Tadhg Furlong represents Leinster’s primary injury concern ahead of Saturday’s Champions Cup semi-final against Toulon at the Aviva Stadium (3pm). The Irish international tighthead prop was replaced by Thomas Clarkson after 28 minutes of the province’s bitterly disappointing 29-26 URC defeat to Benetton in Treviso.
Leinster will offer a medical update at lunchtime on Monday. Game management issues were once again a bugbear for Leo Cullen’s side, along with maul defence and discipline. Their opponents on Saturday, Toulon, are sweating on the fitness of forwards Charles Ollivon, David Ribbans, Lewis Ludlam, Swan Rebbadj and Brian Alainu’uese.
Former French international wing Gabin Villere tore his cruciate and joined prop Dany Priso and fullback Marius Domon as the long-term absentees. Toulon warmed up for their visit to Dublin by thrashing Bayonne 52-26 in the French Top 14, scoring eight tries in the process.
The list of casualties following Munster’s 41-14 victory over Ulster at Thomond Park will have a legacy effect for both provinces as they try to chase down silverware. The suggestion is that some could be season-ending.
Clayton McMillan’s Munster lost Jack Crowley to a dead leg in the warm-up, replaced by JJ Hanrahan, but that was a mere bagatelle to the injury carnage that ensued. Tom Farrell (shoulder), Jean Kleyn (HIA, bicep), Calvin Nash (hamstring), Tadhg Beirne (leg) and Oli Jager (concussion) were invalided from the pitch.
McMillan admitted: “There’s a few dings. Tadhg [Beirne] took a bit of a nasty fall there, and he’s done something to his leg. JK, Jean Kleyn, he’s done something to his bicep. Calvin Nash, hamstring, Tom Farrell, shoulder, so look, I’d say there’s probably two or three season-enders there.” Beirne and Crowley are the likely outliers to that last statement.
Ulster also suffered. Centre Ben Carson had started superbly but he left the stadium in a medical boot and Ulster head coach Richie Murphy confirmed: “Ben is in trouble, he’s a calf injury, probably won’t see him back this season, I would think. Eric [O’Sullivan] has a back spasm, so we’re not sure exactly what that is. The other substitution [Bryan O’Connor] was tactical.”
Munster’s Tom Farrell leaves the pitch injured in Saturday’s Munster vs Ulster game at Thomond Park. Photograph: Nick Elliott/Inpho
All three had departed before half-time as the visitors trailed 12-7, and were desperately unlucky not to be in front, having played the better rugby, and twice been held up over the line. There were some raised eyebrows when Murphy announced 15 changes to the side that lost to Leinster, but few could quibble with how the young players responded.
The Ulster head coach said: “Well, there’s two things, one is that guys earned an opportunity over the last number of weeks in training, and I think you can see the potential that’s in that group.”
[ Ulster’s young side show potential despite Munster defeatOpens in new window ]
Number eight Lorcán McLoughlin was outstanding, James McKillop and Tom Brigg coped and fought admirably while Aitzol Arenzana-King produced an acrobatic flourish in scoring his try.
Murphy continued: “There’s part of our game that we were a little bit green in and in fairness to Munster in the second half, when they smelled blood, I thought they looked after the ball a hell of a lot better. I thought they turned over the ball quite easily in the first half.
“They were a bit more clinical in the second half and then the pace of play made it very difficult for us to get our foothold back into the game.”
He explained that of the six injured players from the Leinster match, “we’ve got probably four of those guys winning their battle to be fit for” the Challenge Cup semi-final against Exeter in Belfast on Saturday (5.30pm) “and two very much on the edge”.
“It’ll go down to the wire, be tight but we’re definitely looking a little bit healthier than we were after last week’s game.”
Ulster’s Aitzol Arenzana-King scores his side’s first try of the match against Munster at Thomond Park on Saturday. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho
Munster have a week off to prepare for the penultimate game of the league stage of the URC, against Connacht at the Dexcom Stadium. McMillan highlighted a few areas for his team to improve. “I’d still like to see our discipline be a bit better. I think we gave away 12 penalties. We need that to be in the single digits. Otherwise, you just gift opportunities to good teams, and they’ll make you pay.
“I think our scrum has come a long way, but we’re still guilty of giving a couple of soft ones away that release pressure or we put pressure on ourselves. I think there’s lots of parts of our game that are slowly coming together.
“We’re starting to score tries to score some points, and that’s pleasing at this stage of the season. But you can undo all the good work through a few little things that end up being the big things. We won’t be patting ourselves on the back after [the win over Ulster].
“We’re aware that there’s still some huge challenges ahead of us. I think outside the top maybe two or three, they probably can count themselves in, and everyone else is scrapping for whatever points they can get. We just need to worry about ourselves.
“Obviously this week is an opportunity to take stock and then we must prepare for an ever-improving Connacht side.” Connacht were beaten 33-21 by the Lions in the second match of their sojourn in South Africa.
Ireland suffered a frustrating and disappointing 26-7 defeat to France in the Women’s Six Nations Championship at Stade Marcel-Michelin. Their tournament resumes with a game against Wales in Belfast on Saturday, May 9th.