Leinster non commital on Tuqiri rumour

Leinster has not ruled out Australian dual Rugby Union and Rugby League international Lote Tuqiri from coming to Dublin to help shore up their outside channel positions.

The Fijian born player had his contract terminated with the Australian Rugby Union in 2009 and went back to playing League rugby in 2010. In recent days the powerful back has been linked with a move to the RDS. The 6'3'' former Leicester Tigers player was capped 67 times for Australia.

"There's no real up date there," said Leinster's Richie Murphy today. "We heard that (link) as well. Obviously something has been said about him coming back and playing from league. We're looking at numerous options from down around that area. He's not ruled out but he's definitely not ruled in either."

Leinster expect a number of their international names will be back this week for their opening RaboDirect Pro12 league match of the season against Scarlets on Friday in Llanelli. But the players involved in the Lions’ Tour during the summer will be unavailable for another couple of weeks.

"Guys coming back in are the likes of Dev Toner and Kevin McLaughlin. Gordon D'Arcy is available, (so too) Luke Fitzgerald and Fergus McFadden. Michael Bent isn't available. Michael hurt himself in training a week ago and has some nerve damaged. We're not actually sure how long that is going to be.

“Brian (O’Driscoll), he’s working around his pre-season. Obviously he’d a long season with the Lions tour and he will be another couple of weeks.”

There were no significant injury concerns for the province following the friendly against Northampton Saints last Friday evening in Donnybrook.