PRO12 LEAGUE: JOHN O'SULLIVANtalks to Leinster scrum guru Greg Feek as Leinster prepare for their Pro12 clash with Ulster at the RDS on Monday

LEINSTER COACH Joe Schmidt will continue to monitor the progress of Cian Healy (neck) and Shane Jennings (forearm), both of whom took a limited part in training, for next Monday’s RaboDirect Pro12 League match against Ulster at the RDS.

Steven Sykes returns following illness while hooker Richardt Strauss could win his 50th cap for Leinster if he is selected for the Ulster match.

Several Irish internationals will be rested in accordance with the agreement reached by the national management.

One player who is likely to be in the visiting team is World Cup winning All Black prop John Afoa, a player who is well known to Leinster and Ireland scrum guru Greg Feek.

The latter smiled when referring to his compatriot. “I’d say he will be playing; he’s an All-Black tighthead, and [that’s not forgetting] Tom Court [too]. Whether or not Rory Best is going to be there, I’m not sure, but they’ve got big powerful men and there isn’t ever really an easy day at the office for a forward pack, scrums or mauling.

“I actually played with him [Afoa] back in the day and had a bit to do with him. I sort of know him. He’s grown a lot. It’s obviously a strength of his that he’s mobile and he brings a lot of experience. He’s probably a vital cog in terms of their set-piece. He’s a good player.”

Leinster’s crushing victory over Bath in the Heineken Cup last weekend was pleasing in many aspects for the team management, although Feek admitted that in the last 20 minutes, concentration and application may have been lacking.

“There were too many good things not to talk about them in the first 60 [minutes], a few individual things that were quite brilliant. Luke Fitzgerald and the way he did things; a lot of the stuff the boys did. There was one planned move in particular where we went wide and came back that ended up with Johnny Sexton scoring.

“There are some really good positives there that Joe [Schmidt] had put in place in terms of attack.”

He was far from oblivious to the shortcomings in that final quarter. “For me we went a bit high in tackles. They ended up getting an easy advantage line and that meant they were able to score two or three tries in the last 15 or 20 minutes. That is one aspect we want to address.

“There were seven or eight guys who came on and they were a little disappointed because they were on when it happened. They’re fresh; they have only played 10 or 15 minutes, and those guys want to come off the field feeling good about their performance. They weren’t involved in the first part [when Leinster were scintillating] so they might be disappointed.

“These are moments where they have to shine. You hear it all the time but it does have a big impact when [players] come on and miss four tackles; that could be a decisive selection issue.”

Last weekend’s Heineken Cup fare once again highlighted the obvious problems in the applications of the scrum laws, particularly that involving the Ospreys and Saracens.

Feek pointed out: “I watched the game. The refs just need to have a look at it [and establish] what the trends are to come out of it. There was a lot of trying to wheel and trying to compete.

“Obviously it’s [the scrum] a source [of possession] so teams are trying to stop ball at the source. You’ll see in some games that it’s [the scrum] okay and in others it is not; it depends on how it is managed. You go from one extreme to the other. It depends on what the teams are trying to do.

“I have noticed since I have been over here, the French and English teams will try and take you on [by driving] straight through.

“You might get the odd Celtic team that might try and wheel you. So from a technical point of view when you get a lot of wheeling, then it can get messy. You get one team flying up one side and the whole thing spins around. That’s when it gets messy.”

The official line from Leinster is that just 500 tickets remain for the game against Ulster in the RDS. The team will be announced tomorrow lunch-time.