Leinster glad to welcome back familiar faces

The pressure is already on Leinster to kick-start their season at home to the Scarlets this Saturday and, helpfully, some of their top Irish internationals are in line to make their seasonal re-appearances, notably captain Jamie Heaslip and Devin Toner.

Newly promoted forwards' coach Leo Cullen estimated the Pro 12 champions "should have three or four bodies back in the mix" although he appeared more optimistic about Heaslip and Toner than, say, Rob Kearney.

“Rob’s not a million miles away, he hasn’t done a huge amount of rugby over the course of the pre-season whereas Jamie, as always, has hardly missed a rugby session,” said Cullen. “Dev is another who has been injured as well and the two of them from a forwards point of view have been great.”

Jordi Murphy and Eoin Reddan are others who ought to have completed their pre-seasons, but Rhys Ruddock is expected to be another few weeks away, while Gordon D'Arcy, Luke Fitzgerald and Dave Kearney are at varying points in the road back after summer operations, with D'Arcy seemingly the closest. "He's been training the last couple of weeks but he still needs to tick a few more boxes in terms of what he can do contact-wise coming back from his shoulder [operation]," said Cullen.

This leaves Leinster short of options at inside centre, beyond starting Ian Madigan there, in light of the first-minute departure of Noel Reid in last Saturday's 22-20 defeat in Glasgow due to an ankle injury

. “We’ll see how he’s assessed over the next couple of days, we have to wait for the swelling to go down,” said Cullen.

The reigning champions dare not open their campaign with two losses following last Saturday’s close, slightly controversial but nonetheless deserved defeat when missing 28 tackles – 18 in a sluggish first half – and generally using the ball poorly until a late rally.

Even then they couldn’t close out an undeserved lead. “At the end we didn’t exit properly from our restart . . . we gave up two penalties at the end, one where they kicked to the corner which we managed to defend, and then a dubious offside,” said Cullen in reference to the decisive last ditch penalty which was signalled by one of the Scottish assistant referees. “But over the course of the game, we couldn’t have that many complaints about the result. We lost by two points but I’d say Glasgow were better than us on the day.”

While Leinster were clearly a little rankled by that decision, they are not of a mind to make an issue of it. “We just move on,” said Cullen. “It’s a different challenge this week against the Scarlets . . . They’re a team that likes to play with a high tempo, a bit like ourselves, and we have to make sure we’re in the right frame of mind for when Saturday comes.”

To that end Toner declared himself “raring to go” after a four-week summer break and an eight-week pre-season, during which he turned 28 in June. He is seeking to back up his best season to date for club and country and is keen to improve his carrying into contact and ruck work by making more use of his height and weight.

To that end, helpfully, he has bulked up another three or four kilos to 127kg. “I think I’m the . . . strongest I’ve ever been as well. Hopefully, that transpires into playing well. We’ll see,” said Toner.

“With Leo stepping down, there is a gap there,” he added. “I think I took last year to step in and run the lineout as I did. I’ve learned pretty much everything I know off Leo. To have him around is pretty cool. He has brought a little more directness over planning our weeks and planning our line

outs and our strategies. He has slipped into the coaches role seamlessly like I knew he would. There is a lot more responsibility on my shoulders this year to step up”.

Cullen is also hopeful Toner can improve on last season. “I think when you’ve got someone that size it’s always going to take a little bit longer to fill into your body. He’s pushing into his late 20s and I think he’s entering into his best years. That’s what we would hope at least. He’s grown as a leader in the team . . . he’ll always work pretty closely with our 10s or whoever else is making decisions. He has a big role for the team.”