MEN IN BLACK The New Zealand All Blacks are a team everybody wants to beat! Fast, exciting and sublimely skilled, Christian Cullen is the country’s all-time leading try scorer. By John Plummer The New Zealand All Blacks are to rugby union what Brazil is to football, Ferrari is to Formula One and the LA Lakers are to basketball: the team everyone wants to beat. Since their first match in 1903, the men in black have become the stuff of legends by fusing a wild-eyed will to win with skill and, when necessary, more than a little brute force. The shirt, which was recently sponsored for $100m, is revered more than any other in the game. No one has done more damage in that shirt than Christian Cullen, 28, the country’s all-time leading try scorer. Fast, exciting and sublimely skilled, he announced himself to the world in 1996 with seven tries in his first two tests. His overall total of 46 tries in 58 tests places him ahead of no lesser names than Jonah Lomu and John Kirwan in the pantheon of All Black gods. In New Zealand, national pride is measured according to the All Blacks’ level of success and neither sleep nor childhood is allowed to get in the way of supporting them. “I remember when I was five years old waking up at 3am with my brother and sister to watch the All Blacks on TV,” he says. “It’s part of the New Zealand way.” Yet it’s unlikely that Cullen, who now plays club rugby for top Irish side Munster, would have had a career at any level in the game, let alone play for the All Blacks, had he not been so committed to weight training. At less than six feet tall and lighter than 90 kg, he is a midget next to most modern players. Naturally lean, he loses weight if he doesn’t eat regularly and has had to train his body to consume more. He realised from an early age that on the rugby field all the talent in the world cannot compensate for a lack of strength. “I’ve always been big into weights,” he says. “I used to train with my dad in the garage at home when I was 11 or 12. I did it because I was pretty small and if I didn’t I would get knocked over and hurt. It wasn’t forced on me, I enjoyed it.” When he wasn’t working out or playing rugby, Cullen tried his hand at other sports like tennis and karate. “I was always active,” he says. “If my dad went on a bike ride I’d follow him.” But in New Zealand every other sport fades into insignificance once the chance to play for the All Blacks comes along. Having forged a reputation as an explosive runner, Cullen was picked to play for the All Blacks at the Hong Kong Sevens in 1996. Aged only 20, he caused a sensation by scoring a record 18 tries in the tournament. His impact was equally devastating when he was promoted to the national team for the 15-aside game, with seven tries in his first two tests. Soon everyone was talking about this dazzling new player. “Cullen is the most talented footballer I’ve played with,” purred legendary All Black winger Jeff Wilson. “He’s got ability that people haven’t yet seen and I’ve seen him do things that no one else is capable of doing.” Playing for New Zealand helped Cullen to unravel some of the truth and mythology that surrounds the team. “When I first met the All Blacks I didn’t think any of them drunk,” he says. “After my first test I was taken out by some senior lads and the rest of the night is a bit of a blur. Then I found myself on the booze every week after every game. It was a bit of a shock to the system. “They don’t drink as much now. Things started to change under John Hart. And I only drink once in a blue moon because I know if I go on a night out it takes me two or three days to recover. That’s a struggle in Ireland,” he adds with a grin. There were plenty of reasons to celebrate in those early days as Cullen racked up 51 consecutive test match appearances and was hailed as the world’s premier full back. In the history of the game only Sean Fitzpatrick, Joe Roff, Willie John McBride and Gareth Edwards have enjoyed a longer unbroken sequence. But when injuries caught up, coach John Mitchell ruthlessly dispatched him to the international wilderness in 2002. Cullen has described Mitchell as ‘a bit of a dick’ for saying he never owed him an explanation for casting him aside. Mitchell was axed after last year’s unsuccessful World Cup campaign but although Cullen is still only 28, he is resigned to never playing for New Zealand again. “My time is done with the All Blacks,” he says. “There are a lot of young guys coming through and you have to face the fact at some stage that it’s the end. It’s a tough place over there because everyone is at your heels. I realised that and wanted something different.” Cullen is big friends with current All Black captain Tana Umaga and praises the set-up under new coach Graham Henry without falling into the trap of predicting glory at the next World Cup in France in 2007. By then it will be 20 years since the All Blacks lifted the trophy, which is not so much a statistic as an open sore running across the face of New Zealand rugby. Promise doesn’t always translate into performance but try telling that to the New Zealand fans. Four successive World Cup disasters have failed to cool their fevered brows. “It’s part and parcel of playing for the All Blacks,” says Cullen. “Every time you put the jersey on, everyone expects you to win.” With the current All Black team including match winners like Doug Howlett and Joe Rokocoko, both of whom could overtake Cullen’s try scoring record, New Zealand are probably the most exciting team in the world right now. “Joe’s got everything, he’s fast and a great finisher,” says Cullen. But English forward power, coupled with Jonny Wilkinson’s kicking power, won the 2003 World Cup after New Zealand again tumbled out in the semi-final. England may be effective but for a natural runner like Cullen aren’t they, well, a bit boring? “A lot of people say that,” he says, grinning again. He doesn’t go out of his way to praise England’s style but he respects their substance. When he described the England pack as “a bunch of bullies” he insists it’s a compliment. “When you are on the pitch you do whatever you can to win and England made an art of it in the run up to the World Cup,” he says. As for