D’Arcy Ruled Out For Leinster
The Leinster squad stepped up their preparations for Friday’s Amlin Challenge Cup final against Stade Francais at the RDS (kick-off 8pm) with a training session in UCD today.
With the province’s six British & Irish Lions representatives involved in camp on Monday, the province did not train until Tuesday ahead of the visit of French side Stade Francais to the RDS.
There are a number of injury concerns arising from Leinster’s RaboDirect PRO12 semi-final victory over Glasgow Warriors last Saturday.
Brian O’Driscoll is recovering from a back spasm which curtailed his involvement on Saturday night. At this point, the Clontarf man is rated as having a good chance of being available for Friday’s cup final.
However, his centre partner Gordon D’Arcy suffered a recurrence of the calf injury which had limited his on-field activity in recent weeks and he has been ruled out for the European decider.
The management expect Sean O’Brien (calf) to be available after he missed the Glasgow game, while David Kearney is also poised to return to action after his recent five-week absence.
Aside from that there were the usual bumps and bruises arising from the 17-15 defeat of the Warriors. Leo Cullen received stitches to a cut above his right eye but the influential skipper finished the game.
Kevin McLaughlin received a bruised eye following an accidental collision with his team-mate Fergus McFadden, who himself was treated for a knock to his right knee which is not thought to be serious enough to keep him out of contention.
Ireland hooker Richardt Strauss also received treatment on a knee injury, but the medical team are confident that he will be available for selection.
Isaac Boss’ next game will be his 75th in all competitions for the province, while out-half Jonathan Sexton is now just a single point shy of the 1,000 point mark in 108 Leinster appearances to date.
It is a big weekend for the province with the ‘A’ team set to travel to face Newcastle Falcons in the final of the British & Irish Cup at Kingston Park on Friday night (kick-off 7.30pm).
Girvan Dempsey’s charges will be keen to finish their campaign with silverware and build on their recent 17-15 semi-final victory away to Munster ‘A’.
Friday’s clash will pit Newcastle out-half Jimmy Gopperth against his future employers. Locks Tom Denton and Ben Marshall are injury concerns for the province ahead of Thursday’s team announcement.