Easterby concerned by lack of continuity
Leinster team manager Guy Easterby admits the constant shuffling of selection and unavailability of international players is a source of frustration as the management look to establish some consistency in their season.
The reigning European champions didn’t get their season off to a positive start, falling to a 45-20 defeat to the Scarlets in Round 1 of the RaboDirect PRO12 but between injuries and resting internationals under the IRFU player management system a total of 18 players were unavailable to Joe Schmidt.
Big names such as Brian O’Driscoll, Cian Healy, Leo Cullen and Gordon D’Arcy returned to the Leinster team sheet for last weekend’s meeting with Edinburgh.
But international duty is again interfering with the province’s preparations this week as thirty-three players take part in Declan Kidney’s training camp in Carton House ahead of the November international test series.
With players expected to remain in the training camp until Wednesday and Leinster facing Connacht on Friday Easterby concedes it is not ideal preparation and expects there to be wholesale changes to the starting XV, something which has been a feature of Leinster’s season so far.
“It obviously makes it harder because we have a Friday game and it means Wednesday will be our only real training session so it probably forces our hand a little bit in terms of selection,” he said.
“From the Scarlets to the Dragons we changed six and from the Dragons to Treviso we changed eleven plus one positional, from Treviso to Edinburgh we changed seven again.
“Now we’re going into this weekend with all the lads who are in national camp, getting them back into it is going to be hard so clearly there will be changes again.
“I guess from a coach’s point of view they just look from week to week but it obviously is a concern trying to get some rhythm into our game coming into the Heineken games.”
Last weekend’s 22-16 triumph over Edinburgh came at a cost with several players sustaining knocks.
Gordon D’Arcy, Eoin Reddan, Shane Jennings and Jonathan Sexton were all added to the injury list but Easterby is confident they will be available for selection against Connacht with Rob Kearney also poised to make his comeback.
“They’re all available for selection. They had a look at (Gordon) D’Arcy and he just had bruised ribs so we’re confident he’ll be available for selection at the weekend.
“We’re also confident that Rob Kearney will be available for the weekend as well. That will be his first run out so he is keen to get some game time.”
The news on long term injury casualties Seán O’Brien and Luke Fitzgerald is less encouraging however with Easterby declining to speculate on a return date but confirming that they won’t feature any time soon.
“There is no real update on them, they’re just going from week to week. I think as we get closer to the time when they are going to be available it will be easier to put some dates down but at the moment they’re still a good way off.”
