Ryan Bailey reports from the RDS
WHERE DO WE even start?
On a night when Leinster moved top of the Guinness Pro12, Leo Cullen spent the majority of his post-match press conference issuing an injury update on the five players who were casualties of the bonus point win over Edinburgh.
Dominic Ryan, Dave Kearney and Noel Reid all went off with head injuries but were ‘up and about’ in the changing room afterwards. All three will now have to follow the return to play protocols ahead of next week’s visit to Dragons.
Josh van der Flier and Rory O’Loughlin, both of whom were withdrawn during the first half at the RDS, sustained shoulder injuries while Joey Carbery went off shortly before full time with cramp.
Asked if van der Flier would be facing weeks on the sideline, the head coach refused to speculate on the extent of the damage, although it didn’t look good for the flanker as he made his way off.
“Josh did a bit of damage to his AC (shoulder joint), I don’t know the severity of it but we’ll get him checked out.,” Cullen explained.
“He just takes the impact on his shoulder direct so again it’s see how it is. I’m not 100% sure how bad it is. Rory just banged his shoulder and he had been carrying that as well.”
Despite the injuries, Leinster conjured an impressive performance in the circumstances to earn all five points from what Cullen described as a ‘very physical’ game.
Even man of the match Dan Leavy — not officially one of the walking wounded — arrived into the press conference with a nasty looking bruise and stitching under his right eye.
“I thought Edinburgh came with real intent, fired into it,” Cullen added.
“We were probably pretty lucky to go 8-3 up at half time. The players stayed pretty composed and during half time they made some sort of alternate plans as the team was taking on a very different complexion and I thought they managed the conditions pretty well in the second half.”
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Injuries overshadow Leinster’s six-try win as Cullen’s men go top of Pro12
