Leinster's trawling produces good catch

RUGBY: After months of trawling, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, for replacements to supplement their squad following last term's end-of-season exodus, Leinster have unearthed the Auckland lock Bryce Williams and the Castleford Tigers rugby league utility back Jonny Hepworth as their latest acquisitions. Gerry Thornley reports

Bearing in mind the registration deadline for the Heineken European Cup is September 29th, Leinster had to show a fair bit of alacrity to obtain their men given Williams was under contract until mid-October in the NPC with Auckland while Castleford will almost certainly be involved in promotion play-offs until the same time.

However, with a little help from the eager Williams himself, and the fact that English RFU clearance was not required for Hepworth as he is playing another sport, both players will be registered in time for European competition.

Leinster had been eyeing up the backrower Tamaiti Horua of Eastern Suburbs in Australia, but although Malcolm O'Kelly expects to return in time for the European Cup, the thinness of their secondrow options had been exacerbated by the knee injury sustained by another Aussie recruit, Adam Byrnes.

He will be sidelined for up to eight weeks and Leinster coach Michael Cheika admitted he had to make a difficult phone call to a disappointed Horua two nights ago.

The 25-year-old Williams has played for the Canterbury Crusaders, the Auckland Blues and the New Zealand Maoris and Cheika spoke of the physical presence, experience and secondrow depth Williams's arrival will bring.

He is expected to link up with the province next week.

Cheika described the 22-year-old Hepworth as "a very good, one-on-one defender" and the type of "multi-skilled" rugby league player best equipped to adapting to the Union code.

"We've been watching him for a while and he's been through the Leeds academy. He's a really quality player. In league he's played half, left centre, right centre, wing, fullback - he's played them all. He's got pace, he is young, he's got rugby union experience from when he was in juniors and we just think he's the right sort of a player. We're looking at long-term as well as short-term."

That said, both Williams and Hepworth have been signed on one-year deals, but Leinster manager Paul McNaughton (who has openly crossed swords with the IRFU's Player Advisory Group before) maintained, in an unusual show of public diplomacy, that this afforded the province flexibility.

More pressing will be their desire to hold on to Brian O'Driscoll, whose early arrival for training prompted Cheika to chide his captain that he was "on French time" following his weekend sojourn to Biarritz. Cheika is confident of retaining O'Driscoll, as is McNaughton.

"We've talked to him and he's told us that there were no negotiations, and it was a nice weekend break. The IRFU came out last night and said they would do everything in their power to keep Brian in Ireland and at the end of the day we believe that the IRFU will be successful in keeping Brian O'Driscoll in Ireland."

O'Driscoll himself commented: "I was just there to watch a game. At the moment as far as I'm concerned I'm contracted to the Irish Rugby Union and it's going to be that way for another nine months. What happens after that, I guess, there's still going to be speculation."

Meanwhile, Mark McCall has recalled James Topping to the left wing and moved Andrew Trimble to midfield outside Kevin Maggs (who switches to inside centre) in a reshuffled Ulster threequarter line for Saturday's Celtic League game away to the Gwent Dragons. Up front, Rory Best is promoted to hooker with Paul Shields on the bench in an otherwise unchanged starting line-up. Connacht have added Ted Robinson, James Downey and Ray Hogan to the squad for Saturday's Celtic League game against Border Reivers at the Sportsground.

The IRFU have announced the appointment of Kevin Potts as their first Domestic Game Manager, who will be responsible for the planning, development and organisation of rugby within clubs and schools throughout Ireland. Potts moves from Mellon Global Securities Services Dublin, where he was managing director. He represented Leinster and Irish schools, captained St Mary's College and also played for Leinster and Ireland A, leading the Ireland development tour to South Africa in 1993.

The union's chief executive, Philip Browne, commented on Potts's appointment: "The IRFU is aiming for a significant increase in player numbers over the next three years and this dedicated role will provide the necessary resources to achieve this. In addition to this, Kevin's experience and proven management abilities at the highest level will give the position and the domestic game the required support that it needs."

ULSTER: P Wallace; T Bowe, A Trimble, K Maggs, J Topping; D Humphreys, K Campbell; J Fitzpatrick, R Best, S Best (capt), J Harrison, M McCullough, N Best, N McMillan, R Wilson. Replacements: P Shields, B Young, R Frost, C Feather, R Spee, S Stewart, T Howe.

CONNACHT (squad v Borders, Saturday): Forwards: D McFarland, R Hogan, A Clarke, S Knoop, R Loughney, J Fogarty, C Venter, A Farley (capt), C Short, M Swift, M Lacey, J Muldoon, B O'Connor, C Rigney. Backs: C Keane, T Tierney, P Warwick, D Slemen, K Matthews, J Downey, D Yapp, C McPhillips, T Robinson, M Mostyn, D Riordan.