Ruddock must plan with depleted backline

RUGBY:THE FIXTURE clash between the Magners League and the Six Nations means the majority of the Ireland Under-20s backline will be unavailable to coach Mike Ruddock for the meeting with France in Athlone on Friday.

Leinster have recalled winger Andrew Conway and centre Brendan Macken, both of whom were part of the under-20 squad that won last year’s championship. Ulster are also due to select winger Craig Gilroy and possibly even centre Luke Marshall.

Either way, Ruddock is planning to be without all four players who featured in the weekend’s 28-9 defeat of Italy. Gilroy continued his prolific return this season with two tries in Parma and seems certain to feature against the Ospreys on Sunday at Liberty Stadium.

“The directive, as it stands, is the Magners League takes precedence,” Ruddock confirmed. “As a result we will be without some key players and there are injuries too.

“We just got to get on with it. The positive to take from it is come the World Cup later this year we will have more players who have been exposed to international rugby.”

The Irish Under-20s will also probably be without prop Martin Moore and Connacht number eight Eoin McKeon due to injury. The latter would probably have been selected by Eric Elwood for the visit of Llanelli to the Sportsground if not for a hamstring strain that curtailed his involvement against Italy to just 14 minutes.

Italian Under-20 centre Giovanni Alberghini has been cited for an “alleged stamp to the face” in that match.

Francesco Minto, the Italian A openside wing forward, has also been cited for allegedly making contact with the eyes or eye area of an opponent in the match against Scotland A in Gala on Friday evening. Hearings for the two players will be held in in London today.

Meanwhile, Leinster coach Joe Schmidt welcomed Isaac Boss, David Kearney, Eoin O’Malley and Dominic Ryan back from the Irish Wolfhounds camp and remains confident Rhys Ruddock, Kevin McLaughlin and possibly Devin Toner will also be available for selection.

“Kev desperately needs game time,” said Schmidt. “I think he has played three or four games so far this season. I know that he is very highly rated by the national panel but it is just a case of more game time. I’d hope he would be available to us; we’ll be able to confirm that tomorrow (today).”

Shane Horgan and Rob Kearney (knees) remain in rehabilitation while Nathan Hines is in the Scottish camp but Stanley Wright is poised to return for the trip to Cardiff on February 19th.

Leinster also stated they have sold all their tickets for the Heineken Cup quarter-final against the Leicester Tigers at the Aviva Stadium on April 9th.

The English champions have also taken up their full allocation of 12,500 tickets (the away team get an allocation of 25 per cent under ERC regulations).