Last Tuesday in a cafe in Ballsbridge, Andy Farrell and the entire Irish coaching staff could be seen in conclave. The page had hardly turned on Leinster and Ulster enduring severe beatings by French sides on European finals weekend in Bilbao and the squad for the Nations Championship games in July against Australia, Japan and New Zealand was being finalised. That will be named on Wednesday, June 17th, and may be brought forward if Irish interest ends in this weekend’s URC quarter-finals or next weekend’s semi-finals. Were Leinster to be knocked out on Saturday evening in their quarter-final against the Lions at the Aviva Stadium, or in next Saturday’s semi-final against either the Stormers or Cardiff, that would compound last Saturday’s 41-19 loss to Bordeaux-Bègles. Yet it would be a mixed blessing for Ireland’s tour.Of last summer’s record-breaking 14 Leinster players on the Lions tour to Australia, all played in Bilbao bar James Lowe – whose future has been left in limbo by Leinster and/or the IRFU after nine years with the province.Maybe it was the conditions in the San Mamés oven, or they were over-trained too close to the game – and certainly the warm-up seemed unduly long – but most of them look in need of an extended break.If Farrell and Co again generate the enthusiasm, energy and performances required to compete strongly in all three Tests, and even win a couple, it will shine an unflattering light on Leinster’s season. Farrell, and all but Paul O’Connell of the assistant coaches who met for coffee last Tuesday, extracted a series of big displays on the Lions tour. The Leinster and Bath players were last to join the Lions squad after winning the URC and Premiership finals. This was also some compensation for Leinster after losing their Champions Cup semi-final at home to Northampton.Damian Penaud of Bordeaux is challenged by Jack Conan of Leinster during the Champions Cup final. Photograph: Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images After they joined the Lions squad for their pre-tour training in UCD, it seemed pertinent to ask Jack Conan if Leinster’s season had been a success or not. “I think any season where you win something can never be deemed a failure. Obviously, we want to go well in both competitions, and I think if it hadn’t been for the performance against Northampton, even if we had lost that game, but we had performed really well, I don’t think people would have said much about it.“The problem is when you win most of the time, it papers over cracks a little bit, so we had to have a good hard look at ourselves and it was tough for a lot of lads, for everyone in the building. But you get to win a trophy at Croke Park with all your mates, at the end of the day, I would have taken that.“I definitely wouldn’t say it was a failure, but there’s definitely some more in this club and more in the lads, so hopefully there’ll be a few years still ahead of us.”At least last season, Leinster had two regular season games and an idle weekend after the loss to Northampton before they laboured to beat the Scarlets in the URC quarter-finals. This URC quarter-final comes within a week of another crushing disappointment. With no respite, it looks tricky.Retaining the URC trophy after reaching a Champions Cup final ought to be regarded as a successful season. But that won’t be how it’s seen by their supporters, the media or even the players themselves.The URC has never been tougher to win but the Champions Cup has long been seen as the Holy Grail of Irish provincial rugby and Leinster’s mounting catalogue of near misses has compounded each disappointment.Jordie Barrett has strongly suggested he would be interested in returning to Leinster one day and as he also noted, Leo Cullen has to contend with “a lot of moving parts” between Ireland, the URC and the Champions Cup.Leo Cullen with Jordie Barrett after the 2025 United Rugby Championship final against the Bulls. Photograph: Ben Brady/©INPHO What’s more, in the IRFU’s eyes, Cullen and Leinster fulfil their primary role as bulk suppliers to Team Ireland, not to mention also supplementing the other three provinces.Yet 14 of Leinster’s matchday 23 last Saturday were playing in a fourth or fifth losing final. They deserve our admiration for how they’ve striven for that elusive fifth but, as many of them are aware, time is running out. And former players wonder if the coaching is giving them the best chance.Cullen must be asking himself the same question. This is his 11th season as head coach, albeit he’s more a director of rugby than a hands-on coach. He has entrusted that to senior coaches Stuart Lancaster and Jacques Nienaber.Cullen, Neinaber and this ticket have another season on their contracts, and there seems little appetite for change, either by IRFU performance director David Humphreys or the Leinster hierarchy. Humphreys, Leinster chief executive Shane Nolan and Frank Doherty, the chairman of the province’s Professional Games Board (PGB), will assess Leinster’s campaign at the end of this season, like they do every 12 months.The Leinster PGB consists of Doherty, Cullen himself, team manager Guy Easterby, Tom Kavanagh, Michael McGrail (the Leinster Branch’s honorary treasurer), Kevin McLaughlin (a former team-mate of Cullen’s on the 2011 and 2012 Heineken Cup winning teams) and Nolan. Another former Blackrock College and Leinster team-mate, Peter Smyth, is rejoining as Leinster’s academy manager.[ View from South Africa: Lions lie in wait armed with Bordeaux’s blueprint for LeinsterOpens in new window ]Cullen has never seemed like a career coach per se. Save for an influential two-year segue to Leicester, he has been a Leinsterman his entire adult life. When he moves on, or upstairs, it will be most probably be of his own volition.Nienaber is engaging, passionate, knowledgeable and committed. But as he will invariably rejoin the Springboks coaching ticket before the next World Cup, there is an argument for having a reboot of some kind before next season.With Rabah Slimani, Luke McGrath, Ciarán Frawley, Will Connors and Rieko Ioane moving on and only Joey Carbery joining, how else are Leinster going to have a stronger hand next season?Ultimately Leinster conceded five tries in both last season’s semi-final and last Saturday’s final, and 80 points over the two games. Leinster players have bought into Nienaber’s more proactive, blitz defence but their attacking game has remained relatively attritional, certainly compared to UBB.While the near 60 per cent of possession and territory that Leinster enjoyed is skewed by them playing catch-up from 35-7 down at half-time, there is validity to the boxing analogy used by former Leinster outhalf Andrew Dunne.Joey Carbery is heading back to Leinster. Photograph: James Crombie/©INPHO “Leinster seem to only know how to swing haymakers all day long, massive on effort,” said Dunne after noting Leinster’s 133 rucks to the 78 by UBB. “They don’t know how to throw a jab, to just look at the opposition, throw a jab, conserve energy, stay in a game.”Intriguingly, after Saturday’s final Carbery reflected on his “eye-opening” two years in Bordeaux. “It’s just a different way of playing and obviously it’s a very successful way of playing, so hopefully I can bring some stuff home with me. “They just play what’s in front of them and back themselves 100 per cent. It’s refreshing to see and to play with these guys.”Specifically on learning from Matthieu Jalibert, Carbery said: “There’s a looseness and chaos, but there is also a lot of reason behind why he does it. The majority of time it works out because he has seen it two or three phases before.“To see how he plays and also the confidence he plays with, it has given me a lot [of confidence] to say: ‘Look, you see something, you try something and you don’t worry about what a coach is going to say or if they give out to you.’” That could be interesting.