Leinster boss Cullen paying little attention to O'Gara talk

It's unusual for an Irish side in Europe to have so much access to the thoughts of a rival coach but Leo Cullen smiles at the suggestion that Ronan O’Gara might be speaking out of school.

Leinster face La Rochelle on Saturday week in the Heineken Champions Cup final and O’Gara has been doing his regular rounds on Irish media, writing a column and appearing on a radio show talking about the match.

The former Ireland out-half says that next weekend’s match in Marseille is no more important than their regular-season Top 14 match against Stade tomorrow, and was coy about the possibility of giant forward Will Skelton, who has a calf injury, being fit for the European final.

"I would definitely be wary of anything that’s there, for sure," said the former Ireland lock with a chuckle at his ex-international team-mate's comments.

"Is that the polite way of saying it? I’d be very wary of anything that the coach of La Rochelle says in the media because I’m sure he knows exactly what’s going on in his own world versus what he wants to put out there in the world.

"So we take certain things with a pinch of salt.

"At this stage you’ve got to focus on yourself. It’s very easy to get distracted by the outcome. For us we’ve got to go through our own rituals.

"Getting our own stuff right so we can impose our game on the opposition, whoever we play, whether it’s Munster this week or La Rochelle next week. Everyone has got to come up with a plan about how to stop a team."

Before that, Leinster host Munster in what the the coach described as not "must-win but a must-play-well" match tomorrow at the Aviva Stadium (7.15pm).

Already assured of top URC seeding, Cullen has rested most of his regulars but insisted that players can play themselves into