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The special 'tough f***er' description of Leinster boss Leo Cullen
By Liam Heagney
Retired Scotland international Jim Hamilton has credited current Leinster boss Leo Cullen with changing his career from a ‘not taken seriously’ player to one who went on to win three Premiership titles, two European Cups, and 63 Test caps for his country.
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Hamilton was part of the Leicester squad in the mid-noughties looking to prosper from the retirement of the legendary Martin Johnson, the 2003 England Rugby World Cup-winning skipper who hung up his boots in 2005.
The second row Hamilton thought he was next in line to graduate to the Leicester first team, so he had the hump when the Tigers signed Cullen on a two-year deal from Leinster.
However, his anger towards the Irish lock didn’t last and by the end of Cullen’s two-year stay at Welford Road in 2007, he admitted that he “loved” his rival second row for what he had done for the outlook of his game.
Now working for World Rugby Studios, the former Scottish forward was interviewed by Paul Kimmage in the Sunday Independent, a lengthy four-page conversation that included his recollection of his time with Cullen as a teammate in the Leicester set-up.
Hamilton was effusive in his praise for Cullen, the current Leinster coach who is preparing for his team’s latest Investec Champions Cup final appearance versus Toulouse on May 25. “Leo Cullen changed the direction of my career,” said Hamilton to Kimmage.
“I was a rogue player on that team, loose, on the piss, fighting, not taken seriously. Then they brought Leo in. At first, I was pissed off because I had come through the Leicester system and thought I was next in line behind Martin Johnson and Ben Kay.
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“Why would they bring him in? But instead of seeing me as a challenge, he took me under his wing and changed the direction of my career.
“Because I was a ‘two’ jumper, I wanted to be the next Martin Johnson, but Leo was like, ‘Have you thought about being a middle jumper?’ I said: ‘No, they’re more athletic’.
“He said, ‘No, I’m a middle jumper. I call the lineouts’, and that was a game-changer for me. And just sitting with him, I thought, ‘I can see a bit of me here’.
“He was very similar to me because, with respect, he wasn’t a gifted athlete but a tough f***er. Just tough. Horrible. Knarly. But in a different way to the way Martin Johnson did it.
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“So he started helping me with the lineouts and it changed the path for me financially as well because I was now this number four who could call a lineout, and calling the lineout was gold back then.
“So I love Leo. I absolutely love him. I love the way he conducted himself around the club. I love that he came from Leinster and played like a Tiger and went back to do what he did.”
Paul Kimmage meets Jim Hamilton, the rugby rogue who stayed out in the cold https://t.co/XhvDVe7Aea
— Irish Independent (@Independent_ie) May 12, 2024
Hamilton concluded his admiration of Cullen by adding: “He’s a special bloke and that’s not just my experience – speak to anyone from our generation and they would say the same.
“And the same for Shane Jennings. They lived together, Irish, a bit loose… They enjoyed a good time. They opened up and weren’t guarded. We saw the real them.”
