Special correspondent in London
Leo Cullen: “Our players have accumulated a lot of experience, on many levels, both in victories and also in defeats. You have to go through these experiences to build your character. You have to be able to get back up with a defeat. This year, that’s what we did since we managed to beat La Rochelle. Toulouse, for its part, has also recovered from its past failures. Toulouse is one of the best teams in this competition, we will have to be at our best level. We hope to be able to achieve a great performance.”
Leo Cullen: “Toulouse are a different team than we have faced in recent years. We lost two finals against Rochelle, but before that we beat Stade Toulousain in the semi-final. We will have to be good on the big day and stick to our game plan. Which we didn’t necessarily have in the last two finals. There, it will be another match, we have a different group, that’s what makes the beauty of this sport, its unpredictable side. We are in the final, where we wanted to be at the start of the season. We will have to put Toulouse under pressure.”
Caelan Doris: “We have a new opportunity to do something big. Our group is united. But we must make use of our recent disappointments. We gave ourselves the opportunity to be in the final again, we are here to change things.”
Léo Cullen: “We wanted to have an impact on the course of the match with our substitutes’ bench (with six forwards) who will bring us freshness during the match. We wanted to involve several forwards by putting them on the bench.
Caelan Doris: “We know that we will be able to give everything when we are on the field and that the next generation will do the job when they return. There is a lot of confidence in the group, we remained focused on ourselves.
Leo Cullen: “There are a lot of similarities from last seasons. Their game is above all based on the strength of their forwards. They also make a lot of passes after contact, they always make the ball live. But their pack is very strong, we will have to compete with them. They also have dynamic players, like Flament or Roumat, there has been an evolution in this sector. Toulouse was able to develop its game and put it in place throughout the season.
Léo Cullen: “Jacques Nienaber (former coach of the double world champion Springboks, Editor’s note) has been great since he arrived with us. Having him on our staff went well, he brought us a lot. He has experience at a very high level, he won two World Cups, he helped us a lot in our development. He implemented new ideas, it was a breath of fresh air for us. He brings a different way of working and playing.”
Comments collected at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium