Leinster hit by several injuries ahead of crucial Toulouse test
Leinster have been dealt a blow with several of their front line players absent for their crunch Heineken Champions Cup clash with Toulouse.
The defending champions must secure a win to give them a chance of finishing top of pool 1. They currently trail the French club by two points.
But Leinster will have to do without their talismanic outhalf Johnny Sexton, with Ross Bryne slotting in at 10.
The backline has also been shorn of Ireland duo Robbie Henshaw and Rob Kearney. In the pack second row Devin Toner also misses out.
Jordan Larmour starts in the number 15 jersey with Adam Byrne on the right wing and Dave Kearney on the left.
Rory O'Loughlin and Garry Ringrose are again the centre partnership having played together in the Munster game over Christmas.
In the half backs Luke McGrath is partnered with Ross Byrne.
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The front row sees Cian Healy, Seán Cronin and Tadhg Furlong scrum down with Scott Fardy and James Ryan behind in the engine room.
The back row features captain Rhys Ruddock, Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan at No. 8.
On the bench Conor O'Brien is in line to make his European debut having impressed over the last few months in the Guinness PRO14.
Leinster Rugby (caps in brackets):
15. Jordan Larmour (31)
14. Adam Byrne (46)
13. Garry Ringrose (58)
12. Rory O'Loughlin (52)
11. Dave Kearney (128)
10. Ross Byrne (60)
9. Luke McGrath (105)
1. Cian Healy (200)
2. Sean Cronin (164)
3. Tadhg Furlong (94)
4. Scott Fardy (33)
5. James Ryan (24)
6. Rhys Ruddock (153) CAPTAIN
7. Josh van der Flier (69)
8. Jack Conan (83)
16. James Tracy (81)
17. Ed Byrne (34)
18. Andrew Porter (43)
19. Ross Molony (76)
20. Max Deegan (No 8)
21. Jamison Gibson-Park (63)
22. Noel Reid (111)
23. Conor O'Brien (10)
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Latest Comments
The only benefit of the draft idea is league competitiveness. There would be absolutely no commercial value in a draft with rugby’s current interest levels.
I wonder what came first in america? I’m assuming it’s commercial aspect just built overtime and was a side effect essentially.
But the idea is not without merit as a goal. The first step towards being able to implement a draft being be creating it’s source of draftees. Where would you have the players come from? NFL uses college, and players of an age around 22 are generally able to step straight into the NFL. Baseball uses School and kids (obviously nowhere near pro level being 3/4 years younger) are sent to minor league clubs for a few years, the equivalent of the Super Rugby academies. I don’t think the latter is possible legally, and probably the most unethical and pointless, so do we create a University scene that builds on and up from the School scene? There is a lot of merit in that and it would tie in much better with our future partners in Japan and America.
Can we used the club scene and dispose of the Super Rugby academies? The benefit of this is that players have no association to their Super side, ie theyre not being drafted elshwere after spending time as a Blues or Chiefs player etc, it removes the negative of investing in a player just to benefit another club. The disadvantage of course is that now the players have nowhere near the quality of coaching and each countries U20s results will suffer (supposedly).
Or are we just doing something really dirty and making a rule that the only players under the age of 22 (that can sign a pro contract..) that a Super side can contract are those that come from the draft? Any player wanting to upgrade from an academy to full contract has to opt into the draft?
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You’ve got the perfect structure to run your 1A and 1B on a quota of club representation by Province. Have some balance/reward system in place to promote and reward competitiveness/excellence. Say each bracket has 12 teams, each province 3 spots, given the Irish Shield winner once of the bottom ranked provinces spots, so the twelve teams that make up 1A are 4 from Leinster, 3 each from Connacht and Munster, and 2 from Ulster etc. Run the same rule over 1B from the 1A reults/winner/bottom team etc. I’d imagine IRFU would want to keep participation to at least two teams from any one province but if not, and there was reason for more flexibility and competitveness, you can simply have other ways to change the numbers, like caps won by each province for the year prior or something.
Then give those clubs sides much bigger incentive to up their game, say instead of using the Pro sides for the British and Irish Cup you had going, it’s these best club sides that get to represent Ireland. There is plenty of interest in semi pro club cup competitions in europe that Ireland can invest in or drive their own creation of.
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