Leo Cullen takes ‘badmouth’ swing at David Nucifora and the ‘stroke of genius’ that hugely shaped his Leinster tenure
Leinster head coach Leo Cullen and, inset, his former IRFU boss David Nucifora
Leinster boss Leo Cullen has called out David Nucifora for not being a fan of him being in charge at the Irish club.
The ex-Ireland second-row has announced he will step down as head coach at the end of the 2026/27 season after 12 years in charge.
Despite having served as forwards coach for a single season, Cullen took on the boss role in 2015 following the abrupt sacking of Matt O’Connor. However, his elevation wasn’t warmly welcomed by IRFU high-performance chief Nucifora and there was an initial falling out over the contract initially drawn up.
The deal for the then rookie coach included a non-negotiable two-week break clause, which would have given Cullen no security in the job coaching at the club he had led to three European Cup titles as a player. Cullen felt the small print was “a weird joke” and he walked out of their meeting without signing the contract.
This resulted in their relationship getting off to a tempestuous start, and it is only now – with Cullen set to start his final campaign as Leinster boss and Nucifora no longer in Ireland and instead working with Scotland as their high-performance advisor – that the coach has revealed how he was treated.
“A bit of an eye-opener…”
With one European Cup and six league titles won on his watch since taking charge, Cullen took his one-time IRFU boss to task when appearing on the Bank of Ireland Roadshow Series with Off The Ball. Reflecting on how he got the job as Leinster head coach and his friction with Nucifora, Cullen said: “When the (2014/15) season ended, it was a bit of an eye-opener for me because Matt and the club parted ways.
“Me and Matt were very, very close, and I was very close to his family. Seeing all that and the way that plays out was not enjoyable at all when you see the human side of the game.”
This upheaval resulted in Leinster putting Cullen in temporary charge, and the club’s eventual decision to make his appointment permanent wasn’t universally popular at IRFU HQ. “Listen, there were very low expectations for me,” Cullen continued. “In many ways anything would have been a bonus because it was deemed I wasn’t the person to do the job straight away. Does that make sense?
“I just got busy doing the job because I had no other choice. Like, I hate the word caretaker coach because a caretaker coach is usually doomed, aren’t they? But then eventually Leinster offered me the job.
“I was there, ‘Okay, great’, but you need to go sign off then down at the IRFU with David Nucifora. I was, ‘What’s that going to be like?’ I don’t think David Nucifora was a big fan of mine, to be honest. I don’t think he still is. He’s with Scotland now, so I can badmouth him here now all I want.
“So he hands over the contract and I go, ‘Very good’, but there’s this clause here that we can break that contract in two weeks and it’s non-negotiable. I was just like, this is a weird joke.
“I left that meeting and just said, ‘Listen, I’m not going to be doing that, sorry’. We had this sort of back and forth then at the start, so there were low expectations for me and, as I said, anything was going to be a bonus. I just had to bury myself in actually doing the job.”
Cullen got his way regarding the IRFU contract wrangle, as a six-month break clause was instead agreed, and he has now given thanks to his bosses at Leinster for their assistance in helping him to do the job properly by visiting high-profile coaches abroad and recruiting senior coaches underneath him.
“I love the team, love the club, love the supporters, love everything about the place, so it was like, ‘I’ll just do everything I possibly can’. I knew I had lots of limitations, but the club was very supportive in terms of, ‘Well, who do you need to get in and who do you need to support?’
“Being able to bring in brilliant coaches and the guy beside me here (ex-Springboks boss Jacques Nienaber), to bring him in as an example, was like a stroke of genius from my part; that’s one of the greatest things I’ve done.
“It’s just being able to make those decisions and the club; I just have to be so thankful because of the amount of responsibility; I had just stopped playing, had done one year of forwards coach and bar a bit of mentorship with Stephen Aboud…
“Listen, I did lots of trips, sought out other coaches and tried to learn. Dave Rennie, who’s coaching the All Blacks now, he would have been one Matt O’Connor set me up with, and we went down to the Chiefs because Wayne Smith was his assistant coach at that stage.
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“Just even seeing how that type of partnership worked, that shaped me hugely. People will always ask me that question about bringing in other big egos, what’s that like? It’s a great thing to be able to work with great people.”
Looking ahead to his upcoming departure in June 2027, Cullen insisted: “Change is good, you know what I mean? Like, I do think change is good and evolution for players to experience something different.
“It’s been an amazing time. The years creep up on you quickly, though. That’s the scary part, isn’t it? But yeah, from where we started off to where we are now, we’ve made some good progress.”
