LEO CULLEN PLAYED down Harry Byrne’s latest injury setback after the out-half was forced off during Leinster’s 27-10 bonus-point win at Leicester Tigers.
Byrne limped off after 63 minutes at Welford Road with an ankle issue, with Cullen confirming the injury is on the same ankle which recently kept the 24-year-old sidelined.
The out-half has been hit with a series of injury issues this season and Ireland head coach Andy Farrell will be awaiting an update with the Six Nations fast approaching. Byrne is one of three out-halves in Farrell’s 34-man squad for the tournament, alongside Jack Crowley and Ciarán Frawley.
Frawley had been due to start at Welford Road today but didn’t come through the week as hoped having injured his back against Stade Francais last weekend, with Byrne then promoted to the starting team.
Farrell’s squad are due to gather at the IRFU’s High Performance Centre in Abbotstown on Monday before heading to Portugal for a pre-tournament training camp on Wednesday. Ireland’s Six Nations opener is away to France on 2 February.
“He’s okay,” Cullen said of Byrne.
“Harry did well to get through as much as he did, to be fair, what 65 minutes or so, because at the start of the week, he didn’t train.
He came back in on Thursday and full credit to him, he did well. I think he just aggravated his ankle, so hopefully that settles down quite quickly, but yeah, great effort from him.”
Overall Cullen was pleased with his side’s performance as the province came from 10-0 down to record a bonus-point win which secures home advantage in the round of 16.
Joe McCarthy and Jordan Larmour crossed for Leinster in the first half before Dan Sheehan and Caelan Doris added tries in the second – with Doris’ bonus-point score coming in the 85th minute after a sustained period of Leinster pressure in the Tigers 22.
“It was a proper dogfight, wasn’t it?” Cullen said.
“Leicester came out very strong, that’s the form they’ve had, particularly when they play here. When you fall 10-0 down after 20 minutes, the try they scored was pretty well-worked, overload down the short side and score a good try. It’s well created, we’re 10-0 behind and weren’t really in the game.
“We’re playing with a slight breeze so probably forced to carry a little bit more, hence Leicester start winning that bit of territory battle. But we settle down into the game after that, take the three points, come up with a good try, have some chances and get held up over the tryline, thankfully we score another try and then get held up again.
“So you’re wondering if we score that try before half time, it creates more separation on the scoreboard but then Leicester lose a man to the bin at the start of the second half and then we do get that third try.
“Then the game is stuck at 22-10 for a long time, but we probably had to do more of the defending through that 20-25 minute period.
“During that we lose Jack (Conan) to the bin as well. Thankfully they were going for a bonus point at the end and we get another crack, so we’re delighted to get the fourth try at the very end because that’s 19 points in the pool, which is a great return considering the quality of opposition we’ve come up against.
“We’ll watch with great interest over the next 24 hours or so to see who we’re up against (in the round of 16).”
