{"id":478611,"date":"2026-06-02T04:54:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T04:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/478611\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T04:54:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T04:54:24","slug":"leinster-monitoring-several-injury-concerns-ahead-of-urc-semi-final-against-the-stormers-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/478611\/","title":{"rendered":"Leinster monitoring several injury concerns ahead of URC semi-final against the Stormers \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/leinster-rugby\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/leinster-rugby\/\">Leinster<\/a> are assessing the fitness of seven players ahead of their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/united-rugby-championship\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/united-rugby-championship\/\">URC<\/a> semi-final against the Stormers at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday (kick-off 5.30pm).<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Joe McCarthy and Dan Sheehan were both taken off during last Saturday\u2019s quarter-final victory over the Lions. McCarthy limped off the pitch while Sheehan had shoulder and knee concerns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Although Leinster head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/loe-cullen\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/loe-cullen\/\">Leo Cullen<\/a> played down their injuries after the 59-10 win, the pair will be monitored throughout the week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The reigning champions also have doubts over Tadhg Furlong, who was a late withdrawal from the line-up to face the South African side due to tightness in his calf, as well as Tommy O\u2019Brien, Garry Ringrose, R\u00f3nan Kelleher and Jordan Larmour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Already ruled out of the semi-final are Ryan Baird, RG Snyman, Jack Boyle, Will Connors, Paddy McCarthy, Charlie Tector and Hugh Cooney.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Cullen has several selection decisions to make after the spirited bounce-back last weekend after their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/champions-cup\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/champions-cup\/\">Champions Cup<\/a> final defeat to Bordeaux B\u00e9gles a week prior.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Sam Prendergast was impressive on his recall at outhalf, but it remains to be seen whether Harry Byrne gets the nod to start in the number 10 jersey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Stormers, meanwhile, have been rocked by confirmation that outhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu will not feature in Dublin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Springbok suffered a serious ankle injury in their quarter-final win against Cardiff. \u201cIt\u2019s a big blow,\u201d said Stormers head coach John Dobson on being without the 24-year-old.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe\u2019ve lost probably the most in-form young player in world rugby the week before a semi-final, which is far from ideal. But the way Jurie Matthee is playing, and the fight in this squad gives me confidence that we\u2019ll find a way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Stormers were already planning without injured Springboks Cobus Reinach and Deon Fourie. Winger Seabelo Senatla is another major doubt, while Dan du Plessis and Ruben van Heerden are also uncertain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leinster are assessing the fitness of seven players ahead of their URC semi-final against the Stormers at the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,11287,112,14881],"class_list":["post-478611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-leinster-rugby","tag-sports","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478611","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=478611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}