RUGBY:LEINSTER ARE hopeful flanker Shane Jennings will be in contention this week for the Magners League match against Ulster on Saturday night. Following an attritional battle with Leicester on Saturday, which provided the physios with additional work, Leinster maybe looking for quality to come in and Jennings, who resumed training last week, will be anxious to go about reclaiming his shirt.
Several players have taken knocks going into the RDS game (8pm), with Isa Nacewa (foot), Brian O’Driscoll (nose) and Gordon D’Arcy (shoulder) all on the walking wounded list. However, they are fully expected to recover for another physical encounter, their third in consecutive weeks following recent tough games against Munster and Leicester.
Leinster are in fourth place on the league table, three points behind second-placed Ulster, who have set their hearts on the play-offs and can ill-afford to start dropping points. Following their defeat to Northampton last Sunday in the Heineken Cup, they have only the league to play for.
Ulster’s hunger for points and success as well as the traditional testy nature of the team’s meetings is not lost on Leinster forwards coach Jonno Gibbes, who sees the Ulster threat like another quarter-final cup match.
“The boys are going to recover – it (Leicester) was such a big game they’ll probably take an extra day to recover,” said the former All Black. “We’ll just assess who’s bounced back and who’s a little drained. But we need to prepare, as a pack, for a key battle for our Magners season. It’s almost like another quarter-final for us.
“They’re (Ulster) even more determined now to refocus and win the rest of their games and challenge for the Magners play-offs. I don’t think we’re in a position to rest players. We need a strong team out there. We need to win this game.”
But Ulster have a few injury concerns of their own, both of them in the secondrow. Johann Muller sustained soft-tissue damage to his right quad and will have ongoing treatment this week with a view to being fit for the visit to Dublin, while Dan Tuohy shipped quite a nasty facial injury around his right eye and cheek. Both X-ray and CT scans yesterday morning showed no bone damage to the lock, although his availability is in doubt.
“I think Johann Muller has been instrumental for them,” added Gibbes. “He’s brought a lot of intellectual property in there with his lineouts and his experience. So if he was unavailable that would be disappointing for them, obviously. But he’s a quality player so his influence extends beyond when he’s actually playing.”
As much as Ulster is the immediate concern, Toulouse was an imposing shadow on the horizon at yesterday’s training session at UCD. Having beaten Biarritz 27-20 after extra-time in San Sebastian on Sunday and Leinster in last season’s Heineken Cup semi-final, the French side and the wily coach Guy Noves – who attributed his team’s win over Biarritz to mental strength – have become well acquainted with each other.
Apart from the French team’s physical (and mental) strengths and the might of the pack, the two-pronged threat is that they can usefully both beat up and out-play sides.
“It is another step up. Toulouse have seriously strong players 1-15 and we are going to have to up our game from Saturday if we are going to beat them in the semi-final,” said Ireland and Leinster flanker Kevin McLaughlin. “We know what it is like to play them in a semi-final, having been beaten fairly comprehensively by them at that stage last year so we know what’s needed.
“Their pack isn’t all that different to Leicester in that they have a very strong set-piece. They killed us in the scrums last year and they have a real strong lineout as well. On top of that they pretty much have the French three-quarter line, so it is going to be a serious test.”
