GERRY THORNLEYtalks to the Leinster captain, who has observed the changes from inside and out over the years
MASTERS OF all they survey they may be, but it’s been a long, arduous and often painful route to becoming the dominant force in European rugby. There were big beatings against more professional outfits from France, England and even Wales; there was something of a laissez-faire attitude and even a bit of a drinking culture and, of course, there were the years of watching Munster lord it.
On foot of rubbing shoulders with Fabien Pelous as the only three-time Heineken Cup winning captain, Cullen was in a deeply reflective mood after he and his closest rugby playing mates had scaled Europe’s summit for the third time in four years.
A product of the celebrated Blackrock schools dream team of the mid-90s and the Leinster underage set-up, Cullen made the first of his 175 appearances for his native province in 1998-99.
But his attachment began before then, and he traces it to the inaugural Heineken Cup of 1995-96 when they beat Milan and Pontypridd to reach the last four. Out of little acorns indeed.
“I first played for a Leinster team when I was 17 and that’s 17 years ago now. I watched them play in a semi-final in 1995 against Cardiff and ever since then I’ve always been a Leinster supporter. The game went professional in 1997 and I came out of school. All the way along I was there, from the year I came out of school, all the way through to when I was 27 and I left to go to England.”
Perhaps that envy of Munster was the catalyst as much as anything for the turnaround, which began in earnest after the pool defeat in 2001 away to Biarritz, following a costly draw at home to Edinburgh.
On the way home, Matt Williams began the process of demanding that if the Leinster players really want to achieve something in the Heineken Cup, they had to completely change their culture.
Cullen too had been beguiled by the promise shown under Williams when they won the inaugural Celtic League by beating Munster in the 2001 final.
“I thought we’d push on then, I thought it was a done deal.”
Even then though, there would be more pain, not least the mentally scaring home semi-final loss to Perpignan in ’03 with a home final beckoning. “I just thought we were a bit amateurish. We weren’t performing to our best, maybe doing too much in training. There are so many different factors in the way you prep for those games and that was a pretty bad run. Leicester in the quarters in 2005 wasn’t great either; we crashed out in 2004. There were a lot of bad stories and I still remember them pretty vividly,” he recalled with a wry, knowing smile.
The prospect of a fourth coach in four years after Gary Ella and Declan Kidney had swiftly come and gone after Williams prompted Cullen to briefly give up the ghost in 2005 and join Leicester. “I was hungry to be with a successful team and there was no coach in Leinster at that stage. Declan had gone back to Munster and Gary was in for a year before him.
“We were just at a very disjointed period in time and I learned a lot, I thought, when I went to England. Leicester are a fantastic club, I can’t say enough good things about them and what I learned over there, just the winning mentality that they had.”
He and Shane Jennings lost a European final and won a Premiership with the Tigers. “But you want to win more than anything for the team that you’re really in love with.”
Upon Cullen’s return to the third season of Michael Cheika’s tenure, there was another pool exit in 2007-08 before the Leinster Machine came into being.
“Cheiks came in, changed the mentality. At the same time a lot of young players came through and Cheiks brought in a lot of quality players, the likes of Isa (Nacewa) and Rocky (Elsom), even CJ (van der Linde). They were three pretty big players. The team was desperate to be successful and it wasn’t pretty when we won in 2009. It wasn’t pretty when we beat Quins 6-5.
“It came together for us on the day (2009 semi-final) against Munster, but there was a belief that there was always that sort of a performance in the team. We sort of fell over the line against Leicester in the final. They were pretty beat that year, when it came to the final, so I thought we were a little bit fortunate.
“We had to kick on from there and the guys have worked really hard in the academy. There is a constant working on guys coming through and I think we’re blessed with the competitions we have at underage level in Leinster schools and youths. It breeds good-quality players and guys who are competitive. Already I’m excited watching some of the schools stuff this year and excited to see what sort of guys are coming through next year.”
Cullen assuredly wasn’t the only player to receive a text from Cheika on the morning of the game. “He created a lot of passion in the team. He did five years, maybe it was time for a change and he was the one who called that himself.”
And then along came Joe Schmidt. “He demands high standards. He’s not joking (about another critical Monday video review), he’ll find plenty from the game today. I know myself, I know there were things I didn’t do right, and it’s great for players to have that realisation. It’s like he’s embedded himself in our heads when we’re on the field.”
In this reflective mood however, Cullen was not of a mind to bask in the glow of Saturday’s triumph for too long. There’s more history to be made next Sunday. “I appreciate it but in sport you want to move on to the next thing straight away. Thankfully that’s in eight days for us and there will be some guys gunning to play. There is no guarantee every week you’re going to play in this team.
“It (the double) would be great. But you start the process all over again, and you need to prepare and see what opportunities there are against this team and look for the dangers they have. They have plenty of threats, judging by their performance against Munster.”
Happier, more contented, reflections can wait until then.
