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Veteran Leinster flanker admits he can barely recall a time when Cullen wasn’t involved with the province
Veteran Leinster flanker admits he can barely recall a time when Cullen wasn’t involved with the province Josh van der Flier, Jimmy O'Brien and Tommy O'Brien at Guinness Open Gate Brewery in Dublin for Canterbury's launch of the new Ireland rugby kit.
Photograph: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile Cullen’s bow for the province came in October 1998 and, bar two seasons with Leicester Tigers, the Newtownmountkennedy man has been with Leinster ever since. That run will end next summer. Leinster announced in June that Cullen’s 12th year in the head coach’s hot seat will be his last. It was right at the end of last term that Van der Flier heard the news from the man himself.
“I was surprised, yeah,” said the long-serving flanker. “I had a brief chat with him at the end of the season, just literally a couple of days before, and he kind of said that he was going to be finishing up. It would be sad to see him go. Northampton seek ‘happy medium’ after Eddie Hearn claims Henry Pollock is worth £1m a yearLove or loathe him, Rassie Erasmus misses nothing in rugby’s ‘Greatest Rivalry’ thriller “It’s mad.
I was probably like five when he first got involved in Leinster. I’ve only known Leinster with him there as long as I’ve been there, obviously.
“He’s made a lot of brave calls, he’s brought other coaches in who have maybe taken over and done a lot more of the rugby side of things. He could have done it himself but he’s facilitated it very well.
“He will be missed and it’ll be a big change for whoever takes over then, but we have a year with him yet. ” Cullen has spent more than a decade carrying the responsibility of leading a team expected to win every week, and the weight of Leinster’s repeated Champions Cup disappointments has often landed on his shoulders. Another final defeat,Leo Cullen is facing into his 12th and final season as Leinster head coach.
Photograph: Nick Elliott/Inpho Van der Flier has sympathy for his fellow Wicklow man, particularly because of the ease with which responsibility can be assigned from outside.
“Yeah, not fair,” said the 33-year-old, whose only Champions Cup final success came eight years ago in Bilbao. “I spoke to him a bit about it before. He doesn’t mind it at all. He’s used to it.
“I’ve talked to a few coaches about it. I’ve played in a lot of those finals, semi-finals, whatever. You lose them. You had a part in it, you tried your best.
“He’s probably prepared the team as well as he thinks he can. A drop goal goes over or doesn’t go over, someone drops the ball over the line and he’s the one to blame. He’s on the pitch.
“In fairness to him, it must be a hard thing to do. But he’s always willing to put his hand up. Even if it wasn’t anything to do with him, he’s always happy to take on the pressure that way. ” While the Leinster players have yet to broach the subject collectively, the 48-year-old’s long goodbye will surely make the coming campaign feel different.
Van der Flier insists the squad is not approaching it as some kind of extended farewell tour for the first man to captain and coach a team to Champions Cup glory.
“We haven’t sat down and done goals or anything like that. The group just hasn’t been together yet in terms of everyone training together,” he explained. Leinster's Thomas Clarkson and Josh van der Flier after the Champions Cup final defeat to Bordeaux-Bègles at San Mames Stadium, Bilbao, in May. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho “I think the goals are always pretty similar year to year, but there’s definitely added motivation.
Obviously everyone has their own motivation, and the club itself, but with this being Leo’s last year, then it adds to it, for sure. ” And Van der Flier has already told Cullen what he hopes the players can do for him.
“I was even saying to him, ‘we’ll have to make it a good year for him’,” he said. “Not that we don’t give our best all the time, but make it a good year for him, because he’s obviously been such a servant to Leinster. He’s done unbelievable things in his time here, playing and coaching. So, hopefully make it a good year.
”Naturally, Van der Flier’s ambition for what he hopes will be his third World Cup is for Ireland to go further than before. For now, though, he is focusing on what comes before their latest tilt at breaking through the quarter-final glass ceiling. That meant doing what he does every summer – analysing every part of his game to see where he can get better. Get the best of our writing in the Irish Times rugby community.
Photograph: Henry Simpson/Inpho Join our Irish Times Rugby WhatsApp community and get our best rugby writing sent directly to your messages inbox. From provincial news to coverage of Ireland’s inaugural Nations Championship campaign, you won’t miss an update. Join here:“The World Cup is an added motivation at the end of it,” he acknowledged.
“There’ll be another period off, I assume, between the end of this season and the start of the World Cup, so perhaps I’m trying to not put that in the picture. “But it’s obviously not too far away, so it’s definitely a major motivator, because everyone wants to play in World Cups. It’s one of those things you look forward to once the last one ends.
“You’re like, ‘I can’t wait for the next one’, so it’s definitely in the back of the mind. But I try not to think about it.
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