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Douglas Poised To Make Leinster Debut Against Cardiff

Douglas Poised To Make Leinster Debut Against Cardiff

Leinster head coach Matt O’Connor has said that new arrival Kane Douglas is ‘fresh and really eager to get involved’, as the province prepare to host Cardiff Blues in the GUINNESS PRO12 on Friday.

Last Thursday Kane Douglas tweeted saying he was on his way to Leinster, with his bags packed for the long trip from Australia to Ireland. Fast forward to this Monday and the Wallaby lock has met with his new team-mates and has taken part in his first training session with the Leinster squad.

Speaking to the media today, Matt O’Connor said that Douglas has recovered from his jet lag and looks ready to play this weekend.

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“Yeah, he arrived Friday. He’s had a couple of weeks off, which is great, off the back of playing a hell of a lot minutes in the Super Rugby campaign that New South Wales won,” explained the Leinster head coach.

“He’s fresh, he’s really eager to get involved. At this stage he’ll be involved at the weekend (against Cardiff Blues at the RDS).”

Discussing the decision to bring the 25-year-old to Leinster, O’Connor emphasised the need to have strength in depth throughout the entire squad.

“The feeling was that with Leo (Cullen’s) retirement there was a little bit of a void there in relation to an out-and-out world class lock. We’ve got guys that have played a lot of Test footy in (Mike) McCarthy and (Devin) Toner but it’s a fair slog with the league and Europe.

“To bring someone in with the age profile that Kane’s got – and just won the Super title, and he’s played Test rugby – it’s a great boost for us to have. He’s got an incredibly high work-rate and we’ll be looking for him to be pretty big for us across the course of the season.

“It’s a long campaign – you need 40 good players. From that end, I think the group’s excited to have a bloke that’s going to contribute.”

Click here to buy tickets for Leinster v Cardiff Blues, which takes place at the RDS on Friday night (kick-off 7.35pm).