Cullen still nursing Munster ambitions

European Cup:It has been a long and winding road. Christian Cullen has had to survive it. Munster have had to walk it with him. Perseverance from both sides and now the final straight. His run toward the end of a one-year contract again draws a type of public courtship.

At times like this you observe again his smooth glide into a line, the subtle change of balance, the strength to break tackles, and you remember the hundreds who turned out at Cork airport in 2003 to welcome the slightly dumbstruck All Black legend.

But Cullen's Munster career has been not so much a disappointment as a catastrophic sequence of injuries that have allowed his genius only flash and flicker. Enough, though, to brighten up long stretches of recuperation and keep alive the promise, even at 30 years of age.

The most recent breakdown came in a Magners Celtic League game with Ulster at Musgrave Park in September, when the fullback attempted to stop Paul Steinmetz claiming the game's opening try after just nine minutes and again damaged his shoulder. While Munster's faith extended to offering him a 12-month contract, Cullen responded by admitting another long-term injury would kill his will as much as his body.

"Christian has said himself he will pack it in if such a case recurs, but deciding on this will be down to Christian Cullen and Christian Cullen only," said a Munster official two months ago.

Munster's frustration at the premature obituaries was understandable but the speculation had a genuine base. Since 2003, Cullen had undergone surgery on a knee and both shoulders. In that season of 2003-2004 he played eight Celtic League matches and two in the European Cup.

In August 2005 it was announced the fullback would be out of action until February 2006, when the shoulder ligaments torn in a match against Cardiff Blues in the Celtic League the previous March failed to respond as expected to treatment. Cullen ended the season with 15 Celtic League matches and six European Cup games.

Had he known his fate for 2005-2006, he might well have decamped. After prolonged recuperation from another shoulder operation, he was finally set to play a central part in last May's European Cup final. Instead he limped out of a Celtic League match two weeks before the Cardiff showdown against Biarritz with a calf-muscle strain.

The European Cup passed him by. The season too. In 2005-2006, Cullen played only twice in the Celtic League and in no European Cup matches.

Overall he has played an average of 12 matches a season since arriving here in November 2003. His legacy to date has been 28 games in the Celtic Cup and eight in the European Cup. Shaun Payne, who also came to Munster in 2003, has played in 23 European Cup games and 54 Celtic League matches as well as four Celtic Cup ties, 81 in all.

It has taken a toll on the fans' nerves and on Munster pockets, and on the man who won the first of 58 New Zealand caps as a 20-year-old and recorded a record 46 tries until former All Black coach John Mitchell ended his international career by excluding him from the 2003 World Cup squad.

Many believed his Test career was ended prematurely. And though an operation at the time had reputedly shaved a fraction off his acceleration, his arrival in Ireland was greeted elsewhere in Europe by feelings of envy at Munster's spectacular audacity. Cullen's signing was about much more than an Irish province signing a legendary All Black; it was a declaration of Munster confidence, of ambition.

"I really want one full season without injury," said Cullen in the New Zealand Herald last November. "If you are asking if I'm the same player as when I was 22, then the answer is no. Age catches up with you and injuries haven't helped."

Cullen may be selected today; his try last week will have brought him more forcefully into Declan Kidney's thinking. But it will be difficult to ignore Payne's consistent skills. A bench place for Cullen might be, for now, the ideal compromise, allowing us to again ponder what might have been - and what might just yet be.