That Leinster will have some reinforcement for Saturday’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship top four clash with the Hollywoodbets Sharks became clear in photographs sent out of the Irish team in training in Durban.
Ireland’s record cap holder, Cian Healy, who retired from international rugby at the end of the most recent Guinness Six Nations, is in KZN and is in training.
Which means he is at least one Ireland international added to the group that came out to South Africa the day after the Six Nations ended and thus unavoidably had to be significantly under-strength.
Leinster have yet to come to South Africa with a full strength squad outside of for last year’s URC semifinal in Pretoria, which they lost to the Vodacom Bulls. And it is has usually been understandable why that is.
A big gap between them and the second placed team on the log has invariably been the case, particularly as they always tend to travel out late in the season, when the log race is pretty much settled in their favour.
Last year that was not the case and they only ended third, but then they had an Investec Champions Cup semifinal to play the week after their South African tour ended. They’d played together enough to be able to back their continuity heading into that clash, and playing together wasn’t so important.
This time might be a bit different. They are here slightly earlier than usual in the season, with the Six Nations only just done and dusted. Which means that Leinster haven’t played together as Leinster at full strength since January, before the Six Nations kicked off. That is two months ago now.
HAVE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS TO IRELAND
Yes, a lot of the players are in combination with the Ireland international team, with the Ireland starting team dominated by Leinster players. But Leinster do have different systems to Ireland, and some players, such as RG Snyman and Jordie Barrett for a start, are not part of Ireland combinations.
The Ireland defensive system is different to Leinster’s, where Jacques Nienaber has a big say, etc etc…
So it would be a risk for Leinster to go into their round 16 Champions Cup clash with Harlequins on 5 April with a full strength side that hasn’t played together for so long. On top of that, the loss to the Bulls last week has thrown a bit of a spanner in the works when it comes to their supremacy at the top of the log.
Glasgow Warriors will be in touching distance of them if they lose to what should be a Springbok laden Sharks team and Glasgow do what should be expected of them against the Emirates Lions at the Scotstoun.
It would be a push to expect the entire Leinster full metal jacket team to be at Hollywoodbets Kings Park on Saturday night (7:15pm kick-off), but this is a time where the team that finishes the tour might well be stronger than the one that started it.
CULLEN GIVING NOTHING AWAY
Giving credence to the possibility that Leinster will be strengthened was the apparent determination of their head coach Leo Cullen to play his cards close to his chest during a press conference earlier this week. He stuck rigidly to the line when questioned directly that all would be revealed at the team announcement on Friday. He wasn’t prepared to go beyond that.
There have been suggestions in the Irish press that some players and some coaches have returned to Ireland to start preparing for the Champions Cup tie, but there has also been acknowledgement of a potential flow in the opposite direction.
What Cullen was ready to acknowledge though was that it was the scrum that let his team down at Loftus, with a monster scrum from the Bulls forcing the penalty that Richard Kriel kicked to win the game for them.
There were some youngsters in that front row, so it is no surprise that Healy, at the very minimum when it comes to the Leinster front row resources, has been added to the group.
“Yeah, we have a pretty young and inexperienced group there,” said Cullen.
And he’s not exaggerating. Ivan Soroka had to take time off work to be part of the front row that faced down Wilco Louw and company, and Leinster finished the game with a hooker in Stephen Smyth who is a first year Leinster academy prospect.
“Ivan has been amazing,” said Cullen of Soroka’s propulsion from playing amateur rugby to playing against the Bulls. “He was upset after the game. I don’t mind sharing this, which makes me upset. He is such a great fella.
“I rang him six or seven weeks ago about the possibility of coming away on tour. He’s taken time off work to be here, and he’s jumped at the opportunity. He got capped in the Cardiff game and if you were in the dressing room you’d have seen him capped by his brother, Alex. It was an unbelievably emotional moment, a privilege to be there.”
Cullen blamed inexperience for the scrum implosion that cost his team at the last set-piece.
“It wasn’t easy, a young academy scrumhalf (Fintan Gunne) putting the ball in, the Bulls, the crowd, the referee all putting pressure on him. It’s an amazing learning though.”
No doubt it is but it cost Leinster when they didn’t finish top of the log in the URC last year and had to travel to Pretoria for their semifinal and they won’t want that to happen again.
They also risk doing a Liverpool, meaning exiting at round of 16 stage of the top European competition after being dominant in the pool phase, if they have rust and loose edges from not playing together as a team when they face Harlequins the week after the Durban game.