FOUR OF LEINSTER’S matchday squad at Energia Park today will be making their first jump from AIL Division 1A to their provincial side, and Leinster boss Leo Cullen has been delighted to welcome them into the fold to face the World Cup-bound Chile (kick off 2pm, free entry).
Starting this one-off fixture will be lock Cormac Daly of reigning champions Clontarf FC and the aptly named openside Conall Boomer, who has been in fine form for the table-topping Terenure. Plenty of Dublin University fans, meanwhile, will warm up in the afternoon for the Red and Black Ball by watching a Trinity contingent which includes prop Thomas Connolly and outside back Colm Hogan, both of whom will represent Leinster for the first time off the bench.
Their respective inclusions, and the drafting of others into the training fold this week, has provided a buzz even for Leinster’s contracted young players, as well as bolstering a tangible connection between two sides of the sport in the eastern province.
“We’ve new faces in the building, which is great — just hearing a bit about their story, really,” Cullen said. “We know in Leinster that there’s the professional game and the club game. The domestic-game side [of things] is such a big one in terms of the participation and the more we can keep those parts connected, the better it is for everyone.
“It’s trying to bridge that gap… The fact that rugby is a contact sport and you’re going to get injuries as well, you’re trying to get that balance, that connection from the amateur, domestic game into professionalism for young players and how they slide up and down those different scales; particularly how it will look at the start of next season with the World Cup and everything else going into the calendar, and what do the provincial teams do during that window.
“I watch a good few AIL games every week and the quality of those games is improving all the time, which is great to see as well, with Terenure sitting on top of the first division and Clontarf not too far behind.
We talked about Tadhg McElroy getting to make his debut for Leinster against Scarlets but we have some other players involved with clubs who trained with us pre-season, so some of those guys will get a window to play and it’s nice that they get rewarded because they committed a lot of their own personal time during pre-season.
“[McElroy] moved to England and back, been in Clontarf and Lansdowne and come through Dundalk and the pathways… But for me, to make his Leinster debut, I think it’s an important message for lots of guys who are missed out on for whatever reason; they miss out on academies even, they’re late developers.
“You’ve seen over the years — Barry Daly is another example — and guys can come in and go on and play Champions Cup rugby as well. It’s good to keep as many people interested as possible.”
Cullen stressed on a number of occasions the benefits of exposing Leinster’s younger players to a different sort of test, namely against a Chile side who have become one of the great stories of international rugby in the professional era.
Coached by the evidently inspirational former Uruguay and Stade Francais prop Pablo Lemoine, the Chileans have put down an outrageously impressive 18 months.
They had never previously qualified for the second round of World Cup qualifying but this year, they went the whole way, downing the USA in a two-legger to book their spot in France next year, a feat which Cullen describes as “amazing”.
“Seeing their reaction when they win that USA doubleheader, seeing what it means to them, like… It’s incredible, really, because it’s a good USA team with plenty of players who would be much more recognisable to us.
“It’s been an interesting education for us, going through the games and seeing their journey and how they’ve gotten to this point. That’s the thing: you want to try and push this.
If you think back to this time last year, around November, we lacked a little bit of focus. Granted, there was an extra game during that November window — and then we played a game against Ulster. [This time] it was just about looking for something a little bit different for us because we have a lot of young players, we want to try and push on and accelerate their development.
“We talked about, ‘What’s the next development competition’ because we haven’t really had one. Obviously, there was the B&I Cup for many years but we don’t get to play against those Championship teams anymore. We had a bit of the Celtic Cup but now we’re sort of lacking in something there.
“Hence the Chile game, why it’s there in the calendar. It’s something that we’ll definitely look for in the future as well.
“For us, it’s a chance to look at some young players and get some game-time for others against a competitive team that’s going to the World Cup — which again, in itself, is a nice story.
“If you remember, in pre-season a few years ago, we went to Canada who were getting ready to go to a World Cup as well,” Cullen continued. “So, even that little bit of a connection where players can see, and are playing against, a team that’s going to the World Cup, is beneficial.”
It could be of mutual benefit too, of course. Chile, grouped with England, Argentina, Japan and Samoa at the pool stage, will surely seek to absorb via osmosis even more of what makes Leinster tick than is true of the reverse.
And Cullen is not averse to the idea of sharing information with Lemoine and co. — but not until around half-past four this evening.
“It’s separate at the moment, yeah. All business until after the game — I don’t want to share too much!
“We can share as much as we want after, but for the moment, yeah, we’re getting our guys ready to play.”
Leinster
(Caps in brackets)
- 15. Chris Cosgrave (3)
- 14. Rob Russell (10)
- 13. Liam Turner (8) – captain
- 12. Ben Brownlee (1)
- 11. Andrew Smith (2)
- 10. Charlie Tector (1)
- 9. Cormac Foley (8)
- 1. Michael Milne (19)
- 2. Lee Barron (2)
- 3. Thomas Clarkson (20)
- 4. Brian Deeny (4)
- 5. Cormac Daly
- 6. Rhys Ruddock (213)
- 7. Conall Boomer
- 8. Seán O’Brien (3)
Replacements:
- 16. John McKee (8)
- 17. Marcus Hanan (3)
- 18. Thomas Connolly
- 19. Ross Molony (146)
- 20. Scott Penny (44)
- 21. Nick McCarthy (51)
- 22. Sam Prendergast
- 23. Colm Hogan
