Marty Moore and Dave Kearney could both be in line for a return with Leinster this weekend for next Friday's re-arranged game in hand away to Glasgow in Scotstoun. With Leinster supplying 10 players to last week's Irish success, that figure could rise again if Cian Healy and Eoin Reddan – who are both training at Carton House this week – are included in the match-day squad to face Scotland.
Leo Cullen, though, can take some comfort in that fact that Glasgow will be similarly de-powered by the meeting of Ireland and Scotland.
“Dave Kearney and Marty Moore are getting pretty close so we’ll just see how they train this week,” said Cullen yesterday at Leinster’s UCD base. “They’re in the mix. They both trained on the field on Thursday so we were trying to prep the B&I team for Saturday’s game.”
Steady progress
Of the others on their casualty list, Cullen said: "Luke Fitzgerald is getting closer. We'll see how he goes this week but he's getting close to playing, definitely in the next couple of weeks. Sean O'Brien has been back with us as well. He's another three or four weeks away but he's making steady progress.
"Isaac Boss has been out as well, but he's been back on the field in the last few weeks and again we'll just monitor his progress and see how he comes through in the next couple of days."
Although Friday’s game offers Leinster an opportunity to usurp Connacht and return to the top of the Guinness Pro12 table with an 11th win in a dozen matches a week before their visit to Galway, Cullen maintained: “It’s hard to think like that. We’re just trying to prepare as best we possibly can.
“Going back over our last game against Ospreys, we did some really good things with the ball but there were a lot of things we could do a hell of a lot better. Both teams, Glasgow and ourselves, are similarly effected probably by the international window with sort of anywhere between 10 and 15 players from each team that will be unavailable.
Challenge
“It’s a challenge. We prepped for this game back in November,” as Cullen note with a wry grin in recollection of their trip to the Scottish city last November for the postponed fixture. “We got to the point where the guys were just about to have their pre-match meal.
“So, it’s back to Glasgow again. We’ve a slightly different plan, a slightly different team I’d say, slightly different weather, but you never know. I think Glasgow’s season has been slightly disrupted with the internationals but also with the fact that their ground, they’ve had to move around. Playing in Rugby Park and playing in Murrayfield for a home game hasn’t been ideal for them.”
