RUGBY:As they prepare to face Llanelli, Leinster may be boosted by the return of some familiar faces, writes JOHNNY WATTERSON

LAST WEEK Shane Jennings observed the game against Exeter was a “clean slate” for everyone involved. Thoughts around the Leinster camp in UCD yesterday may have taken a similar direction in their pre-Llanelli mode. Clean slates are becoming a weekly occurrence as Leinster continue to chase form, their consolation of a first pool win not entirely insulating them from the threat of a desperate Llanelli, following the Welsh side’s 49-16 roasting from Clermont.

On that issue Leinster manager Guy Easterby has not yet spoken to his brother Simon, who coaches Llanelli. But the Dublin-based part of the duo can at least look towards a greater choice of players for this weekend. Fergus McFadden, Richardt Strauss and Heinke van der Merwe required stitches for head wounds but that aside there were no new names added to the injury list.

Leo Cullen and Cian Healy both came through their respective comebacks and will be available, while Gordon D’Arcy and Rob Kearney are also hopeful of being available, more hopeful than last week.

“They have certainly not been confirmed as playing at this stage,” said Easterby, pointing to Kearney’s back injury as being almost there last week.

“He has had more time to recover now. In fairness with Kearns, we were hopeful until right up to the day before the game.”

Scrumhalf Isaac Boss came through the last half hour of Leinster A’s British and Irish Cup victory over Leeds Carnegie following a recent arm injury. Senior management insisted mainstream players get some game time. David Kearney and Rhys Ruddock are also making progress on their injuries and are hopeful of being be in contention for the A team’s trip to Pontypridd this weekend.

“After I found out that Stoddart got sent off I said that I’d leave him for two or three days,” said Easterby about brother Simon. “I think he will be reasonably pleased. They got off to a good start. They lost a home game to the Ospreys, which he will have been pretty disappointed with, especially with having a huge crowd in for it. They lost in the last minute or so to Treviso as well.

“So they are four-and-two from their Pro 12 and they have had a difficult European trip so I would say that he has been reasonably pleased, but the European Cup is massive and he will be looking for a big performance from his boys this week.

“They were up against it at the weekend. It was 13-all when Stoddart got sent off in the 37th minute and going to Clermont is pretty tough at the best of times so going a man down would be extremely tough over there.

“They have lost one now so this is a must-win game for them.”

Leinster have distilled their undistinguished form down to personal responsibilities at player level as much as anything malign running through the team. The concern is that without the continuity of players it has been going on for three of the last four matches against Edinburgh, Connacht and Exeter.

Joe Schmidt and Easterby will take the wins but in their hearts they know there may be another fall without improvement but this weekend could spell the end of that road if Scarlets ship their second defeat from their opening pool games. Leinster’s lack of authority would have been more easily explained as a dip had the Connacht Pro 12 defeat come between two stellar performances either side.

Although big games are within reach of the team, they have been far from assertive or creative. There is a “hope” that the spark in the team will ignite and perhaps with words from Cullen and Schmidt ringing in their ears, it might be in Parc Y Scarlets.

“We just need to be a little bit better, more accurate and patient,” said Easterby. “We spoke about having four visits to the opposition 22 in the first half and not coming away with scores so we certainly need to be more patient in that area and more accurate. Hopefully with that will come more continuity and more rhythm and that is important moving forward.”

For now the Easterby-to-Easterby phone conversations are strictly family as the former flanker tries to build a cup team and a reputation in Wales just a few years out from his retirement from playing.

“At the moment we’re not speaking too much,” he says. “I’ll have to wait for the end of this one. We still have two more to go so it’s getting to be a bit of a pain. He has only been an assistant coach for a few years and this is his first head coach role. It is a fickle role, coaching, and he is just focusing on getting as much right his end as he can.”