'We can't undo it': Leo Cullen says Leinster tried to keep Ciaran Frawley

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen admits the province ‘tried to keep’ Ciaran Frawley from moving to Connacht, a move that feels ever the more jarring in the wake of their Champions Cup Final defeat in Bilbao.

Frawley will join their Irish URC rivals this summer, despite finishing the season playing arguably the best rugby of Leinster’s three frontline 10s. He injected direction off the bench after replacing Harry Byrne on 44 minutes against Bordeaux, in a game where Cullen admitted the margins were brutally exposed.

“That’s what it’s about. Winners and losers,” Cullen said. “Winners will have a story of how clinical they were, the losers about how we weren’t quite clinical enough. And that’s the game.”

Yet while Leinster search for a long-term answer at 10, their most in-form option at out-half is heading west.

Tellingly, Cullen revealed that the province had tried to prevent him from heading to the door.

“Listen, we tried to keep him, and he decided to move on, so we wish him well,” he said. “But yeah, I think he’s had a great season. That’s the nature of it. We’ve had players leave before. It was one we were a little frustrated with at the time, but we can’t undo it, unfortunately.”

It lands awkwardly in the context of a season defined by chopping and changing at 10. Byrne currently holds the jersey, while Sam Prendergast, recently the first choice, has slid down the pecking order.

Frawley, who began the campaign third in line, has leapfrogged both in form, although he’s largely been used as a utility option off the bench – with 12 of his 23 appearances this season coming off the pine. The 28-year-old didn’t play 10 in a single one of his 11 starts for Leinster, Cullen preferring him at fullback and 12.

Cullen’s wider reflection on the final only underlined how costly small margins at this level can be.

“They’re just that split second quicker than we were, and very, very clinical,” he said. “That’s the bit for us to reflect on and try to get better.”

Next season, that improvement will have to come without Frawley and may yet see an increased opportunity for 20-year-old Caspar Gabriel, the Austrian-born prospect widely tipped as Leinster’s next star playmaker.