s always managed this by ensuring he sends core members of that game-winning unit to stamp out provincial upstarts at key times but you always know it by Leinster’s approach. They always come with aggression, they always come with that extra bit of spite and they always select two or three of Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, Ryan, Doris, Sexton, Henshaw, Lowe or Ringrose.

However many of those they select in the match day squad, that’s how much they rate your current threat level. This week Leo Cullen will give us a reading as to how he rates Munster as a threat to Leinster’s supremacy given that he’ll have to manage his test regulars over the next three weeks.

It’ll be up to us to show him that he needed more.

It’s a big few days.