IT’S BEEN A disruptive week for Leinster in their preparation for the next Pro12 assignment but Leo Cullen is confident all the pieces have fallen into place for his side ahead of tonight’s clash with Zebre [19.30].
The province’s head coach delayed naming his team for the game against the Italian side until as late as possible as he waited to discover the availability of a number of his players in or around the Ireland squad.
As it has transpired, Cullen has Mike Ross, Cian Healy and Josh van der Flier at his disposal, although Fergus McFadden was a late call-up to Joe Schmidt’s bench.
It means the Leinster team is significantly stronger than the one which suffered a 23-13 defeat to Dragons last time out, a result which ended their seven-game winning streak.
“It was just one of those weeks,” Cullen accepts. “We announced our team a little later than we normally would this week but the guys have responded really well, they’ve trained well and they know it’s going to be a tough challenge against Zebre.
“We’ve more experience coming back in this week with Cian Healy and Mike Ross into the front row in particular. Again they’re a bit shy on game time but the experience they bring will be invaluable and Isa [Nacewa] coming back in, he’s such a key figure for us.”
Nacewa returns to the fold after missing a number of games through injury and adds steel to a side which contains an exciting mix of youth and experience.
The availability of both Ross and Healy is a big, and unexpected, boost.
“They’ve just been allowed rehab away with us, there’s regular contact between both sets of medical teams to see how they’re progressing,” Cullen explained.
“They both trained last week and there’s been regular contact and it’s been deemed by them [Ireland] that the best course of action is to return with us so we’re looking for big performances from them.
“It’s really important they bring their experience to help some of the young guys we have in our ranks at the moment. It’s great to have those guys back in the set-up.”
On the flip side, there was confusion from all parties surrounding where Fergus McFadden would be playing this weekend. Originally, Leinster named him on their bench only for Schmidt to release his team and the 29-year-old to be among the replacements.
It’s the reality each of the four provinces must deal with and the challenge a player faces when he’s been drafted in and out of different environments.
“Fergus trained with us Sunday and Monday, went to Carton House later that day and then trained with Ireland on Tuesday,” Cullen continued. “He came back to us for our meetings on Wednesday and then went back to Carton that night and trained with the lads on Thursday.
“He’s had plenty of rugby anyway but he’s chomping at the bit so he is because he’s had a window away from the game due to that suspension and I thought Ferg was going really well up until that point and I’m sure he would have been in the mix sooner but hopefully he gets a crack on the field.
“It’s more difficult on the players. There’s an expectation on them that even if they’re floating between two environments that they’re 100% up to speed with what each team are doing so that’s what they get judged on and their performance and the knock-on effect of that.
“They get judged on their performance and not on the fact they’re in two different camps and it’s important for them to perform every single week because it has a knock on effect and if they don’t get up to that level it opens the opportunity for someone else to come in and take up their roles.”
Despite coming away from Rodney Parade with nothing to show for their efforts, Leinster still occupy the fourth and final playoff berth in the Pro12 standings as the business end of the season approaches.
This period, when teams are shorn of their international continent, is so often crucial in determining who finishes where in May and Leinster have been traditionally strong, often collecting close to maximum points from these fixtures.
Although they’re languishing in 11th place, Zebre will provide a stiffer challenge than many will give them credit for and Cullen is fully aware of what they’ll bring to the RDS.
“Zebre have performed particularly well this year, even in their last game against Munster when they were missing 12 to 14 players and they were still able to perform to a high level and very nearly beat Munster.
“They’ve had some pretty impressive performances this year and we’ll be in for a tough battle. Hopefully we get a good crowd in the RDS and a lot of those young guys who played in our last game there [against Bath] will get another chance so hopefully it will be a similar outcome.
“We’ll be hopeful of a big performance from our team but we’ll have to wait and see what happens in reality. In recent times, the games we’ve played in the Pro12, the weather has been horrific.
“It’s hard to play rugby in the conditions we’ve been up against so we’re praying for dry weather and we’ll get the chance to play with a bit more width.”
Isa Nacewa and Leo Cullen were speaking during a visit to Tallaght Hospital to see the work being doing in the Centre for Cardiac Risk in Younger Persons. CRY is one of Leinster Rugby’s charities for the 2015/16 season. More information can be found here.
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