{"id":262328,"date":"2026-01-24T22:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T22:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/262328\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T22:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T22:37:08","slug":"it-didnt-look-great-jack-boyle-leg-injury-a-concern-for-leinster-and-ireland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/262328\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It didn\u2019t look great\u2019 – Jack Boyle leg injury a concern for Leinster and Ireland \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unsurprisingly, Leo Cullen<\/a> was unable to shed much light on the lower leg injury which Jack Boyle sustained in Leinster\u2019s<\/a> 34-23 win over Connacht<\/a> in front of a record attendance at the redeveloped Dexcom Stadium.<\/p>\n

The Leinster prop is the most senior loosehead in Ireland\u2019s<\/a> Six Nations <\/a>squad named by Andy Farrell last Wednesday following the calf and leg injuries which have sidelined Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy indefinitely. The Irish squad will travel to Portugal on Monday morning but Boyle now looks a grave doubt for Ireland\u2019s opening match against Paris next Thursday week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t look great,\u201d admitted Cullen. \u201cYou saw it yourself. It looks like he\u2019ll be out for a while though, unfortunately. I\u2019ll find out, let\u2019s get the exact specifics on Monday. Unfortunately that\u2019s part of the game. We will see how he is at the start of the week and get an exact update for you. Nobody likes to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also leaves Leinster light on numbers, although Jerry Cahir, plucked from the AIL on a short-term contract, again held up impressively in his hour on the field, while Cullen confirmed that the uncapped academy and Clontarf loosehead Alex Usamov was part of the travelling squad in Galway as a non-playing reserve.<\/p>\n

Cullen has been to Galway many times as a player and coach over the years, and reflecting on this landmark game he said: \u201cWe knew it was going to be a huge occasion because it\u2019s been in the calendar here for a long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we\u2019re coming down to a pretty hostile environment against a team that\u2019s going to be hugely motivated against a lot of lads that know the group well. Even Stu [Lancaster] would know the group well as well. So we knew it was going to be challenging.<\/p>\n

After a tough start to the season, this was also a 10th win in a row.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe group was getting a bit of flak maybe at the start of the season because we\u2019re missing a lot of players and we just take it on the chin. But they\u2019ve worked hard throughout this period. It\u2019s a credit to the characteristics that these guys show every day because I see them working hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great when you come away from home, hostile environments, all the rest, and you get a bonus-point win.<\/p>\n

\u201cConnacht started the game a million miles an hour, we started the game well, but they were flying into everything on both sides of the ball, like we thought they would. Credit to them for the way they went about the game, and same at the start of the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CianCian Prendergast attempts to charge down Harry Byrne\u2019s kick. Photograph: Nick Elliott\/Inpho <\/p>\n

As for Lancaster, he could scarcely conceal his disappointment after Connacht had charged into a 20-13 lead early in the second half only to see the game slip awa on the back of two tries in quick succession.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels disappointing. Particularly, I thought we played\u00a0really well\u00a0in the first half and\u00a0went in\u00a0good shape\u00a0at half-time, albeit it was 13-13.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second half was a big moment\u00a0but then the game changed in,\u00a0probably five\u00a0minutes, but it\u00a0was two tries in\u00a0a\u00a0very short\u00a0space of time and\u00a0ultimately that\u00a0cost us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s\u00a0something I\u2019ve\u00a0spoken about in the changing room, something\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0spoken about in the change room over\u00a0the last few games, really, where that consistent application of doing the fundamentals consistently\u00a0under pressure for the full 80 minutes is the step we need to take as a team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was\u00a0a privilege to be part of the\u00a0occasion\u00a0and I thought the boys in the week leading into\u00a0it, everyone\u00a0at Connacht\u00a0Rugby put so much effort into it, so\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0absolutely gut-wrenching\u00a0to not come away with a win.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously\u00a0you\u2019ve\u00a0got to give Leinster credit for nailing\u00a0those big moments when they happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lancaster praised his players for the \u201cdisciplined\u00a0energy\u201d they brought to the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a penalty we gave\u00a0away which led to\u00a0[RG] Snyman\u2019s try\u00a0and obviously then another soft moment where Charlie\u00a0Tector\u00a0just runs through and scores and\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0the game, really. The game changes in that\u00a0five-minute period.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve\u00a0given ourselves a big challenge\u00a0now to get in the top eight.\u00a0We\u2019ve\u00a0played nine games and\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0got nine to go.<\/p>\n

Obviously,\u00a0as I said to the boys,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0not the end,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0the beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stand\u00a0opening with\u00a0the home games we\u00a0have to\u00a0come, but we\u00a0have to\u00a0translate that emotion and energy into\u00a0accuracy and do it consistently for\u00a080\u00a0minutes.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0the step we need to take because clearly\u00a0when\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0playing,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0looking at the Leinster team and the Munster team, the Ulster team,\u00a0it was the same in those games as well.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0the step we need to take.\u201d<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unsurprisingly, Leo Cullen was unable to shed much light on the lower leg injury which Jack Boyle sustained…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[28454,61,60,11287,43,14881],"class_list":["post-262328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-connacht-rugby","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-leinster-rugby","tag-news","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}