Andy Friend will be without his top trio of on-field leaders for the opening URC fixture of the season against Ulster on Friday evening.
Missing in Ravenhill will be seven experienced players, including captain Jack Carty, who has returned to training following wrist surgery, and vice-captains Jarrad Butler (hand), and Bundee Aki (unavailable after international duty).
Also absent will be Cian Prendergast and Mack Hansen after their tour with Ireland to New Zealand, while Diarmuid Kilgallon (hamstring), and Finlay Bealham (calf) are also ruled out.
Friend says the opening match is about giving people opportunities.
“We have a few restrictions on us this weekend, but we are also trying to reward players who have had a really good pre- season. We can’t reward them all. But it is more about us, what we have been training, and the work that has gone in over the last nine weeks.”
After two pre season games — one win against Sale, one loss against Castres — Friend says his squad is ready to play, and nothing better than an interprovincial first up, and then two challenges away in South Africa.
“A great way to start our season [against Ulster], and then head to South Africa and the chance to have a bonding tour. We know we can beat them, and it’s a great time to take them on.”
Friend will be looking to his new signings, particularly the former “Leinster boys” to lead the charge, led by Pete Dooley and Josh Murphy.
“Peter Dooley, it’s been seamless the way he has slotted in, adding a lot of experience with 104 caps for Leinster when he joined us, and I thought it was a brave move for him to come down, but it’s a move I think will pay enormous dividends for us,” the director of coaching says.
“Josh Murphy didn’t train a lot in the early part of the preseason, but you saw in the game against Sale, he adds a real bit of mongrel to our pack which we needed. Dave Hawkshaw, I think he has a real skill set, versatility and is a real pro as well, and he has brought a real edge to our 10, and with Jack out at the moment, it gives us more depth. And Adam Byrne, a big physical man. I know we have yet to get the best out of him, and you can see the potential he has — really coachable and knowledgeable.”
With New Zealander Shamus Hurley-Langton, a “dynamic backrow who likes pilfering the ball”, and Irish qualified back Byron Ralston from the Western Force, he says all six are going to be “great additions”.
In the opening block of seven games, Friend says it will be a “chance to expose the majority of the squad to some really quality opposition and see where we sit after that” — the primary aim to advance to the knock-out stages of both URC and European competition with a squad that is “another year older”.
“We still have a lot of youth. As well as the six new blokes we brought in from outside, we brought up those from the academy, and then we have the likes of Paul Boyle, who not so long ago was in an academy, Niall Murray, Conor Fitzgerald — those blokes who are now another year older, stronger and wiser in their rugby.
“I think there is a beautiful blend of our youth and emerging talent that is coming through, and then we have dropped in a few more experienced blokes, Adam Byrne, Peter Dooley, Josh Murphy, as well as our own Jack Carty, Jarrad Butler, Bundee Aki — those fellas — so I think we have a really neat blend of youth, emerging talent that has been two to three years in the making, and senior players who can drive it, so with that, it is let’s go make the knockout stages of both competition.”
