Leinster confirm 28 new contracts and 7 players departing province
Leinster Rugby has this morning confirmed 28 new contracts for the 2020/21 season, while also confirming their list of departees.
However, with Covid-19 still impacting on the 2019/20 season, two players have been retained beyond their original contract end-date of June 30th.
Leinster Rugby Head Coach Leo Cullen welcomed the announcement and also acknowledged the unique circumstances facing a number of players.
"We are delighted to be able to confirm the list of 28 contracts today and in particular with so many of them coming through the clubs and the schools of Leinster. A huge amount of work goes in to developing players at all levels of the game so it’s incredibly pleasing for us to have five players promoted directly from our Academy.
"It is always a hugely special day for them, their families and their clubs and schools so I would like to congratulate Ryan (Baird), Harry (Byrne), Jack (Dunne), Tommy (O’Brien) and Dan (Sheehan).
"We are also delighted that Fergus McFadden and Rob Kearney have agreed to stay on for the completion of the 2019/20 Season. Both players have given so much to the team over the course of their careers as “one club” men and hopefully, they can both contribute strongly to the team for the games that we still hope to play out.
"This has also been a challenging time for many players who are leaving clubs as there has been so much uncertainty but we would like to wish all the players leaving Leinster the very best in what is next in their respective careers.
"To Bryan, Barry and Joe from the Senior squad and to Jack, Gavin, Roman and Oisín from the Academy we would like to thank you all for your contribution and effort that you have given the club.
"Our focus now is making sure our training environment is as good and safe as it can be as we look to prepare for the completion of our Guinness PRO14 campaign and of course our eagerly-awaited showdown against Saracens in the Quarter-Final of the Heineken Champions Cup."
Included in the list of 28 is 14 Irish internationals with 301 caps between them, while 23 of the 28 players have come through the Leinster Rugby Academy system.
Leinster Rugby – New Senior Contracts:
1. Vakh Abdaladze, 11 Leinster Caps (LC), 1 Leinster Tries (T)*
2. Ryan Baird, 7 LC, 3 T
3. Michael Bent, 4 Ireland Caps (IC), 135 LC, 4 T
4. Adam Byrne, 1 IC, 57 LC, 20 T
5. Ed Byrne, 52 LC, 7 T
6. Harry Byrne, 9 LC, 2 T
7. Ross Byrne, 6 IC, 84 LC, 5 T
8. Will Connors, 15 LC, 2 T
9. Seán Cronin, 72 IC, 181 LC, 41 T
10. Peter Dooley, 76 LC, 2 T
11. Caelan Doris, 2 IC, 29 LC, 4 T
12. Jack Dunne, 7 LC, 0 T
13. Scott Fardy, 39 Australia Caps (AC), 58 LC, 10 T
14. Jordan Larmour, 24 IC, 46 LC, 12 T
15. Dan Leavy, 11 IC, 63 LC, 14 T
16. James Lowe, 43 LC, 28 T
17. Ross Molony, 95 LC, 3 T
18. Josh Murphy, 32 LC, 2 T
19. Tommy O’Brien, 3 LC, 1 T
20. Rory O’Loughlin, 1 IC, 67 LC, 21 T
21. Rowan Osborne, 4 LC, 1 T
22. Andrew Porter, 26 IC, 62 LC, 9 T
23. Rhys Ruddock, 26 IC, 172 LC, 10 T
24. James Ryan, 26 IC, 37 LC, 2 T**
25. Dan Sheehan, 0 LC, 0 T
26. Devin Toner, 70 IC, 244 LC, 4 T
27. James Tracy, 6 IC, 108 LC, 8 T
28. Josh van der Flier, 26 IC, 80 LC, 9 T
Academy Players Promoted to Senior Squad:
1. Ryan Baird
2. Harry Byrne
3. Jack Dunne
4. Tommy O’Brien
5. Dan Sheehan
Leinster Rugby – Departees:
1. Jack Aungier, 5 LC, 0 T
2. Bryan Byrne, 47 LC, 12 T
3. Barry Daly, 36 LC, 19 T
4. Oisín Dowling, 6 LC, 0 T
5. Gavin Mullin, 2 LC, 0 T
6. Roman Salanoa, 3 LC, 0 T
7. Joe Tomane, 17 AC, 21 LC, 3 T
Latest Comments
The England backs can't be that dumb, he has been playing on and off for the last couple of years. If they are too slow to keep up with him that's another matter.
He was the only thing stopping England from getting their arses handed to them in the Aussie game. If you can't fit a player with that skill set into an England team then they are stuffed.
Go to commentsSteve Borthwick appointment was misguided based on two flawed premises.
1. An overblown sense of the quality of the premiership rugby. The gap between the Premiership and Test rugby is enormous
2. England needed an English coach who understood English Rugby and it's traditional strengths.
SB won the premiership and was an England forward and did a great job with the Japanese forwards but neither of those qualify you as a tier 1 test manager.
Maybe Felix Jones and Aled Walter's departures are down to the fact that SB is a details man, which work at club level but at test level you need the manager to manage and let the coaches get on and do what they are employed for.
SB criticism of players is straight out of Eddie Jones playbook but his loyalty to keeping out of form players borne out of his perceived sense of betrayal as a player.
In all it doesn't stack up as the qualities needed to be a modern Test coach /Manager
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