Leinster Make Squad Announcement For Next Season
Leinster have confirmed that 21 players have signed new IRFU contracts to continue playing with the province for the 2014/2015 season and beyond and that an additional player has been added to the squad.
Head coach Matt O’Connor made the announcement this morning ahead of training. In a further boost for the province, Leinster Season Ticket number sales have now passed the 10,000 mark for next season.
Three of those players signed up for next year – Sean O’Brien, Dave Kearney and Jack McGrath – were on hand to celebrate that fact and to remind supporters that Leinster Season Tickets are still on sale at www.leinsterrugby.ie/tickets.
Commenting on the contract renewals, O’Connor said: “We are delighted to be able to announce these contracts in preparation for the season ahead. It’s important for us as we continue to build that we have a group of players that are committed to the province and that share our vision for the future.
“While getting 22 contracts over the line is a huge undertaking, the enthusiasm of the players was evident and we are very happy with where we are with our retention and recruitment drive.
“Sean McCarthy is a player that we have been keeping an eye on for a while now. He is a young and dynamic prop and we need to have quality players in this highly attritional position.
“Sean has been capped at underage level for Ireland and has performed well for Jersey RFC in the RFU Championship and British & Irish Cup and we look forward to welcoming him to Leinster in the summer.
“We are also delighted that a number of our Academy players have stepped up and have been rewarded with either full or development contracts.
“We have seen over the last number of years that the Leinster Academy is developing top class players and men and once again a number of them played significant roles when called upon in the PRO12 this season.
“There are one or two other players that we have identified as recruitment targets and we hope to announce them in due course, but we have a big game this weekend against Edinburgh and the small matter of a PRO12 semi-final thereafter so all our focus will be on those two games.”
LEINSTER SQUAD RENEWALS –
Michael Bent
Isaac Boss
Sam Coghlan Murray
Jack Conan
Gordon D’Arcy
Tom Denton
Aaron Dundon
Darragh Fanning
Tadhg Furlong
Jamie Heaslip
Shane Jennings
Dave Kearney
Jack McGrath
Luke McGrath
Martin Moore
Sean O’Brien
Colm O’Shea
Eoin Reddan
Noel Reid
Rhys Ruddock
James Tracy
NEW SIGNING –
Sean McCarthy (Jersey RFC)