Advertisement
Jack Conan at Leinster's captain's run on Friday. Laszlo Geczo/INPHO

Conan and Ringrose to travel with Leinster to South Africa

Hugo Keenan won’t be involved in the URC semi-final.

LEINSTER BOSS LEO Cullen said Jack Conan and Garry Ringrose would travel to South Africa as part of the squad to take on the Bulls in the URC semi-finals this Saturday.

Ringrose has been sidelined for months with a troublesome shoulder injury and though Leinser said the Ireland centre would be available for last weekend’s quarter-final win over Ulster, he wasn’t involved.

Back row Conan also missed the Ulster game after being withdrawn from the win over Connacht two weekends ago, but he looks set for his return against the Bulls.

“Garry and Jack should be good to go,” said Cullen on Saturday evening.

“The plan is for them to travel.”

The Leinster boss confirmed that Hugo Keenan would not be returning to the fold with his province after playing for Ireland 7s in the Rugby Europe Championship in Croatia last weekend.

However, Cullen stopped short of ruling Keenan out of involvement in a possible URC final if Leinster reach it.

“No, not for the semi-final,” said Cullen when asked if Keenan would feature again.

“One game at a time. He won’t be playing in South Africa.”

The Leinster boss underlined that it had been a tough decision for Keenan to leave his province at this stage of the season and chase his Olympic dream with Ireland 7s.

garry-ringrose-on-the-sideline-during-the-game Garry Ringrose during Leinster's win over Ulster. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

“You have to understand for all our fans, the group as well, you want a top-end player like Hugo, he has been an unbelievable servant for Leinster and for Ireland, he is still a relatively young man,” said Cullen.

“He gets the opportunity to represent Ireland and to win an Olympic medal. If you look through his lens, it is a difficult choice for him to make. He felt bad, particularly off the back of losing the Champions Cup final. He doesn’t like leaving the group.

“But again there is an opportunity there and it’s one of those tough choices. Everyone has to support him in making a tough choice. They are two amazing opportunities really and you just want to support players because again you want to give them opportunities so in the future when we are playing a match like the Bulls, it won’t be in an Olympic cycle.

“You hope when he is up for contract next and has the opportunity to go somewhere else, he goes, ‘I want to stay here because of the loyalty and support that everyone has given me.’”

Leinster might not have Keenan but their squad still includes more than enough quality to go to Pretoria and win.

Despite being away from home, Leinster are the four-point favourites early this week, not that Cullen concerns himself with such framing.

“It’s just about embracing the challenge now, making sure we are imposing our game on the opposition,” said Cullen.

“We played the Bulls in Round 13 when they had a fully loaded group. We were coming off the back of the Six Nations and we had a mix of some guys coming back from the Six Nations, we had some guys who played the previous week against Zebre.

“We are hugely excited, you don’t want it to end really. You see Ross Molony scoring a try there, he is obviously going to be moving on to a different challenge [with Bath] at the end of this season. Michael Ala’alatoa [who is joining Clermont], you can just see the intent he has in all aspects of his game. That is just mentioning two players.

“For the group, it is about embracing the challenge. It will be hard but it’s brilliant and we want to get excited by it. It’s different but hugely exciting nonetheless.”

Close
12 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute G
    Favourite G
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 2:56 PM

    Great save by Kelleher near the end. Comfortable afternoon for him

    220
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Robert Clifford
    Favourite Robert Clifford
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 2:56 PM

    Top player.

    115
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ger Power
    Favourite Ger Power
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 3:42 PM

    Super performance and result albeit against a woeful Watford. Unlikely to be a worse performance by any PL team this season. Salah is unbelievable and his goal was magical, give him the contract his performances and goals deserve. Great to see Firmino scoring. Though Kelleher had nothing to do he kept his concentration to make a very good save at the end. Gonna be a tight title race. Surprised Salah and Mane played the 90 minutes, Minamino could have done with game time especially against that Watford team.

    76
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Elvis
    Favourite Elvis
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 4:49 PM

    Mo Salah is WOW!!! a pleasure to watch him…..Firmino not bad either : )

    59
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John S
    Favourite John S
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 3:11 PM

    Time to sack Ranieri…….

