Christian Cullen

The Paekakariki Express – a potent running fullback for the All Blacks and Hurricanes.

Christian Mathias Cullen (born 12 February 1976) is a retired New Zealand rugby union player. He played most of his rugby at fullback for New Zealand (the All Blacks), for the Hurricanes in the Super 12, and for Manawatu, Wellington and later Munster at provincial level. He was nicknamed the Paekakariki Express and was considered to be one of the most potent running fullbacks rugby has ever seen. With 46 tries scored in 58 tests, Cullen is the equal-11th-highest try-scorer in international rugby.

Quick Facts

Birth name: Christian Mathias Cullen
Born: 12 February 1976
Birthplace: Paraparaumu, New Zealand
Height: 1.80 m / 5 ft 11 in
Weight: 85 kg / 187 lb
School: Kāpiti College
Relatives: Brian Steele (great-uncle)

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, 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.

Reader's Guide

Cullen's provincial career started in 1994 for Horowhenua-Kapiti. In 1996 he played in the first-ever Super 12 game, as fullback for the Wellington Hurricanes against the Auckland Blues on March 1st 1996, lost 38-26. He played 8 seasons of Super Rugby for the Hurricanes from 1996 to 2003. In 1996 he scored seven tries in nine matches for the Hurricanes.

At the 1996 World Sevens in Hong Kong he scored 18 tries, including seven in one match. He was selected as an All Black in June 1996 and 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 for the All Blacks, and 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 and dropped from the All Blacks squad throughout 2002, scoring four tries in five Test matches. 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 despite having about 1/64th Māori ancestry.

He was left out of New Zealand's 2003 World Cup squad by John Mitchell. He played the NPC season for Wellington, scoring 2 tries in the final match against Auckland (lost 29-41), 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, blighted by injuries. His last match for Munster was a 15–7 Celtic League win over the Newport Gwent Dragons on 28 April 2007.

Did You Know?

Cullen is the All Blacks' second-highest try-scorer in the Tri Nations Series with 16, second only to Richie McCaw.
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.