does it matter which lever does what?

left lever to rear mech and right lever to front mech? theres nothing different about the levers is there?

cable routing on the frame would suggest the above is correct, but wanted to be sure before I cut any cables.

Err, I thought it was the other way around (right lever – rear mech). And it definitely matters – 10 speed or 2+trim. No difference in the braking if that’s what you mean.
Cable routing sometimes crosses over infront of the head tube to help with routing (less tight curves) if that’s confusing anything.

Whoa there! Right hand shift lever is rear mech, Left hand shift lever is front mech. It doesn’t matter which side the brakes are connected to.

What they said

right lever to rear mech means the cable comes out from under the bar tape on the right then has to get back to the right of the top tube where the cable guides are?

The cable guides for the front mech are on the left of the downtube, so the cable will come from under the left bar tape and have to get to the left down tube?

Right hand as in the one you put your right hand on? LOL

It actually has R! written on the hood. cant see how cable routing is going to work out here.

What frame have you got that has the cable guides on the top tube?!?!?!?

Brakes don’t matter which way around you set them up, but facing forward on the bike, right hand lever – rear mech and left hand lever front mech.

If in doubt have a look to see some images of how other bikes have been set up.

With campag you have the choice of the gear cable coming out on the front edge or rear edge of the bar too.

its a cross bike so top tube cable routing.

A quick look at my road bike suggests that cable routing would be fine.