    60
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Heckler davies
    Favourite Heckler davies
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 10:05 PM

    @John S: dilly ding dilly dong

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Seàn Mc
    Favourite Seàn Mc
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 10:12 PM

    @Heckler davies: dilly ding, dilly gone

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Scott Crossfield
    Favourite Scott Crossfield
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 3:12 PM

    Class win and 3 more handy points. We will be hard to stop This season as we put last seasons blip behind us

    48
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute WESHALLNOTBEMOVED
    Favourite WESHALLNOTBEMOVED
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 3:01 PM

    Danny Rose will sleep tonight. Great performance against an albeit poor side!!

    47
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tomas Ryan
    Favourite Tomas Ryan
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 4:56 PM

    Give Mo all the money. Almost 0% chance of being able to replace him

    40
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gerard McAuliffe
    Favourite Gerard McAuliffe
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 4:31 PM

    Lewandowski and Salah are the best players in the world on current form.

    35
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ottomaaan
    Favourite Ottomaaan
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 2:59 PM

    I don’t think I’ve ever seen a PL side as bad as that Watford side today….if they lost 10-0 it wouldn’t have been a surprise! Woeful…

    29
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gordon Larney
    Favourite Gordon Larney
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 3:12 PM

    @Ottomaaan: you forgot to mention that they were up against a solid side with a rampant front three, there, I fixed it for you…. :)

    86
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ottomaaan
    Favourite Ottomaaan
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 4:27 PM

    @Gordon Larney: no need to fix anything. That was the worst performance I’ve ever seen from a PL side, dreadful stuff and Liverpool could have put 10 past them.

    8
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute JonnyBgood
    Favourite JonnyBgood
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 5:09 PM

    @Ottomaaan: have to agree. I was at the game and never seen such a bad performance from a PL team.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Finn Faulkner
    Favourite Finn Faulkner
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 4:12 PM

    Salah in great form. But how long canhe hold that form? He has 20-25 goals in him a season, but he’s up and down. If he held this form, he’d be close to 40 goals?
    Bigger tests against Athletico and United on the way.

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute len len
    Favourite len len
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 4:28 PM

    @Finn Faulkner: did you like your own comment…

    76
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute WESHALLNOTBEMOVED
    Favourite WESHALLNOTBEMOVED
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 4:28 PM

    @Finn Faulkner: how long can he do that. ? He has been doing it for the last 4 seasons. 104 goals in 166 games in the Premier league but you think he should score more. Okay so

    99
    See 5 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Hayes
    Favourite John Hayes
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 5:04 PM

    @Finn Faulkner: you’re gonna need bigger bait on that hook ….

    27
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Finn Faulkner
    Favourite Finn Faulkner
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 5:55 PM

    @WESHALLNOTBEMOVED: But by that metric 4 seasons at 40 goals would be 160 goals. He hasn t done that. But my point is that if he can keep that killer hat on his head for a prolonged period, and with our squad almost injury free, he could break records for us. I’m HOPING he keeps this lethal form indefinitely. He still can’t be put in the Messi/Ronaldo category until he starts being seriously clinical. I’d love to see him win the Balloon d’Or this year (or the next)

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Finn Faulkner
    Favourite Finn Faulkner
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 5:56 PM

    @len len: No, but seeing as you need likes, here, have mine. Have a lovely day.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Shane Roche
    Favourite Shane Roche
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 6:10 PM

    @WESHALLNOTBEMOVED: you included his Chelsea stats there, it’s 102 in 153 for Liverpool

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Finn Faulkner
    Favourite Finn Faulkner
    Report
    Oct 16th 2021, 7:38 PM

    @Shane Roche: It’s still an amazing number of goals per season, but I think he can go even further, he needs to keep this current form. Biggest tests are against Athletico and then United.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Victor Feldman
    Favourite Victor Feldman
    Report
    Oct 17th 2021, 1:02 AM

    That salah. Goal was pure roy of the rovers.. Pure art.. He must be a great dancer..

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Seymour business
    Favourite Seymour business
    Report
    Oct 17th 2021, 2:02 AM

    As good as Liverpool are, and they are really good. This in my opinion is all about Klopp.

    5
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel