Leinster are expected to give an update on the injury which forced Ciarán Frawley in the 17th minute of their 33-12 win over Connacht in the Sportsground in their weekly Monday bulletin.
The Ireland international limped off gingerly after being tackled by David Hawkshaw in the build-up to Leinster’s second try by Liam Turner when his foot was momentarily trapped under the Connacht centre.
“I don’t know, is it his foot or ankle. I’m not 100 per cent sure yet,” admitted Leo Cullen. “The two new caps were taking centre stage in the dressingroom, so we’ll find out and will know more on Monday,” added the Leinster head coach in reference to their two debutants, 20-year-old hooker Stephen Smyth and 21-year-old centre Hugh Cooney.
Frawley was replaced by Ross Byrne, who steered Leinster to their fifth bonus point in five games to lead the BKT URC table by seven points, 10 points clear of Ulster, a dozen ahead of Connacht and 14 clear of Munster after their error-strewn 34-19 loss to the Stormers in Cape Town.
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Frawley was unlikely to feature next Saturday at the Aviva Stadium against the Lions, who sit in second place with the only other unbeaten record and a game in hand on Leinster, when Sam Prendergast is likely to return.
But after his match-winning drop goals in Ireland’s last outing against the Springboks in Durban, Frawley’s anticipated presence in the Irish matchday squad against New Zealand in their opening Autumn Nations Series game at the Aviva Stadium on Friday, November 8th must be in doubt.
“We’re delighted with the win,” said Cullen on a blustery night in Galway, after Leinster stormed into a 21-5 lead by half-time with three first-half tries and completed another bonus point within six minutes of the restart.
“It’s bloody tough coming here. Conditions were tricky as well out there. I thought we started the game well again, that’s a few weeks in a row we’ve started the game well.
“We got in for two good tries and probably had another couple of opportunities we didn’t take. Connacht came back into the game and had to play into the wind, it was very difficult to kick into the wind.
“They got in for a good try and you’re thinking, ‘this is probably not going to be a big enough lead’. We did well to score on half-time, which gives us a bit of scoreboard separation.
“We started the second half well and got in, but Connacht were challenging us the whole time. Then they eventually got in for a good try, and it was going to be a tight 15 minutes, and then Ross kicks off and then Andrew Osborne gobbles the ball out of the air and scores an incredible try, which probably just took the sting out of Connacht a little bit.
“Overall, we’re delighted, with five academy players in the 23, two guys making their debuts. There’s lots of positives in that.”
It’s already becoming hard to credit that Gus McCarthy is still one of the those five academy players. The 21-year-old hooker, who captained Blackrock College to the Leinster Schools Senior Cup and the Ireland Under-20s to a Six Nations title and World Cup final two seasons ago, was making his third start of the season for Leinster in addition to Emerging Ireland’s win over Western Force, after which he was called home to play the second half of last week’s win over Munster in Croke Park.
This was in light of Rónan Kelleher joining long-term casualty Dan Sheahan on the casualty list after an ankle procedure which will sideline him for the New Zealand game and beyond. With the Ulster pair of Rob Herring and Tom Stewart yet to feature this season, the in-form Dave Heffernan looks favourite to start against the All Blacks but although it’s probably too early for McCarthy, who caught the eye at the Dexcom Stadium with three clean breaks, he is nonetheless putting himself in the conversation.
“Yeah, he’s been fantastic, Gus,” said Cullen. “He had lots of big moments in the game today. I talked about him last week, we were talking about the hookers, the three guys we had during pre-season.
“Stephen [Smyth] was away with the 20s, so it’s good to see him come off the bench today and make his debut which is fantastic. He’s definitely one for the future as well.
“With Gus, he was fighting it out with John [McKee] and Lee [Barron] over the course of pre-season and he did well. He got a start in that first game against Edinburgh, had a quick trip to South Africa and played two games while we played one, and straight into Croke Park last week.
“It’s been a fantastic first five rounds, which has included a trip to South Africa, a brilliant experience for him.”
