Ireland captain Rory Best could miss the November test series matches against South Africa, Argentina and Fiji after a training injury with Ulster was diagnosed as a hamstring tear. It will keep him sidelined for four to six weeks.
Best had yet to play for Ulster this season, scheduled to return at the end of the month after touring with the Lions to New Zealand during the summer. A scan confirmed the tear and he will now miss several Pro14 matches as well as his province's opening two fixtures in this season's Champions Cup next month against Wasps and La Rochelle.
Leinster's Sean Cronin and Munster hooker Niall Scannell are likely to be the frontrunners to dispute the Irish number two, jersey, if Best fails to recover in time for Ireland's first game of the November tests against the Springboks.
Best was pictured on crutches attending Ulster’s victory over the Scarlets at the weekend and while it is a little over eight weeks to the game against South Africa, he hasn’t played a match since a Lions game against the Hurricanes on June 27th.
Peter O’Mahony, who captained the Lions in the first test against New Zealand, will be a strong contender to take over the captaincy, particularly in the continued absence of Jamie Heaslip.
In further bad news for Ireland coach Joe Schmidt Leinster fullback Rob Kearney has been ruled out for six to eight weeks after suffering a hamstring injury in the Guinness Pro14 game against the Cardiff Blues. His last game for Ireland was against Wales at the Millennium stadium in March.
Teammate Dan Leavy who won the last of his four Irish caps against Japan during the summer tour, a game in which he scored two tries has been ruled out for two months after undergoing ankle surgery, sustaining the damage in the game against Cardiff.
Leinster’s misadventures in South Africa continued with confirmation that Cian Healy was removed from a flight after failing to stow away a laptop on which he was watching game footage prior to take off.
The province issued a statement to clarify the matter. It read: “Leinster Rugby can confirm that Cian Healy was asked to leave Sunday’s afternoon’s flight from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town.
“The issue related to a misunderstanding around the use of a laptop during the approach to take off. Cian disembarked the plane and took the next available flight to Cape Town with the same airline. Cian apologised sincerely to all concerned at the time for any inconvenience caused.
"He re-joined the squad last night in Cape Town and trained on Monday in Bishop's College." This follows on foot of the visa issues that confronted captain Isa Nacewa and scrumhalf Jamison Gibson Park last week in the build-up to the game against the South Kings.
They returned to Ireland and then flew back to South Africa linking up with the Leinster squad on Sunday evening. Backs' coach Girvan Dempsey confirmed that Jordi Murphy, Dave Kearney, Joe Carbery and Noel Reid all came through the win over the Kings will no adverse effects.
Ross Byrne picked up some bruising on an ankle but will be available for selection for Friday night's game against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein (7.0, live on Sky Sports). Fergus McFadden (hamstring) is doubtful, so too is James Ryan (foot), who had an excellent game against the Kings.
Leinster now swap the sea level of Port Elizabeth where they beat the Kings grabbing a bonus point, for the altitude of Bloemfontein. As part of the acclimatisation process, the squad trained at altitude in Johannesburg on arrival last week before flying down to the coast.
Dempsey explained: “(It was to give) the players the opportunity to experience it, feel the heat; it was warm and to train at altitude, a lot of the guys wouldn’t have done that before.
“We know it was higher than it is going to be in Bloemfontein so it was good for them to feel the initial shock to the system but after that they went, ‘it’s okay, we are fit enough and we can adapt to this.’ That was primarily the reason behind it.”
Dempsey has personal experience of playing at altitude dating back to 2004 when he lined out for an Ireland team that took on the Springboks in Bloemfontein, admitting that, “it does impact on you in the latter stages of a game.”
However, he claimed that Leinster would not look to slow down the game in a bid to conserve energy for the last 20-minutes of the match. “No, certainly not, we’re happy with how our game plan is set up so we are not going to adapt for that (as) we feel our fitness levels are strong enough.
“We know it is going to be a massive challenge against the Cheetahs because they play at pace. You just have to look at the game against Zebre last weekend, the pace they have and the tempo they like to bring, it is just about managing that. There will be opportunities for us to manage the tempo but when it’s on we (need to) up the tempo and put pressure on them.”
