SHOULD HE BE introduced off the bench at the RDS this evening, 20-year-old Hugh O’Sullivan will become the 1,270th player to represent Leinster, as the young scrum-half seeks to make his senior breakthrough.
The former Belvedere College student, now in his second year in the province’s academy, was a standout performer during Ireland’s U20 Six Nations and Junior World Championship campaigns earlier this year.
O’Sullivan has impressed Leo Cullen and Stuart Lancaster during the pre-season period and is tonight named on the bench for the Guinness Pro14 clash with Dragons [KO 5.15pm, eir Sport/TG4/Premier Sport.]
With Luke McGrath not involved and Nick McCarthy sidelined with the wrist injury he sustained in training, O’Sullivan has forced his way into the early-season reckoning.
A versatile player who operated at fullback and in the nine jersey during his school career with Belvo, O’Sullivan has worked hard over the summer months and travelled with Leinster to Cardiff for the Pro14 campaign opener a fortnight ago.
He wasn’t involved that night but Cullen has seen enough progress in the Meath native’s progress to include him in his matchday 23, with the prospect of a possible senior debut off the bench.
“Hughie has worked well, worked hard over the pre-season,” Cullen said.
“He has come in and gone about his business well so it’s important we’re always trying to build depth the whole time. Hugh is in the academy along with Patrick Patterson so we have five nines in the building.
“Nick has been a bit unlucky having picked up an injury which has ruled him out for a few weeks but he’s not a million miles away.
“We’re just always making sure we’re always conscious of the depth we have and Hughie has come in and done well. He’s quite a versatile player from his time in schools rugby and the coaches have worked hard with him, just on the nuts and bolts of his game.
“We’re conscious of having guys pushing through and at some point we need to give them the opportunity. It’s a great chance for Hughie tonight.”
Jamison Gibson-Park retains the number nine jersey for the visit of Bernard Jackman’s side, with Cullen calling upon many of his front-line internationals to considerably bolster Leinster’s firepower after last week’s defeat to Scarlets.
Johnny Sexton, Rob Kearney, Garry Ringrose, James Ryan and Josh van der Flier all return to a powerful starting XV and the head coach is demanding a much-improved performance from his side this week.
“We’re still waiting on a couple more guys with injuries but we integrate a couple more players into the mix this week which is good,” Cullen added.
“The challenge for us is that a lot of parts of our game against Scarlets last week, we can be a lot better at. We’ve worked hard this week and tried to implement a couple of things.
“The players have trained well and looking forward to our first game back in the RDS.”
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
