Cullen now ready to take on the world

LEO CULLEN has ticked most boxes in his 11 years as a professional player.

A couple of league titles and two Heineken Cups claimed with Leinster, a Premiership and EDF Energy Cup were added to the CV during a successful two-year stint with Leicester Tigers.

But other ambitions remain.

Chief among them is a chance to board a plane bound for the World Cup having been overlooked in favour of the more experienced Gary Longwell in 2003 and again in 2007 when Ireland opted for just three specialist locks.

The first omission, when he was cut by Eddie O’Sullivan on the morning of the squad’s announcement, came as something of a shock. The second he saw coming down the tracks and he is desperate to avoid an unwanted three-peat.

“Going back a few years ago, when you are planning out your contractual situation, this was certainly a pretty big target of mine,” he admitted yesterday at the launch of Leinster’s latest jersey.

“It has been great being back in Ireland playing.

“Four years ago, I was making the swap back [from Leicester]. I was kind of out of the picture when it came to preparations and I held on until the final culling but I kind of knew that it was coming. This time that situation is a little bit different.”

It certainly is.

Cullen has just come off the back of a season where he captained Leinster to their second Heineken Cup and to within a hair’s breadth of a Magners League and what would have been an unprecedented double in these parts.

Making the trip to New Zealand is just base camp for his international ambitions. Though he featured in all five of Ireland’s Six Nations ties this year, his time on the pitch totalled just 25 minutes and he is eager to add to a respectable haul of 29 caps.

It remains to be seen whether Kidney opts for a 17-13 or 16-14 split between forwards and backs but either equation will demand three locks and Cullen is well established as first alternate to Paul O’Connell and Donncha O’Callaghan.

After that, it remains to be seen if Ireland opt for a fourth specialist lock or plump for someone like Kevin McLaughlin, Donnacha Ryan or Mike McCarthy who can all do a shift in the second or back rows when the need arises.

“It would be great if I got that opportunity,” Cullen said, “there is still a bit of a slog to get to that point.”

That slog started last week when 43 players returned home from the four corners of the globe after a month’s break and gathered in Carton House for the first week of World Cup boot camp under the eye of the IRFU’s fitness guru Philip Morrow. Released back to their provinces this week, Kidney’s charges will pick up where they left off next Monday before another five-day stint with their clubs. After that, it will be national duty all the way through to August 22 — when the 30-man squad is named — and beyond. By then, Ireland will have played three of their four warm-up games and there will be little left to do after an extensive preparatory period that is designed to ensure there is no repeat of 2007 when the squad was overcooked in training and underplayed on the field.

There will be other differences too, most notably in personnel where a player such as Sean O’Brien will be expected to play a leading role having watched the last edition at home in Tullow as a complete unknown.

“It’s a different kind of set-up now,” said O’Brien in Dublin yesterday.

“It’s different coaches and a different attitude maybe within the whole squad so it will be a learning curve for everyone.

“The lads who were there, I suppose, will want to make up for what happened but it’s a completely different set-up, a completely different style of rugby we’re trying to play, different preparation. Everything about it is different.

“We’re together now, we’re going to be together for a couple of weeks before we kick off the warm-up games and then it’s straight into it. Before the last World Cup, the lads didn’t have many warm-up games under their belts. Hopefully the way it’s going to be this time around is going to be of benefit.”