Leo Cullen tight-lipped on Leinster link with ‘Tongan Thor’ Taniela Tupou

The 27-year-old, nicknamed ‘Tongan Thor’ due to his sheer size, has reportedly been offered a big-money move to Leinster, with his current club the Melbourne Rebels facing an uncertain future.

Montpellier are also believed to have shown significant interest in signing Tupou, who stands at 178cm and tips the scales at a whopping 135kg.

The tighthead has been capped 51 times by the Wallabies, whose new boss Joe Schmidt would be reluctant to lose one one his major assets ahead of next summer’s Lions tour and Australia’s 2027 home World Cup.

However, with Leinster’s current overseas tighthead Michael Ala’alatoa joining Clermont next season, Cullen could be in the market for another marquee signing on the back of landing RG Snyman from Munster.

“There’s a lot of speculation at the moment now,” Cullen said.

“We’re very much focused on the here and the now. He’s (Tupou) certainly big and powerful anyway, isn’t he? We admire lots of players out there, so we do, but we’ve nothing official to announce unfortunately.”

In more immediate matters, Cullen is sweating over the fitness of Andrew Porter and Garry Ringrose ahead of next week’s Champions Cup round of 16 clash with Leicester, after the Ireland duo were ruled out of tonight’s top-of-the-table URC meeting with the Bulls at the RDS.

“They both picked minor enough niggles,” Cullen added.

“You’re making an assessment this week whether you push guys on or not. They should be okay, hopefully. We will see over the weekend.

“Similarly, Ciarán Frawley picked up something pretty minor over the weekend. Hugo (Keenan) has obviously been managing something. James (Ryan) is the one that is probably a bit more significant, so he will be out for a little bit.”