McBryde: Stormers hammering took Leinster by surprise

A chastening loss away to Stormers in their opening game of the URC season has led to much soul-searching within the Leinster camp, with assistant coach Robin McBryde pointing the finger at himself in his preparation of the side.

Last Friday night in Cape Town the defending champions fell to a humiliating 35-0 defeat. It’s the first time in 17 years that the province have been held scoreless in a league game, dating back to their 18-0 loss to Munster in September 2008.

Little went right for Leo Cullen’s side across all lines against opposition who were playing without their Springbok squad members.

Leinster remain in South Africa for their second game: a date with the Bulls in what is a repeat of last season’s URC decider.

“It was tough to take on Friday; it took everybody by surprise and it wasn’t the start we wanted,” was how McBryde summed up the no-show.

“We don’t know where it came from and there has been a lot of soul-searching since then. We can’t dwell on it because we have a big challenge facing us on Saturday. It doesn’t come much tougher than the opposition we got. There is quality in their side and you have the added factor of that final from last season so they will be looking to avenge that. Hopefully we can stand up to it.”

The Welshman, however, did accept blame as to why those numbered 1-8 did not meet expectations in that season opener.

“It’s on me with how the forwards went and I apologise to everybody,” he admitted.

“I obviously did not prepare them well enough to stand up to the test. We’ve got an opportunity on Saturday to go again and give a better account of ourselves.”

Jimmy O’Brien expects Bulls to be gunning for revenge in Saturday’s rematch of the URC final as Leinster aim to bounce back from a horror show against the Stormers #URC pic.twitter.com/0mVi36jwRk

— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) September 29, 2025

Full-back Jimmy O’Brien admitted: “Not a lot went right for us on the night. It was a very frustrating game to be part of.

“The mood was pretty low after the game. But there’s a game this weekend you have to get back up for.

“We did the review of the game when we arrived in Pretoria yesterday. It wasn’t the best viewing obviously. When you lose like that, it’s tough to watch. But we got through it together, talked through everything we think we can put right this week, and trying to look forward to this weekend now.”

“One of the only positives from it was that it’s not fatal, it’s the first game of the season. As a whole, from 1-23, we need to improve on every aspect of our game I think.

“What better way to try and put things right than getting a win in Loftus, against the Bulls at altitude?

“(It’s) one of the toughest places to play but it’s a great opportunity for us to turn things around and put in a proper performance that we think reflects our group, that we didn’t put out on Friday.”

In an injury update ahead of the Bulls clash, head coach Leo Cullen said that Jordan Larmour picked up a foot injury against the Stormers and will be further assessed this week before a final decision is made on his selection.

Jamie Osborne has sustained a minor hamstring injury and Cormac Foley suffered a calf injury, with both expected to unavailable for selection for a few weeks. There are no further updates on Caelan Doris, Joe McCarthy and Hugo Keenan.