Cullen contract talk near completion

He is 35 now and has played almost 200 games for Leinster alone in a career sprinkled with silverware but there were strong indications again yesterday that Leo Cullen will soldier on for one more season with the province.

Cullen suggested as much in a TV interview after Saturday’s defeat of Scarlets at the RDS. And team manager Guy Easterby was clearly leaning in the same direction when discussing the captain’s future yesterday.

“We are still chatting away with him and we will announce something as soon as it is there to be announced,” said Easterby who didn’t accept that it was taking too long to sort out. “I heard Leo’s interesting comments after the game but Leo is someone who knows his own mind and I am sure that things will come out on that in the near future.

“Certain things need to be worked through and that is the way with every contract. Leo is just the same as everyone else in that regard. He is captain of the club at the moment but there are things that need to be worked through on both sides and hopefully we are near the end of that and we will be able to announce something reasonably soon.”

Leinster will be bolstered by the arrival of Connacht and Ireland lock Mike McCarthy over the summer but they still look light on top-class options in the second row where Damian Browne, Devin Toner, Tom Denton or Mark Flanagan have yet to make a solid case for regular game time.

Easterby also distanced Leinster from recent rumours they had already signed a pre-contract with Waratahs and Australia utility back Adam Ashley Cooper and confirmed the province’s intent to agree a new contract with Luke Fitzgerald as soon as possible.

Fitzgerald was signed up to a one-year deal last year when he lost his national contract and the increasing constrictions on the volume of those IRFU awards is placing an increased financial strain on the provinces.

“It is certainly an issue in that we are having to spend more money and therefore it would be irresponsible of us not to be aware of our budgets and the constraints around those budgets. The less people we have on national contracts the more the costs are to us.”

With that in mind, it is the province’s intention to seek replacements for the departing Andrew Conway (to Munster) and Fionn Carr (Connacht) from the existing Irish talent pool.

Both Conway and Carr started last weekend’s 32-5 win against Scarlets which leaves Joe Schmidt’s side third in the table ahead of this Friday’s trip to face the Dragons at Rodney Parade.

It remains to be seen how many of Declan Kidney’s squad players feature in that.