‘He’s contracted post-World Cup’ - Cullen hints Johnny Sexton may play past 2023

Inevitably it turns to Johnny Sexton and Leo Cullen yanks a wry smile, perhaps thinking that his outhalf’s name would not arise at the first in-person press conference Leinster have had in three years. Seven minutes in he finds himself talking about his 37-year-old playmaker.

Sexton hinted that the World Cup next year in France might be the time to close his majestic career, which if true leaves the Leinster coach in the unusual position of having his most influential player limiting his time to one more seasonal hit out.

Legacy issues aside, Cullen seems to be not totally convinced or unconvinced. He has been in charge for long enough to know how careers can end suddenly or appear to never cease.

“We saw some footage there of us against Zebre, and Sean Cronin, Devin Toner and Dan Leavy are playing the game, and that’s just the nature of the game, isn’t it. Dev and Sean are more mature players and finished out through age, really, Dan, a younger player, it gets taken away quite quickly.

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“There are players beneath Johnny, they’ve built up a ton of experience and the way he has managed himself has been unbelievable really. He’s out on tour in New Zealand playing as well as he ever has. Like, it’s remarkable. If Johnny is playing better than them he’ll continue to get picked.”

That doesn’t prevent the coach from being drawn into a conversation about Leinster life post-World Cup, especially if Sexton continues to give what Cullen alludes to, driving performances during Ireland’s historic 2-1 winning series last summer.

Having crashed through 100 international caps and 1,000 international points barriers, the hanging question is why Sexton would close down something that’s still functioning so well?

“We’ve had all sorts of conversations over the last number of years, so you’re constantly just checking in,” says Cullen. “We’ll see how he goes. We’re so early in the season now and he’s obviously contracted to post-World Cup but, yeah, we’ll see the desire levels and all the rest. It’s early days.”

Stuart Lancaster is also out of contract. The influential former England coach drifts into a new rugby year with a World Cup at the end, the quadrennial shop window for coaches seeking to move on in their careers.

Leinster have had several new faces come into coaching roles including Sean O’Brien, Andrew Goodman and Declan Darcy, the former Leitrim and Dublin intercounty footballer. Darcy steps into the role Gary Keegan occupied.

“Declan has come into that space,” says Cullen. “There’s always somebody who has been in that space as a performance coach. What a performance coach is depends sometimes on the individual and the skillset they have. Dec comes from a different code, Gary has worked in high performance, particularly with the boxing.”

Lancaster, credited with much of the creative culture and unstructured play Leinster have developed since arriving in 2016, may possibly also become part of the natural rugby churn. His name, at least is in the float. His would be a genuinely huge loss. But not for the first time Cullen has effortlessly slipped into ringmaster mode.

“Like us all, the season starts off and that’s not just Stu – there’s tons of people out of contract. We’ll see how it all plays out. It’s the nature of every season and people look in with prying eyes from the outside,” he says.

“It’s just like Felipe (Contepomi), Andrew Goodman comes in. Seán O’Brien is finishing (playing) as Denis Leamy is finishing here. There’s that timing piece. Always at World Cup time there’s quite a lot of movement as well, in terms of coaches, so you think the 2023 World Cup is this piece on the horizon and there’s all sort of movement. England are looking for coaches, some of the French coaches might move on.”

For now, though, short term Cullen must deal with the players who will travel with the emerging Ireland squad to South Africa as well as populate the Irish team in their three-match November Series. Like Sexton’s name being mentioned, the potential siphoning of his players draws a small, resigned guffaw.

But top of the Cullen agenda is how to plot the downfall of Zebre at the weekend. They came an emphatic last in Conference A last season, which brings its own kind of pressure for the first United Rugby League (URC) game of the new competition.

For that Leinster will do without Irish fullback Hugo Keenan and wing James Lowe who miss the start of the season beginning in Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi on Saturday. Keenan is rehabbing a knee and abdominal issue and will be unavailable for a number of weeks, while Lowe picked up a calf injury in training.

Better news surrounds Rónan Kelleher (shoulder), Dave Kearney (hamstring), Will Connors (knee) and Ross Byrne (foot), who have all returned to the squad and are available for selection.

“I’m excited to get going. Pre-season at the end it’s like ‘aaaaww, come on, you can just talk and talk and talk’ but it’s the action, the grind of the games, the winners and the losers and how everyone deals with everything. It’s great but when you get closer to the dates it’s like ‘come on, let’s get going’,” says Cullen rising to the new beginning. And why not.