FERGUS MCFADDEN HAS suffered the cruellest of injury blows after being ruled out of Saturday’s Champions Cup final against Racing 92 [KO 5.45pm, Sky Sports, BT Sport], as well as the remainder of Leinster’s season.
McFadden was injured in the act of scoring Leinster’s third try on the stroke of half-time during the semi-final win over Scarlets, and didn’t return for the second half after being clattered by Steff Evans.
Leinster were hopeful the hamstring injury wasn’t as bad as first feared, but the winger is now facing a period on the sidelines, although it’s not yet known if he will miss Ireland’s summer tour of Australia.
The loss of McFadden is a setback for Leinster ahead of the showdown with Racing in Bilbao, with the 31-year-old enjoying an impressive return to form this season, making key contributions en route to the final.
“It’s a huge blow for him,” Stuart Lancaster said this afternoon.
“He played so well and fought his way back into form and fought his way into the team in a really competitive position.
“We’re blessed we’ve got a lot of players in that position but we’re really disappointed for him.”
McFadden’s absence will be offset somewhat by the expected return to fitness of Luke McGrath, which in turn will allow James Lowe come back in after missing the semi-final due to the non-EU player regulations.
An ankle injury prevented McGrath from facing Scarlets but the scrum-half has made good progress in his comeback and will return to full training this afternoon as the squad’s preparations intensify at UCD.
Jordi Murphy, who was a late withdrawal from the Pro14 defeat to Connacht two weekends ago as a precaution, is also expected to train fully, while Rhys Ruddock’s fitness will be assessed by the medics after he pulled up with a hamstring problem in the quarter-final win over Saracens.
“We’re pretty optimistic now,” Lancaster said of McGrath. “He trained last week on the Tuesday and the Wednesday and there’s been no reaction to that.
“Having Luke come back into the equation, he’s an experienced player, we’ve got some decisions to make there.”
Cathal Marsh (toe), Sean O’Brien (shoulder), Dave Kearney (shoulder) and Josh van der Flier (knee) all remain long-term absentees.
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Connacht 23 – dragons 18. Shocking conditions. Heenan great. A big pond behind the posts. Dragons red card for swinging arm/punch/clothes line. Hard to describe really. Come on Score don’t forget about us!
Connacht 30. Speedboat came in handy for try.
disappointing perfomance but great result and badly needed to stop the recent slide 2 pts ahead of scarlets and into 6th place now with treviso at home next.
Sorry Jamsie but “There’ll be no repeat of 2014 narrow loss to England” warns Ireland!!! Have ye heard of the Schmidmeister across the sea??
Let them talk them selves up. They won’t do themselves any favours.
What a game it could be if our backline gets motoring…
What’s with all the crowing lads? All he said was they have moved on since 2011. So have we. Some Irish rugby fans appear to be developing a smugness which does them, this coach and this Team a disservice. Senior players and Schmidt know that they have yet to deliver a complete performance. England already have delivered away from home which makes me nervous.
the voice of reason speaks! this is not the arrogant england team of years gone by. lancaster has brought a humility and “work for each other culture” to the team. You can only respect them at this stage and that worries me for ireland’s chances. That being said their media is still the same old hype machine. We should not dismiss them for then we become no better than the england teams we all hated in the past. still think we’ll win though.
That chap has some opinion of himself!
No lack of experience? Is he having a laugh?
so england were inexperienced back in 2011? Suuuuuuuure tell yourself that repeatedly and it might come true.
Oh can’t wait for this one. It will be tight. Ireland by 3.
Ireland by 5
Ireland by 32
I was unclear. The fact that he said that can never happen again is his faux pas. Because it can and he should work to avoid that. Not patronise the Irish inadvertently cos hes thick.
It’s going to be very close.
I do like Ford but he is no Sexton.
If Brown is out then Goode is going to be looking up at the sky alot!
Irish halfbacks will be the difference between the teams.
Mark. Not really. I think the folks are reacting to the bit where he says he can’t see that ever happening again cos the team are experienced now.
Is Brown out? What’s the story there?
Waiting to hear.
It would be 4 wins from as many games. Come on guys!