No Major Injury Concerns For Leinster

The Leinster squad trained in UCD today as attention switches to next Saturday evening's RaboDirect PRO12 visit of the Cardiff Blues to the RDS (kick-off 6.30pm).

There are no major injury concerns arising from last Saturday's games in Wales where the senior team recorded their second Heineken Cup pool victory over the Scarlets and the province's 'A' team were narrowly edged by Pontypridd.

Gordon D'Arcy successfully came through 80 minutes after his recent rib injury. Meanwhile, Richardt Strauss received stitches to a cut on his chin.

It is hoped that Rob Kearney (back) will be available this weekend, however Leinster forwards coach Jono Gibbes suggested today that the Ireland full-back is unlikely to make it.

"I think the medical staff are just doing more investigation. They're working on a plan for Rob and what's best for him. I don't think he's in consideration for this week, to the best of my knowledge," he said.

"He was touch and go for the last couple of weeks - is he in, is he out? You're desperate to have him involved because of the class that he has.

"I think it's best that he just takes his time, gets himself right and we give him the opportunity to let whatever that injury is heal."

In other injury news for the Heineken Cup champions, Quinn Roux (ankle) will also continue to be assessed by the medical team.

Rhys Ruddock successfully came through his first run-out of the season in Pontypridd and he is set to be joined in the mix for selection for the Cardiff game by David Kearney.

Second row Tom Denton was a late withdrawal from the 'A' game with minor calf tightening, but that will not affect his availability this week when the team is named on Friday afternoon.

Ticket sales for Saturday's league tie have passed the 15,000 mark. Leinster v Cardiff tickets are on sale online here and are also available to buy from the Leinster Rugby Store (Donnybrook), Spar (Donnybrook) and Ticketmaster outlets nationwide.

Previewing Saturday's RaboDirect PRO12 final against Leinster with Cóilín Duffy, Ulster winger Andrew Trimble said: "We really motivated for this game. People are talking about us being the best Ulster side in a few years, we had that record of 13 wins in a row at the start of the year. We want to win trophies, and there's no point having those records unless we back them up."

Connacht elite player development officer Jimmy Duffy chats about the province's latest programme, 'Grassroots to Green Shirts', which they hope will increase the number of indigenous players coming through the provincial player pathway. In the westerners' current senior squad, there are 19 players who have come through the Connacht system.

Speaking about Connacht's 'Grassroots to Green Shirts' initiative, the province's CEO Tom Sears said: "We like to think we're innovative in our approach, that we're looking at things slightly differently. We've shown that the production line is working with the young players coming through. The system is working, we just need a bit more investment to make sure we can get more players through."

Connacht's head of commercial and marketing Alex Saul talks about some exciting developments off the pitch for the province, including their 'Grassroots to Green Shirts' crowd-funding initiative which gives fans the chance to play their part in growing and developing the future stars of Connacht and Irish rugby.

Speaking after the 30-11 home win over the Dragons, Connacht head coach Eric Elwood said: "We're a little bit disappointed we didn't get the bonus point, but the good thing is we got a good victory at home and we had a great crowd. We're back on the horse and it sets us up for Harlequins (next week)."

Speaking about recovering from the disappointing defeat to the Scarlets, young Leinster centre Noel Reid said: "We went over looking for a result and we didn't perform the way we wanted to. So we need a big week now of training and focusing on the things that didn't go our way - the breakdown in particular."