Cullen hoping his World Cup boat finally docks

RUGBY:"I DON'T really know. You are asking the wrong person," says Leo Cullen. One of the most decorated rugby players in the country has reason to tiptoe around issues of the World Cup. Just a week after national squad training in Carton House, Cullen is back in Leinster class for the first time. It is, though, the World Cup that occupies his mind.

He has two months to impress Declan Kidney, two months now to achieve a personal goal and also add his shoulder to the weight of Ireland’s New Zealand efforts in September. Cullen, despite his 29 caps for Ireland, has never played in a RWC.

He is not the type of character to invite anxiety attacks over issues beyond his control. But twice his name has been flagged, for the 2003 competition in Australia and for the 2007 tournament in France, and twice he has been overlooked.

Last season was a triumph for Leinster under his captaincy. Possibly the freight of that and a Magners League final would buttress his position with Ireland too: “I don’t really know,” he says treading carefully around his biggest remaining ambition.

“Absolutely. I’m really excited by the prospect,” he says of the challenge. “It’s hard to say because there are a lot of games to get through and you don’t want to be tempting fate. Everyone individually has their goals.

“Going back a few years ago, when you are planning out your contractual situation, this was certainly a pretty big target of mine. It has been great being back in Ireland. Playing four years ago I was making the swap back. 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.”

He arrives fresh and fit and content not to have to answer questions about injury and rehabilitation. After last season he had reconstruction on his left shoulder for the third time. The previous surgery hadn’t worked out properly and a personal goal to be ready for the November internationals passed him by. He sees good in his body now. No special exercises, no taping and bandages. Small mercies.

“It is pretty grim when you are watching everyone get on with their pre-season,” he says. “It maybe served me well later on in the season. I was a bit fresher but it is a massive relief not to be in a sling at this time of year.”

Cullen knows it is only the beginning of a winding path. A dramatic Heineken Cup final win; a Magners League defeat to Munster; a short break; a marriage (to Dairine) pretty much filled his life for the last month. Carton House training is back to bread and butter. It’s July and just about everyone has a spring in their step.

“There is still a bit of a slog to get to that point,” he says of selection for New Zealand. “I was pretty disappointed four years ago and particularly eight years ago. Eight years ago it came as a bit of a shock getting the phone call the morning the squad was announced. It wasn’t particularly enjoyable so it would be great to get out there and even better to play a role.”

Despite gaining his first cap against the All Blacks in Auckland in 2002, Cullen left Leinster in 2005 for two successful seasons with Leicester Tigers, where he won the EDF Energy Cup, Guinness Premiership and lost in the 2007 Heineken Cup final to London Wasps. Returning in 2007 to the RDS was a homecoming for the Blackrock boy and after Leinster’s success over Northampton Saints at the Millennium Stadium in May, his career stripes are almost complete. Almost.

He sees Ireland now as deserving of something more. In the country’s need to have a better World Cup than the disappointment of France so too could 33-year-old Cullen rightfully claim his career deserves better too, to be bookended with a World Cup place.

“I am just trying to live each day like it is the last,” he says. “I enjoyed being involved with the Six Nations. I would have liked to be on the field a little bit more and it was a bit of a mixed bag of a campaign. All in all I think there is a sense of frustration within the Irish team and hopefully we will see that in these autumn internationals.”

A final fling. Fearlessly so this time and with his eyes wide open.