Leo Cullen may be trying to instil a siege mentality after defending his Leinster team against perceived unjustified media commentary, according to Bernard Jackman.
Leinster are back in a ninth Champions Cup final, their fourth in five seasons, after Saturday's semi-final win over Toulon in which they survived a late scare from the Top 14 outfit.
But the post-match narrative was dominated by Cullen's impassioned diatribe after being asked by RTÉ Sport to sum up the game and the last 10 minutes in particular.
During his reply he suggested that the media love when Leinster struggle, saying: "You just want to kick the boot into us, don't you?"
He referenced last season's semi-final loss to Northampton Saints at Aviva Stadium and two incidents towards the end of the 37-34 defeat that he felt were not covered.
"We don't necessarily want the credit, it's just balanced about what happens in the game," said Cullen, who led Leinster to their last title in 2018, when speaking in a separate media huddle after the top-table press conference.
"Yeah, 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 [Henry] Pollock - should have been a penalty under the posts?
"Bad news sells...."
Former Leinster and Ireland hooker Jackman, who won the 2009 Heineken Cup alongside Cullen, and is now among the most highly regarded rugby analysts, working in TV, radio, print and online.
"What does he want the media to do when they lose to Northampton? Blame the referee? Because he's talking about a penalty try not given, Pollock [penalty] not given," said Jackman on RTÉ Radio 1's Sunday Sport.
"We all know it's tight margins.
"I think he's under a lot of pressure and he's fighting.
"He's trying to create a narrative and that's absolutely his [right] .
"They did this after they lost to Northampton last year, they created an 'us against the world' mentality and they beat the Bulls [in the URC final].
"I think the media have actually been fairly OK to Leinster, considering the fact that they haven't won as many trophies.
"I know it is very hard to win European Cups...and Leinster deserve massive credit for always being in the hunt, semi-finals, finals, and they've never been blown away in a knockout game from memory.
"But they haven't been able to get across the line in tight games.
"So the reality is... there's question marks from the media, [and] I would say a lot of fans have question marks around this group but let's just stick to the media because he questioned us.
"There's two things you can base it on.
"Results, which are black and white. OK, so Leinster have lost six games in the URC this year. They haven't won a game outside of Ireland.
"They didn't finish in the top two seeds in Europe so they got a home semi-final because Toulon beat Glasgow.
"That's the reality. They're in a final, that is absolutely credit to them and they may win the URC as well.
"But the results haven't been as good this season."
Cullen said that it was "insanely hard" to win the Champions Cup with so many "juggernaut" teams.
Jackman believes that Leinster, four-time winners and the bulk suppliers to the Ireland and British and Irish Lions teams, are in that category.
He added: "There is some juggernaut sides in this competition: Bath, Bordeaux, Toulouse and Leinster. They're the four juggernauts.
"But it's very hard to play the underdog card or the 'poor me'.
"You can't compare Leinster to Munster, Ulster or Connacht because that's not the level of investment or talent that's there. If you have a team full of Irish internationals plus Rieko Ioane, et cetera, but Leo's job is to win silverware.
"If he feels giving the media a bit of a backlash is going to take the focus off his players, fair play.
"That's his job and that's why he's paid big money and that's why he's under pressure."
"Unfortunately, I think it's going to heighten the talk about Leinster this week because everybody's going to be actually saying, 'well, are we being fair here? Are Leinster playing brilliant rugby?'"
"Look, his job is to try and get his players over the line.
"I think it's very hard if you're sitting in that Leinster dressing room and you're Andrew Porter (above) and you look to your left and you've got Dan Sheehan and then you've got Thomas Clarkson, then you've got James Ryan, then you've got Joe McCarthy, Caelan Doris, Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, gives him power to go, 'geez, lads, we'll give it a lash'.
"You know, there's a reality there, these are some of the best players Ireland have ever had.
"I think the media are right to be a little bit sceptical about Leinster until they start winning.
"And the way the game finished, like I think if Leinster go and finish that game strong and they beat Toulon 40 points to 11, Leo can come in and lash the media out of it because they've just put a performance in.
"But look, he will be judged in three weeks time [against] Bordeaux. He's tried lots of different things and he's dead right to try something different."
Speaking after the 29-25 win, which sets up a final against champions Bordeaux-Begles who defeated Bath yesterday, lock Joe McCarthy (below) admitted that the hangover from last year's loss to Saints was still in the system.
He said: "It's definitely something …it hangs over you. You lose these big games in Europe like last year, we lost the semi-final.
"It probably plays in your mind for the whole year. Every knockout game you go into, it plays on your mind. 'If we don't get it right, if we don't pitch up here'...we go home, devastated.’
"It's something that probably, looking back on it, gives us more motivation. You need to be at your absolute best every knockout game, and if you're not at the races, it's a terrible day.
"Fans, I think, have such high expectations of us which I think is great.
"Every year we expect to - we want to go and do the double. Every year it's a hard task and not many teams do it.
"It can be tough at times but we’re rather have it that high level of expectation [than] fans to be happy to see us reach the semi-finals."
