By Declan Whooley
Leinster head coach Leo Cullen lamented the yellow cards handed to Rob Kearney and Luke Fitzgerald in the 30-6 defeat to Ulster in the Guinness Pro12 and admitted he was disappointed by his side's performance in adversity.
Second-half tries from Jared Payne and Paddy Jackson capped a dominant 40 minutes after the interval from Les Kiss’ side as Ulster all-but assured themselves of a place in the play-offs, while Leinster still remain in the hunt for a home semi-final despite the heavy defeat.
The visitors recovered from a penalty try and yellow card to Kearney for blocking Ruan Pienaar to trail at the break by just four points, but the sin-binning of substitute Fitzgerald, after he was adjudged to have held back Rory Scholes, saw Ulster press home their advantage to run out comfortable runners.
Cullen admitted that the decision early in the second half to kick for touch rather than take the penalty on offer to reduce the gap to the minimum was “poorly executed”, but felt the yellow card decisions were harsh on his team.
“We were on the end of a hiding today" - Isa Nacewa
“We were in the game at the start of the second half, had a lot of pressure in the Ulster 22 and we turned down a shot at goal that would have made it 10-9 [to Ulster],” he told RTÉ Sport.
“We don’t execute particulaly well from the lineout and we weren’t really in the game after that.
“Those two periods of the yellow cards...it does kill a team. You play for 20 minutes down to 14 men and a penalty try on top of that and the game gets away from you quickly.”
Referee George Clancy consulted with TMO on both occasions before issuing yellow cards to Kearney and Fitzgerald and Cullen was left to lament the decisions.
“I thought it was a tough call for a penalty try, especially with the yellow card on top of that,” he said.
“Again I thought it was a tough yellow card because Luke Fitzgerald was making a genuine attempt to go for the ball, but they’re the tight calls you come to a place like this you expect not to go your way.”
The former Leinster captain added that the response from his players on the pitch wasn't what it might despite the setbacks.
"I thought we did create some good things, particularly in the first half. It’s just small margins, particularly away from home.
"I was disappointed with the way we reacted to those difficult periods."
Full-back Isa Nacewa couldn’t conceal his disappointment as Leinster failed to implement their game plan against a side who punished every mistake made.
“It comes down to fine margins and execution and if you don’t do that against a great team like Ulster, you get punished,” he said.
“We were on the end of a hiding today.
"A penalty try here and an intercept runaway, it comes back to those fine margins. We got punished in certain and they exposed us today.”
Still just a point behind Connacht in second and three points ahead of league leaders Glasgow Warriors, Leinster know that with the top two squaring off at the Sportsground, they are still in control of their own destiny ahead of their final match at home to Treviso.
“We’ll look back on this reassess and dust ourselves off and see what we have to do next week,” Cullen added.
“We need to focus on getting a positive result and see where that leaves us for the semi-finals.”
