Strauss and Berne among Leinster signings

RUGBY SQUAD NEWS:LEINSTER HAVE confirmed the signing of Scottish international lock Nathan Hines and Irish tighthead prop Mike Ross for the coming season. They have also announced the arrival of former Bath outhalf and centre Shaun Berne and South African hooker Richardt Strauss.

Strauss (23) has agreed a one-year deal from the Cheetahs, while Hines has signed for two seasons from Perpignan, where his form last season earned him a call-up to the British and Irish Lions squad to South Africa this summer, where he played five times.

The four players will join Irish scrumhalf Eoin Reddan, who had previously signed a three-year deal from London Wasps.

With the retirement of Chris Whitaker, scrumhalf Paul O’Donohoe, who made four senior appearances last season, and hooker Jason Harris-Wright have both been awarded their first professional contracts and are the latest graduates from the Leinster Academy. There is one remaining vacancy in the playing squad.

Secondrow Leo Cullen will continue as captain after guiding the province to the Heineken Cup title last season.

Berne (30) enjoyed two successful spells at Bath between 1999-2001 and 2006-’09 and in total made 119 appearances for the club in all competitions, including 27 European caps.

An older brother of former Leinster centre Michael, the Sydney-born back was capped on five occasions by Australia A. He made 38 Super 12 appearances for the NSW Waratahs and also represented Australia Under-21s in 1999 and the Barbarians in 2000.

He said: “Michael (Leinster coach Cheika) was my coach at Randwick and I’m looking forward to working with him again.”

Although a Scottish international, 32-year-old Hines comes from Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. He qualifies for Scotland through his maternal grandfather and he has made 58 international appearances since making his debut in 2000.

Between 1999-2005 he played with Edinburgh before moving to Perpignan in the 2005/06 season where he made 90 Top 14 appearances (19 in the Heineken Cup).

Ross, from Cork, was an All-Ireland Cup winner with Cork Constitution in 2005/06 before moving to Harlequins where he was a standout performer in the Premiership over the last three seasons. Having made nine Ireland A appearances, he made his first senior international appearances in the victories over Canada and the USA on the summer tour to North America.

“It’s a challenge I’m looking forward to and hopefully I can build on my two Ireland appearances earlier this summer but first and foremost I will have to work hard to break into the team,” he said.

Leinster will travel to Nice for a week-long training camp which will include a pre-season friendly against Rugby Nice Cote d’Azur on Friday, August 21st (kick-off 7pm, local time) before continuing their preparations with a game against London Irish a week later on Friday August 28th at Donnybrook (kick-off 7pm) ahead of the start of the Magners League campaign.

Leinster squad

Backs: *S Berne, G D'Arcy, G Dempsey, L Fitzgerald, S Horgan, C Keane, R Kearney, S Keogh, F McFadden, I Nacewa, *P O'Donohoe, B O'Driscoll, E O'Malley, *E Reddan, J Sexton.

Forwards: L Cullen, J Fogarty, *J Harris-Wright, C Healy, J Heaslip, *N Hines, T Hogan, B Jackman, S Jennings, S Keogh, R McCormack, K McLaughlin, S O'Brien, M O'Kelly, *M Ross, *R Strauss, D Toner, CJ van der Linde, S Wright.

* denotes new signings