the media brouhaha surrounding Wilkinson, Cullen acknowledges he is the best fly half in the world - at defending and kicking. “Andrew Mehrtens and Carlos Spencer are probably better attackers,” he says. Cullen admits he hasn’t been overwhelmed by the individual talent in the northern hemisphere since arriving in Europe at the start of last season. “I haven’t seen too many players with a massive step or ball skills,” he says. “I don’t know why that is. Perhaps if you’ve been playing since the age of five it becomes a natural part of you. I haven’t seen too much natural flair over here. France used to have it but generally the natural ability to run isn’t there. Jason Robinson has it but four or five players in New Zealand have it.” Injury prevented Cullen from flourishing in his first season at Munster. Being sidelined has happened all too often to him in recent years and has taught him how quickly things can change: asked to name which All Black he thinks will overtake his try-scoring record first he says it all depends on who out of Howlett or Rokocoko stays fit longest. Cullen is scathing about the hectic international schedule, which he predicts will lead to more players like him ending their international careers in their 20s. “It’s stupid that England have to go to New Zealand at the end of the season, and Ireland have to go to South Africa,” he says. “Totally ludicrous.” His miserable months on Munster’s treatment table last year provided him with an easy excuse for failing to live up to the hype that greeted his arrival. But he isn’t taking it. “If you are on the footy field you can’t use injury as an excuse,” he says. Now in the second year of his three-year Irish adventure, Cullen is desperate to impress. “I’ve got a lot to prove here,” he admits. “I feel I don’t have much to prove in New Zealand but this is a different place. There are a lot of people here that haven’t seen me play live.” The goal is simple: win the European Cup. Five times Munster have made the semi-finals and twice the final, but have yet to lift the trophy. “It has to happen sooner or later,” he says, grinning for a third time. Ireland must be chilling the great man out: you rarely see an All Black smile when talking rugby. TRAINING REGIME Nothing separates modern rugby from the old game more than fitness. The emphasis placed on gym work, and areas of the game such as rehab and prehab, are far greater than they were even a decade ago. Injury and touring denied Cullen a proper pre-season for several years until the 2004-05 season, when he started hitting the weights doubly hard to set him up for the winter. “In pre-season you want to get bigger, stronger and faster,” he says. “When the season starts it’s about maintaining that.” Feargal O’Callaghan, who oversees the players’ strength and conditioning at Munster, devised a strength-building schedule for Cullen and his teammates which the New Zealander admitted was one of the toughest he has ever endured. “In the amateur era, because we only trained three times a week we would spend most of it on the pitch,” says O’Callaghan. “With professionalism people have time to do that and do lots of gym work.” During a strength building phase, the players lift heavy three times a week. On Monday mornings the emphasis is on power and speed through Olympic lifting (cleans and snatches) as well as basic mass builders such as squats and deadlifts. After a warm-up set of 8 to 12 reps they perform two sets of five reps, followed by three sets of three reps. Working in such a low rep range builds strength. Things get even more intense in the afternoon’s upper body power session. This time the players mix maximum lifts of one to four reps on basic mass building exercises such as bench press with lighter sets of the same exercise performed explosively. Tuesdays begin with a speed session or a light gym workout. “We might not even use weights,” says O’Callaghan. “It could be stability work.” Muscle building is back on the agenda in the afternoon. The players go through a 45-minute shoulders and arms routine. Delt work involves basic movements such as dumbbell shoulder presses, box presses, dumbbell forward raises, military presses and bent-over lateral raises. “We try to use dumbbells rather than barbells,” says O’Callaghan. “I think it gives greater strength gains. You might be able to lift heavier with barbells but you get better gains with dumbbells. Wednesday is devoted purely to pitch skills but it’s back in the gym on Thursday, where the players go through another 45-minute muscle building session, which this time targets chest and back. Exercises include bent-over rows, incline dumbbell presses, straight arm lateral pulldowns, dumbbell rows, dumbbell flyes, chins, seated presses and dumbbell shrugs. Regular gym-goers will have noted the absence of one favourite chest exercise. “We have tried to de-emphasise the bench press,” says O’Callaghan. “It’s not the most important lift for a rugby player: Olympic lifts are. The modern game is about power and speed and that’s what Olympic lifting gives you.” Besides using weights for strength, Cullen also uses them as part of his prehab programme. Prehab is the opposite of rehab: strengthening specific parts of the body to avoid injury, rather than recover from it. “Before I came to Munster I’d never really done much prehab, though I’d done a lot of rehab,” says Cullen, who has suffered serious knee, ankle and shoulder injuries. The sessions typically last 15 minutes, twice weekly, and involve lifting relatively tiny weights in a small range of movement to strengthen a problem area, such as rotator cuffs. Cullen has bench pressed 137 kg but in prehab tiny dumbbells can be just as challenging. “I find I can do lots of heavy weights no problem but these little 3 kg weights are a real battle.” For nutrition, Cullen eats about five times a day, plus a couple of protein shakes. “I never used to be bothered about eating,” he admits. “I would wake up and find it hard to eat. The trainer I have now says I have to eat in the morning and I’m getting better. I normally have three Weetabix but it takes me 15 minutes to get them down.” M&F

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