LEINSTER HEAD COACH Leo Cullen says neither Isa Nacewa or Jamison Gibson-Park were due to start tomorrow’s Guinness Pro14 clash with the Southern King, insisting their enforced absence has caused ‘minimal’ disruption.
Both players were forced to return home from Ireland on Wednesday evening after they were refused entry to South Africa with the rest of the Leinster squad due to documentation issues.
Leinster yesterday accepted full responsibility for mix-up, admitting it was an ‘oversight’ on their part, as they failed to realise South African law now required New Zealand nationals to possess a visa to enter the country.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s game in Port Elizabeth, Cullen revealed that he had already picked his starting XV for the game earlier in the week and neither Nacewa, the club captain, or Gibson-Park were scheduled to be involved from the start.
“From our end, it’s all new travelling to South Africa with a group so the logistics around that, it’s the first time we’ve had to do it,” the head coach said at this morning’s captain’s run.
“The issue from us is we hadn’t applied for the visa, got on our flight and landed in Joburg. The two players who were both travelling on New Zealand passports, it was only discovered then.
“The two players, Isa Nacewa and Jamison Gibson-Park, had both travelled with Super Rugby teams in the past and not needed visas. They had been asked prior to that had they needed Visas, and they hadn’t. That stuff has changed recently, it’s an oversight on our part. The players have travelled back to Ireland, got the visa issues sorted and will meet up with us on Sunday. They’ll be back involved.
“We actually named to the group of players a starting XV on Monday or Tuesday before we left, and neither of those players were in the starting XV so in terms of the disruption to the group it’s pretty minimal.”
Despite the embarrassing scenario, Cullen has been able to name a strong team for the historic Pro14 encounter [KO 1pm, TG4] with 11 Ireland internationals, including Jordi Murphy, in the side.
The Leinster squad trained at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium this morning and Luke McGrath, who played in South Africa during the 2012 U20 World Cup, says the players are really looking forward to the challenge.
“It’s a great country to play rugby in, I really enjoyed my time here,” the scrum-half said.
“We’ve had a great few days here so far and all the boys are looking forward to playing out there tomorrow.
“We’ve had two good wins so far but this is a really tough test away in South Africa. We know there is going to be a backlash from the Kings, we watched them in Connacht last week and their second half was pretty impressive.”
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