Irish replacements expected to return for Leinster on Friday

Ireland remain in third in World rankings after Six Nations triumph

Ian Madigan and Sean Cronin are set to return for Leinster in the Pro12. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
Ian Madigan and Sean Cronin are set to return for Leinster in the Pro12. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho

Leinster will review the fitness of the returning players from Ireland duty but would expect to be able to pick the majority, if not all, of those players who started on the bench in the 40-10 Six Nations Championship clinching victory over Scotland in Murrayfield for Friday night's crucial Guinness Pro12 game against the Glasgow Warriors at the RDS.

Sean Cronin, Jack McGrath, Marty Moore, Jordi Murphy, Eoin Reddan and Ian Madigan should all come into the selection equation for Leinster coach Matt O'Connor.

Connacht will be without a brace of openside flankers for the remainder of the season. Jake Heenan picked up a rotator cuff tear against the Cardiff Blues and while it didn't impact a previous right shoulder stabilisation operation, it means that he won't play again this season. Willie Faloon suffered a dislocated shoulder in training and he requires surgery ruling him out for the remainder of the campaign.

Pat Lam will be without the pair, plus prop, Nathan White (back), centres Dave McSharry (knee) and Bundee Aki (ankle) and wing Niyi Adeolokun (leg) for this Saturday's game trip to Munster but in better news scrumhalf Kieran Marmion and number eight Eoin McKeon are available.

READ SOME MORE

Meanwhile Ireland remains in third place in the world rankings following last Saturday’s win over Scotland in Edinburgh. In fact there was no change to the top 10 following the weekend’s final round of Six Nations Championship fixtures.

John O'Sullivan

John O'Sullivan

John O'Sullivan is an Irish Times sports writer