O’Driscoll reappointed Leinster captain

LEINSTER have reappointed Brian O’Driscoll as captain for the third consecutive year.

The 28-year-old Ireland skipper will spearhead a new leadership team which includes returning Ireland international second row Leo Cullen and former Waratahs skipper Chris Whitaker.

O’Driscoll said. “Leinster is my home province and I believe that there’s an enormous amount of excitement around the club at the moment; with the impending return to the RDS coupled with some new signings who will no doubt add great competition for positions right across the panel.

Ex-captain Kurt McQuilkin has been appointed Leinster’s defence coach. The 41-year-old former Ireland international centre captained Leinster to interpro success in 1997/’98, and won five Ireland caps.

In all, he made 32 appearances for Leinster and captained the province on nine occasions. In the season of his captaincy, Leinster famously defeated Leicester in the Heineken Cup for the first time.

McQuilkin joins the backroom team which includes assistant coaches Mike Brewer and David Knox. “I received a call right out of the blue from Michael (Cheika) towards the end of last season where I had been working as a Technical Analyst in the IRFU’s High Performance Unit,’’ McQuilkin said

“It was a surprise, but a pleasant one at that and I was delighted to accept. It was too good an opportunity to turn down.”

In other news, Jason Cowman has been named the new strength & conditioning coach with Leinster, replacing Brad Harrington who returns to Australia to take up a position with the New South Wales Waratahs.

Meanwhile, England’s World Cup preparations have suffered a setback after Leicester prop Julian White ruled himself out of the tournament.

Although the experienced tighthead has agreed to go on standby for the two-month competition, he will not be part of England’s official 30-man squad.

England head coach Brian Ashton is due to name his World Cup party on August 14, but White has now followed Northampton wing Ben Cohen in making himself unavailable.

Ashton, whose World Cup training squad is currently based at the University of Bath, said White had indicated he did not want to leave his young family behind for a lengthy period.

White, who is from a farming background, has also bought a considerable amount of land and has commitments in that area.

White would have been an automatic choice for the World Cup squad but if Ashton decides to take four props to France then those places will now probably be filled by skipper Phil Vickery, Matt Stevens, Andrew Sheridan and 34-year-old Saracens forward Kevin Yates.

Cardiff Blues confirmed that Xavier Rush will retain the club captaincy for the 2007-8 season.