Hopes raised for O'Driscoll, D'Arcy

RUGBY NEWS:LEINSTER REMAIN optimistic centres Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy will be available for their Heineken Cup quarter-final game against French side Clermont Auvergne in three weeks time.

D’Arcy injured a groin muscle and O’Driscoll a medial knee ligament in Ireland’s final RBS Six Nations Championship match against Scotland in Croke Park last Saturday.

There was no medical report available yesterday, although Leinster team coach Michael Cheika will be in a position today to report more detail. Both players had scans yesterday and having spoken to the players, Leinster are hopeful.

Leinster face Connacht in the Magners League on Saturday at the RDS and then meet Munster in Thomond Park on Good Friday before their date in Dublin against the French side on April 9th.

That visit of Clermont will be of wider interest given the exchange of coaches that will take place over the summer. Clermont backs coach, New Zealander Joe Schmidt, will take over from Leinster’s Michael Cheika for the 2010-2011 season in a three-year deal, while Cheika heads to the French capital to take over at Stade Français, when his contract expires at the end of the season.

The Parisian team are also through to the last eight in the Heineken Cup and will meet triple cup winners Toulouse in the all-French quarter-final on Sunday, April 11th.

Cheika should not find the transition that hard as the former New South Wales and Australia Under-21 cap previously played in France for Castres Olympique and CASG Paris before heading to Italy to join Livorno. He then coached Padova in the Heineken Cup before joining Leinster.

Celtic Rugby, together with Ulster Rugby and Ospreys, have confirmed that the Ulster v Ospreys match, postponed from Friday, March 19th, will now be played on Tuesday April 13th, at Ravenhill, at 7.30pm.

The match was originally postponed because Ospreys said that they could not field a team due to a lack of frontrow players. Tickets originally purchased will be acceptable for the refixed game.