Following the many fretful discussions surrounding the condition of Brian O'Driscoll's hamstring, the Blackrock player yesterday returned home from Leinster's tour of Britain with a bout of tonsillitis. He will take no part in their remaining two matches, against Bridgend tonight and against Swansea at the weekend.
Peter McKenna also arrives back in Dublin with what is described as a hamstring injury. The St Mary's full back picked up the injury against Saracens last Friday evening, when outhalf Emmet Farrell also badly damaged his knee ligaments in a fall.
As a result Leinster are without three key players, but the withdrawals will allow Australian Norman Turner to move into the starting outhalf position for the injured Farrell, with Girvan Dempsey moving into a familiar full back role.
In a bid to bolster Leinster's interprovincial challenge, the former Randwick player and coach Alan Gaffney arrived in Britain yesterday for his first session with the Leinster backs. Gaffney is a former colleague of coach Mattie Williams, also from Australia.
The format of tonight's match will be three 30-minute sessions, and all of the Leinster players will take part at some stage.
Ireland's Simon Easterby will undergo an exploratory operation tomorrow to establish the extent of an Achilles tendon injury.
LEINSTER (starting line-up): - G Dempsey; J Norton, S Horgan, M McHugh, D Hickie; N Turner, B O'Meara; R Corrigan, P Smyth, E Byrne; R Casey, M O'Kelly; E Miller, L Toland, V Costello.
England manager Clive Woodward will spend four days working with French club Agen next week at their pre-season training camp in the Pyrenees. Woodward also hopes, at some stage, to meet French national team coach Bernard Laporte and his coaching colleagues in the pursuit of excellence.
The England manager has recently returned from a fact-finding mission to America, where he spent time with coaches and players of American football team the Denver Broncos.
Immediately after the Agen camp, Woodward and England head coach Andy Robinson will leave for Durban to watch this season's final Tri-Nations Test between South Africa and Australia, who both face England later this autumn.
