Christian Cullen

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Cullen was born in Paraparaumu and grew up in Paekākāriki. He is the youngest of three children, with an elder twin brother Shane and a sister Anita. He is of Irish descent; he also has Samoan, Māori and German ancestry. His rugby talent emerged in high school, and he was selected in the New Zealand secondary schools team in 1993 and 1994. He played senior rugby for Manawatu in 1995 and scored 70 points through 12 tries, two conversions and two penalty goals. He was selected to the New Zealand sevens squad for tournaments in Fiji and Hong Kong and shortly afterwards made his All Blacks debut.

In Their Own Story

In 1998, despite the All Blacks suffering five consecutive losses, Cullen remained prolific, scoring four tries in seven matches. That same year, he represented New Zealand at the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games, where his sevens team secured gold after he scored nine tries and kicked 23 conversions across seven games. The 1999 Rugby World Cup saw him play six matches, starting five at centre—a position not of his preference—during an unsuccessful campaign for New Zealand. By 2000, he returned to form with the Hurricanes, scoring 10 tries in 11 games, and added seven tries in four Tri Nations Tests, including three consecutive pairs. However, his relationship with coach John Mitchell deteriorated; after a severe knee injury in 2001 required surgery, Cullen was controversially dropped from the squad and left unavailable for the end-of-year tour. Tensions peaked when he was excluded from the 2003 World Cup squad despite being a Super Rugby record-holder.

Reader's Guide

Cullen's provincial career started in 1994 season for Horowhenua-Kapiti. In 1996 he played in the first-ever Super 12 game, as full back contested by the Wellington Hurricanes and the Auckland Blues, played on March 1st 1996 and won 38-26 by the Blues. He played 8 seasons of super rugby for the Wellington Hurricanes from 1996 to 2003. In his debut season he scored seven tries in nine matches for the Hurricanes. At the 1996 World Sevens competition in Hong Kong he scored 18 tries, including seven in one match. He was selected as an All Black in June 1996. He scored seven tries in his first two Test matches: a hat-trick on debut against Samoa on June 7th, 1996 and four tries against Scotland. He sustained a knee cartilage injury on the All Blacks' tour to South Africa. In 1997 he returned from injury and scored 11 tries in 10 games for the Hurricanes, and 12 tries in 12 Test matches for the All Blacks. In 1998 he scored four tries in seven matches. He represented New Zealand in rugby sevens at the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games, playing seven games, scoring nine tries and kicking 23 conversions; New Zealand won the gold medal. In 1999 he was a member of New Zealand's unsuccessful Rugby World Cup squad, playing six matches, starting five at centre. In 2000 he scored 10 tries in 11 games for the Hurricanes and seven tries in four Tri Nations Tests. In 2001 he sustained a severe knee injury requiring surgery, made himself unavailable for the All Blacks' end-of-year tour, but was announced 'dropped' by coach John Mitchell. He was selected to and dropped from the All Blacks squad throughout 2002, scoring four tries in five Test matches that year. In the 2003 Super season he scored eight tries in 12 games for the Hurricanes, taking his Super Rugby career tally to 56, a record at the time. He was briefly and controversially selected for the Māori rugby team. He was left out of New Zealand's 2003 World Cup squad by John Mitchell. He played out the NPC season for Wellington, scoring 2 tries in the final match against Auckland, leaving the field due to a shoulder injury in the 74th minute to a standing ovation. At the end of 2003 he moved to Ireland to play for Munster. His time with Munster was blighted by injuries. His last match for Munster was a 15–7 Celtic League win over the Newport Gwent Dragons on 28 April 2007. He announced his retirement on 12 May 2007 and st

Did You Know?

• Cullen is the All Blacks' second-highest try-scorer in the Tri Nations Series with 16, second only to Richie McCaw.
• He was the first player to score a try in every Tri Nations test in one season.
• He is New Zealand's second most-capped test fullback.
• At the time of his retirement he was the All Blacks' leading try-scorer with 46; that record has since been overtaken by Doug Howlett.
• He scored over 150 tries while playing in New Zealand.