Provinces likely to rest front-liners

NEWS ROUND-UP:ALL THE Irish provinces, and especially Leinster and Munster, are likely to be shorn of their World Cup front-liners as part of the Irish management's player welfare programme and thus much-changed for the resumption of this weekend's RaboDirect Pro 12 matches.

Specific details of the welfare programme are kept private and vary slightly from individual to individual, but in essence the provinces are restricted in how often they can play their Ireland internationals over this 13-match block of the season.

These in turn are divided into blocks of eight and five games, of which the Irish internationals are limited to six and three starts each, and culminates in the Heineken Cup’s final pool games in January.

As six of those 13 games are in the Heineken Cup, the Pro 12 is likely to take the hit, all the more so as the respective provincial coaches decided to reintroduce many of their front-liners a week before the Leinster-Munster game which preceded their Euro forays.

League matches prior to returning to Europe are also more of a priority than those immediately afterwards.

Despite having 14 players on duty for Ireland at the World Cup, Leinster have managed to more than survive in their absence and then thrive, to an extent, with their return. Indeed, in gradually reintroducing all of their World Cup absentees bar the injured Brian O’Driscoll to the team over the last four weeks, Leinster have extended their winning run to seven games, leaving them second in the league and atop their pool in the Heineken Cup.

However, Leinster’s forwards coach Jonno Gibbes strongly indicated the bulk of those players will be rested for the trek to Treviso, which will be televised live on RTÉ (kick-off 2pm) on Saturday.

“There’s a couple of guys who have got a bit of mileage and also wear and tear. I don’t think the scoreline reflected what was a physical game on Sunday as well. We also have a bit of Irish management stuff to sort of deal with. It also helps to keep the selections pretty competitive and we certainly have some tight calls.”

The likes of Rob Kearney, Jonathan Sexton, Isaac Boss, Mike Ross and Leo Cullen, who have all started the last four games, look likely to be rested for a fixture which revives “horrific” memories for Gibbes of last year’s 29-13 defeat in Italy. As they were also regular starters throughout the World Cup, the same might well be true for the likes of Seán O’Brien, Jamie Heaslip and Gordon D’Arcy after playing the last three Leinster games.

Likewise, after restoring Ronan O’Gara, Conor Murray, Paul O’Connell and Donnacha Ryan for the last four games on the spin, Munster may well feel obliged to rest them for Saturday night’s visit of Edinburgh to Thomond Park, whatever about Donncha O’Callaghan, while Denis Leamy has been sidelined with a hip injury.

Such have been the demanding nature of their recent fixtures, it would be no surprise if Munster and Leinster rest even more than that.

The Leinster management are, however, optimistic Fergus McFadden will come back into contention after missing Sunday’s victory over Glasgow, while lock Damian Browne (shoulder) could also come back into the selection mix.

Dominic Ryan, who captained the A side away against Esher RFC, may be out for between four and six weeks after sustaining an ankle injury, while Mat Berquist (knee) has stepped up his rehabilitation in recent weeks and it is hoped he will be available over the Christmas period.

Similarly, it’s likely Ulster will have to rest Andrew Trimble, Tom Court, Rory Best and Stephen Ferris after their recent exertions, as well as the injured Paddy Wallace, for Friday’s trek to Glasgow.

Glasgow have signed up scrum-half Chris Cuister to a new three-year deal while the Ospreys will be without Samoan World Cup scrum-half Kahn Fotuali’i for at least the next two RaboDirect PRO 12 fixtures, including Saturday’s game away to Connacht, after he picked up a rib injury during last weekend’s draw in Treviso,