The Big Interview: Cullie Tucker

07 October 2021

The Big Interview: Cullie Tucker
By John O'Sullivan

 

New defence coach Cullie Tucker says his appointment this past summer is an indicator of Connacht Rugby’s commitment to providing pathways for young coaches and players to rise through the ranks of the province. 

 

Tucker, formerly a coach in the All Ireland League with UL Bohemians and Shannon, succeeded Pete Wilkins -- who moved to the senior coach and attack coach berths -- in the role after working in various capacities, including elite player development officer, with the Westerners for the past six years. 

 

The Limerick native said that the precedent set by him working his way through the ranks -- an example that also extends to players from the academy and the province’s affiliated clubs in the senior squad -- could serve as an encouragement to budding coaches in the West of Ireland. 

 

“I think there is an appetite, from Willie Ruane the CEO right down, to promote from within,” Tucker said of Connacht’s holistic developmental plans. 

 

“The relationship between underage coaches coming through and senior coaches has always been strong, right back to Nigel(Carolan) and Jimmy(Duffy) and Pete(Wilkins) coming through. I would have always had great relationships personally with those people and always learning from them and always growing off them. 

 

“Then you’re going away and cutting your own cloth in terms of underage coaching, age-grade with Connacht and age-grade with the national side. So there is an excellent pathway in place, provided by Connacht Rugby and the IRFU, for coaches as well. 

 

“Hopefully it’s something that a lot of aspiring coaches will take a lot of heart from, in terms of fellas like myself or like Mossy(Lawler) who have come through pathways, that there is that there and hopefully we can have more Irish coaches coming through which is only going to be good for the game. Personally, I started at AIL(All Ireland League) level with Shannon and Bohs and that gave me an unbelievable grounding before I went into Connacht. 

 

“I think it’s brilliant for a lot of aspiring players and coaches to see that the structures are there from the IRFU and Connacht.”

 

Despite only being in the defence coaching job a number of weeks, Tucker -- who was the Irish u20’s forwards coach last season -- can see already see signs of growth, particularly in the win over the Bulls but even in the defeat to Cardiff. 

 

The former underage coach credits the excellent coaching environment created by Andy Friend and Pete Wilkins that lends itself to player development. 

 

“Yeah, they went well, Tucker said of the Westerners’ defence against the Bulls in last weekend’s 34-7 win over the South African side at the Sportsground. 

 

“There were pockets in the Cardiff game that were very good as well. We knew the energy was there, but it was nice to string 78 good minutes of D(defence) together against The Bulls. In fairness to the boys, they were great, especially recovering from the early setback. Their energy was brilliant.

 

“A big thing for Andy and Pete when we all joined -- myself, Mossy and Dewald(Senekal) -- is that we were all joined up, in terms of how we trained, in terms of our principles and in terms of how we went about our business.

 

“Pete is the senior coach, who myself and Moss report into in terms of defence and attack. It’s been great having that one point of contact and he kind of draws everything together and hopefully, it has that wholistic feel to it where both sides of the ball are connected.

 

“There’s alignment through everything. I think that’s where Pete has been brilliant. Peter’s experience with defence and his overall experience  in in-game planning has been brilliant in terms of tying all that together. 

 

“Hopefully we’re delivering those messages to the players in a very simple and easy to understand way which means we’re understanding the connectivity between attack and defence and how it impacts the game and how it impacts momentum.”