JACK MCGRATH WILL be fit to travel to New Zealand with the Lions at the end of the month, with the blow to the arm he suffered during Leinster’s Pro12 semi-final defeat to the Scarlets not as serious as initially feared.
The Leinster loosehead underwent an x-ray after Friday night’s clash, but came through all clear and trained with the Lions at Carton House today.
“He’s fine,” said Lions head coach Warren Gatland this evening. “He had an x-ray and it’s clear, just some bruising.”
Gatland also confirmed that Sean O’Brien has come through a scan on his calf injury without any major concerns and he is also expected to be fit to start the tour.
“I think Sean is probably more concerned that we are, in terms of he is frustrated because he felt he probably overloaded himself last week with the amount of training he did in preparing for the game, considering he hadn’t had a lot of rugby,” said Gatland.
“He probably needed to take a little more time easing into it. We’re making sure we take time in easing him into it properly. Having chatted to him, he feels confident he’s going to be 100%. The scan came back pretty good, so we’re happy.”
Leinster out-half Johnny Sexton underwent a Head Injury Assessment following Leinster’s defeat to the Scarlets, but Gatland said the 31-year-old passed it and will train with the Lions tomorrow.
“He had no symptoms on the HIA, there was no concussion from that, so we’re expecting him to take a good part in training tomorrow and then later in the week.”
The Lions will spend this week training in Ireland at Carton House, where Joe Schmidt’s national squad base themselves during the Six Nations and November Tests.
After last night’s hammer blow of losing Billy Vunipola to a shoulder injury that has ruled him out of the trip to New Zealand, Gatland was pleased to report that the Lions have no new major injury worries after the weekend’s Pro12 and Premiership semi-finals.
Captain Sam Warburton returned to full contract training in Carton House today, while Wales hooker Ken Owens is progressing well and should be fit for the start of the tour.
“We’re pretty good really,” said Gatland. “We’ve got a couple of guys who got bangs on Saturday just recovering from that, but most of the guys are making good progress.
“You’re always going to have to two or three guys that are, for whatever reason, not taking a full part in training, not taking contact or doing modified session. Some of the guys are just taking an extra day before taking to the field tomorrow.”
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He’s not as disappointed as some on relation to how far off they are? They are miles off. No offence to Munster but they are an average,though very gutsy and committed side,and they have hammers Leinster twice in a row now. I do agree that they haven’t had any continuity with combinations,especially from 9-13,and hopefully when the likes of OBrien, Healy, Moore, Teo, McFadden etc come back then there will be a big improvement.
I must take the opportunity to praise Matt O’Connor for the huge improvement in Guinness Pro12 teams. Ever since he arrived at Leinster, every other team has greatly improved. Teams, that two years ago were almost brushed aside by Leinster, have now reached the heights that Leinster once inhabited alone.
Treviso have improved, Munster have improved, Edinburgh have improved, Scarlets have improved, Dragons have improved, Zebra have improved, Connacht (brilliant tonight, by the way) have improved..
In fact, they have all improved so much that Leinster has great difficulty taking on any of them.
By extension, Wasps and Harlequins have shown just how brilliant they are too due to you Matt.
I can hardly wait to see how much Castres get better when they arrive at the RDS soon. They will build statues in your image all over the town.
Matt, you have done European rugby a great service. They have all reached and surpassed Leinster this season thanks to your input at Leinster and everywhere else.
Thank you Matt and Happy New year!.
(and also to Mr Caputo, the news paper seller. Your influence on all other teams has been exceptional)