Despite having to deal with injuries and a plethora of internationals being eased back into provincial action, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen is more than happy to work with the players at his disposal for this Friday’s visit to Dragons in the United Rugby Championship.
In an update issued by the province on Monday, it was revealed Ryan Baird is facing up to three months on the sidelines following a leg injury he sustained in Ireland’s clash with South Africa at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday. Jamie Osborne is also set to be unavailable for up to four months after damaging his shoulder while away with Ireland and Robbie Henshaw is also recovering from a hamstring problem he picked up on international duty.
Tommy O’Brien has entered the graduated return to play protocols after being withdrawn in the opening half of the South Africa game, while Will Connors (arm) and James Culhane (knee) join the above quartet on the treatment table after picking up injuries in Leinster’s win over Zebre Parma last month.
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Additionally, the majority of those who featured for Ireland in the recent Autumn Nations Series aren’t expected to return until the Champions Cup showdown with Harlequins on December 6th, but Cullen isn’t worrying too much about who isn’t around for their impending trip to Rodney Parade.
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“It’s just trying to manage that crew that have been away. Some guys are back in today, other guys will have a few days off this week. We’ll sort of assess everybody as the week goes on. Everyone will be back in the building then on Monday. You just need to be clever about how you manage guys at different stages of the season,” Cullen remarked at a media briefing in UCD on Monday.
“Some of the fellas that have been in camp that haven’t featured in that last round [against South Africa], they’re back training with us today. Other guys, we’ll just sort of see them in dribs and drabs over the course of this week. Just assess how everybody is.
“Obviously there is some sort of definitive news. There are still a few other guys, we’re still getting to grips with that. We just need to progress on with the group that we have as well. I’m just fixated on Dragons. I’m not so fixated on what happened at the weekend.”
There was some good news on the injury front for Cullen, however, as Joe McCarthy took part in Leinster’s training session on Monday. The dynamic secondrow has been marked absent since the first Test of the British & Irish Lions’ summer tour of Australia in Brisbane on July 19th, but he is now entering the final stages of his rehabilitation from a foot injury and could potentially feature in the Dragons game on Friday.
Another player who is set to be in the Leinster mix sooner rather than later is New Zealand international Rieko Ioane. Like his All Blacks colleague Jordie Barrett before him, the Auckland native has taken a sabbatical from New Zealand and will be joining forces with Leinster for the remainder of the 2025/26 season.
Cullen is hopeful Ioane will be able to link up with Leinster at some point this week and the centre could be in line to see action in that Champions Cup pool opener against Harlequins on Saturday week.
“I think he’s in a good shape. You just want to lay eyes on everyone and then we can make some decisions as to what we’re actually doing. Looking forward to seeing what he is going to bring to the group,” Cullen said.
