Leinster have clarified that the calf injury sustained by Tadhg Furlong was “the other one” and not the calf/hamstring issue that sidelined him for a protracted period this season and saw him also miss four of Ireland’s matches in the Six Nations Championship.
There was a further addendum that the 32-year-old tighthead prop’s place on the Lions tour to Australia was not under threat. Furlong, who was an unused replacement in Leinster’s win over the Glasgow Warriors in their final URC regular-season game , isn’t available for Saturday’s URC last-eight clash with the Scarlets at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday (3pm).
He will be joined on the sidelines by Robbie Henshaw, who sustained a knee injury that will rule him out of the remainder of Leinster’s season but wouldn’t compromise his standby status were he to be called up to the Lions.
Why Leinster now have to win the URC
The silver lining in the medical bulletin was that Jordan Larmour is on the threshold of a return to competitive action, having last played against Munster, a five-minute cameo on December 27th. There is no further update on Will Connors, Brian Deeny, James Culhane and Caelan Doris.
Leinster assistant coach Robin McBryde provided a little background information. “Yeah, he’s [Furlong] okay. It just tightened up during the Glasgow game. He was on the bench, as a replacement. Thomas Clarkson, I thought he played exceptionally well in that game, so there was no need to risk Tadhg by sending him on. He’s at a stage where we are just monitoring him to see how that develops.”
On the Henshaw issue, McBryde said: “You want to be able to pick from as many fit players as you can towards this end of the season. Everyone is picking up knocks, so the more people you can choose from, the better.
“Someone like Robbie is a quality player, high calibre, a big-game player, so [it] is not ideal. But it gives someone else an opportunity to step up. It is not just the playing but the training against quality opposition as well.” That’d just leave the 68-times capped All Black and perennial match of the match award winner, Jordie Barrett, to team with Garry Ringrose in the centre.
The Scarlets handed Leinster only their second defeat (35-22) of the URC campaign in the last week in April, one that is still vivid in the memory for the players and coaching staff of the Irish province.
McBryde wore the Scarlets’ jersey with great pride for more than 10 years as a player, so knows all about the club’s rugby ethos, and played alongside their coach, the former Lions and Wales scrumhalf Dwayne Peel. “He hasn’t had an easy job at the Scarlets. In fairness to Dwayne, he was great as a player, very experienced as well now as a coach.
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“You can see it in the way that they (the Scarlets) go about playing. It is great from a Welsh perspective to see a Welsh team making it through to the quarter final. It’s been a tough season for everybody in Wales. From their perspective, it’s great.”
On Leinster’s defeat in Parc y Scarlets, McBryde offered no excuses. “There was a lot in that game, but I am not going to take it away from the Scarlets. They had a good game plan and stuck to it. They proved good value for it [the win]. They are currently four out of five [wins in matches] off the back of a successful South African trip.
“Their consistency in selection, they hardly make any changes if any at all to the starting 15, the starting pack in particular; they’re cohesive, a tough nut to crack, they’re comfortable with their game, the way they go about things. They are well coached, good players, a tough nut.”
What does he ascribe to their recent upturn in performance levels? “Sometimes things just go your way. That analogy with the stonecutter, it is not the 100th blow [that breaks the stone], it is the 99 that have gone previously. It is all the hard work that you put into a season. Sometimes things just happen off the back of hard work.
“In fairness to them, they’re a cohesive bunch, they’re obviously tight as a unit, tight as a team. It’s a test that we failed a couple of weeks ago, first against the Scarlets and against Northampton. I think it’s got to be something of a reset. This is knockout rugby; the stakes are a little bit higher.
“If we’re good enough to win this week, we’ll get an opportunity to play next week and if we’re good enough the following week, we’ll get to play again, but it’s one game at a time and for all those reasons I said earlier about the Scarlets being cohesive etc, they’ll be a tough nut and we’re going to have to earn the right to be involved in the competition next week. It will be tough.”
