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

Bilbao , Spain - 23 May 2026; Ciarán Frawley of Leinster, centre, and team-mates after the Investec Champions Cup final match between Leinster and Union Bordeaux Bégles at San Mamés Stadium in Bilbao, Spain. (Photo By Seb Daly/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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Ed the Duck 57 mins ago

“Listen, we tried to keep him, and he decided to move on”


Really? Like really really?


“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”


That shows pretty clearly how hard they tried and who can blame the guy, seeing pretendergassed utterly fail ahead of him!!! Don’t be too surprised to see him at 10 for Ireland soon after Lancaster gets his hands on him…


And if they want some help getting over it, speak to Munster coz I’m pretty sure they felt the same way when they were conned into letting Snyman go, only for him to end up in Dublin!!

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GrahamVF 14 minutes ago
Rennie to shuffle No 10 pack as Richie Mo'unga's comeback is pushed back

Hi JD perhaps you can give me your opinion on this. The severe decline in NZ rugby more or less coincides with the new Super Rugby format. It also coincides with the end of the Forster era and the Razor era. I don’t believe the loss of Springbok competition was the main factor - NZ rugby thrived without South Africa for two nearly two decades. My guess is dilution of top players through too may franchises resulting in a lowering of standards and perhaps just a general (and this is just a feeling of mine) reluctance to move away from the old school administrative thinking? In South Africa there is an entire TV channel devoted to schoolboy rugby which has a viewership into the hundreds of thousands and some of our top schoolboy games such as the annual Derby between Paarl Boys High and Paarl Gymnasium attracts over 30 000 fans on the day - mostly friends families and old boys - and brings the winelands town to a standstill for a week with trees dressed up in competing colours and countless radio and TV interviews - all sponsored by First National (Barclays) Bank, which also sponsors the Varsity Cup, Varsity Challenge Cup and Varsity Shield competition all featuring around 10 squads of post school pre club players. This is where SA Riugby have been at their most progressive - the allowing of overseas players definitely helped to kickstart the Springbok revival but the long term success has definitely been because of the quality of junior and development rugby.

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