![\"31](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/00242a05-614.jpg\"\/)
\nRyan Baird returns from a broken leg this weekend<\/p>\n
One by one, the injuries are starting to clear for Leinster, and the timing could hardly be better.<\/p>\n
A fortnight ago they were able to give Hugo Keenan his first rugby of the new season, and last weekend it was Andrew Porter back from a two-and-a-half month layoff, while Jamie Osborne was making his first appearance in blue since October.<\/p>\n
This weekend, Ryan Baird is the latest long-term absentee to be back on deck, four months on from breaking his leg against the Springboks in late November, and if they come through Edinburgh this evening, James Ryan could also be in the mix to return from the calf injury picked up late in the Six Nations.<\/p>\n
Fresh legs for the business end of the season.<\/p>\n
This is usually the time of year when the province steps up a gear, although last season they went into overdrive a bit too early, hammering Harlequins and then Glasgow Warriors by a combined score of 112-0 in the Investec Champions Cup Round of 16 and quarter-finals, only to flame out against Northampton Saints in the semis.<\/p>\n
Knockout rugby is when Leinster’s season gets judged, and that season within a season gets under way this evening as Edinburgh visit the Aviva Stadium (5.30pm), the first of what they hope will be four hurdles on their way to a fifth Champions Cup title.<\/p>\n
The Scottish side have reached this stage of the competition for the first time in three years, the high point in what has largely been a poor season; Sean Everitt\u2019s side are 13th in the URC with four games remaining, and while they progressed through their pool in the Champions Cup with home wins against Toulon and Gloucester, they were beaten by Castres and Bath away from home on a combined score of 96-10.<\/p>\n
\nRyan Baird returns from a broken leg this weekend<\/p>\n
Given the strength of the two matchday squads, it would be one of the Champions Cup\u2019s greatest shocks if Edinburgh were to pull off an Easter miracle and advance to the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
But after a patchy season so far, the four-time champions need to raise their game by a couple of gears if they are to get back to Bilbao in May \u2013 the site of their most recent title win in 2018.<\/p>\n
Their season started with a stinging Lions hangover, compounded by having to travel to South Africa for their opening two URC games, and while they eventually put together a run of 11 wins in a row, recent defeats to Cardiff and in particular Glasgow have raised the stakes of their URC run-in.<\/p>\n
Even last week\u2019s 36-19 win against Scarlets<\/a> was clunky by usual standards, especially considering how many of his Six Nations contingent Cullen had at his disposal.<\/p>\n The head coach has only made four changes to that side, with Baird back from injury, while Jack Conan, Rieko Ioane and Hugo Keenan come in, and Cullen is expecting his side to raise their game with the smell of knockout rugby in the air.<\/p>\n “There’s always a different feel, isn’t there?,” he said of a Champions Cup week.<\/p>\n “Last week the intent was generally pretty good but it just still had a feel that they needed to get through that Scarlets game and there was something bigger waiting.<\/p>\n “I don’t get that sense this week, as nobody is waiting for anything next week. It’s just the challenge that’s in front of us and that’s the only thing that matters right now.<\/p>\n “I think that’s probably the biggest thing that I’m getting from this week. Hopefully that’s reflected in the performance that the public will see.”<\/p>\n Their discipline issues have been noted and addressed according to Cullen.<\/p>\n Last week\u2019s flurry of penalties in the opening minutes led to the opening Scarlets try and a yellow card for Brian Deeny, which was the province\u2019s 18th in 18 games this season.<\/p>\n And the head coach admitted that silverware in any competition would be unlikely if they maintain their card-per-game record for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n It\u2019s just over two months since these sides met at the Aviva, Leinster needing to come from 15-7 down at half-time to eventually win 28-20, but with that game falling five days out from the start of the Six Nations, it\u2019s hard to put much weight into how Edinburgh ran Leinster so close.<\/p>\n Of the two starting teams this evening, only five are retained from the province\u2019s win, with Rieko Ioane the sole starter from that evening who is named in the first XV again.<\/p>\n “Edinburgh were here not that long ago and they were winning at half-time against us. So we had to kick it to life at the start of the second half and we managed to come away with a 28-20 win,” said Cullen.<\/p>\n “We know they have a lot of quality. A lot of the guys are international experienced players so they’re used to performing at the top end of the game.<\/p>\n “So this is not going to faze them. They’ve been here, they know our group incredibly well and they have a ton of players that have top end international experience.<\/p>\n “Where they sit in the league it’s going to be a challenge for them to make the top eight. So this is their season.<\/p>\n “We’ve talked about it all week so our guys should be well ready for that. but it’s going to be a serious challenge.”<\/p>\n Listen to the RT\u00c9 Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>, and email us at sportpodcasts@rte.ie<\/p>\n \n Listen to live commentary of Leinster v Edinburgh from 5.30pm on RT\u00c9 Radio 1 and follow a live blog on the RT\u00c9 News app and on rte.ie\/sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One by one, the injuries are starting to clear for Leinster, and the timing could hardly be better.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-382905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382905","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=382905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"21](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/002425da-614.jpg\"\/)
\nLeinster have had 18 yellow cards in 18 games this season<\/p>\n