Record breaker Cian plays his part as Leinster open home account with win over Dragons

"He's still going strong, he's great now and is certainly a unique individual," said Cullen

Leinster, the club, made it a special night with a special presentation for Cian Healy earning a record 281st cap against Dragons at the Aviva.

While his team mates made it an extra special occasion posting a bonus-point win over Dragons on the night.

"We just had Dev Toner in the dressing room making a presentation which is very special," said Leinster coach Leo Cullen afterwards.

"It's phenomenal really. Dev, what he was just touching on it, to get that number of caps, when you add in all the Irish tests, 131 of them, which are two insanely large numbers in terms of the modern professional game.

"Some of the injuries he's had to overcome over the course of his career. He's still going strong, he's great now and is certainly a unique individual."

The win over Dragons came with six tries and while it wasn't perfect Cullen noted: "We build towards next week because it's week to week at the moment.

"We will have some guys come back into the mix next week. You saw Joe and Josh coming off the bench, the Emerging Ireland guys depart tomorrow, so we have a number of the international guys coming in next week.

"Specifically today, if you'd offered it to us before the game, we'd be delighted, yeah."

Dragons had put up stubborn resistance for 50 minutes.

"They had a clever kicking game, contested well, so they had us down our end of the field, and we probably got turned over a couple of times.

"When we did get down there, twice in the 22 we get done for that sealing off at the back [of the lineout]. Watching that back, I think it's a pretty harsh call. It goes from you being ten metres out and suddenly they're kicking to the halfway line and you've given up that opportunity."

There was also praise from the boss for Man of the Match Max Deegan.

"It's great, he got announced and then came up with that lineout steal. Some of that pressure he puts in the air, he does well for his try to see that space, and lots of good moments in the game.

"He spins out of that tackle down the left edge, and had lots of good moments in the game.

"The backrow competition is great and it's good to see Max going well."

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