News: Aidan McCullen, like the similarly underappreciated and underused Trevor Brennan before him, is to join the Heineken European Cup finalists Stade Toulousain.
The 28-year-old, once-capped, Leinster backrower-cum-occasional-secondrow has agreed a two-year contract with arguably the biggest club in Europe after choosing them ahead of Clermont Auvergne.
As with Brennan, the 16-times French champions appear to have dipped into the market with typical shrewdness for a relatively unwanted, back-five utility forward.
Although curiously cast into the cold during Declan Kidney's tenure with Leinster despite a flying start to the season, McCullen's accomplished all-round game is likely to flourish in such an environment.
"I'm delighted obviously to be joining such a massive club with the set-up they have," commented McCullen last night. "Perhaps the curse of being able to play in a few positions has for once worked in my favour, and with the squad rotation they use in Toulouse I should get more opportunities.
"It's an exciting challenge and it's given me some light at the end of the tunnel. They're good people in Toulouse as well. Although it's a big club, it's also a very close-knit one and everybody involved off the pitch seems to be a former player."
* A DLSP player faces a minimum six-month suspension if found guilty of assaulting a referee during a Metropolitan Cup quarter-final against Monkstown at Kilternan last Wednesday night.
The player in question is expected to face a three-man Leinster Branch disciplinary hearing next Thursday after a report from the match referee, Simon Rogan, to the Branch yesterday.
