Leinster have confirmed the appointment of Felipe Contepomi as their new backs coach.

Contepomi has been working as a coach with the Argentina national team.

If this game was a business proposition you probably wouldn’t even need a six-second elevator pitch to sell it.

The chances of Sean O’Brien featuring in the run-in to Ireland’s Six Nations campaign are veering towards slim.

Of all the medals claimed, the caps won and the other accolades that came his way, none say as much about Jamie Heaslip the player so much as the pair of nominations he received for World Player of the Year.

Rob Kearney is ready for his latest fight for Ireland's full-back shirt, with fast-rising young gun Jordan Larmour.

Girvan Dempsey sat on the bench in Murrayfield the day Leinster claimed a first Heineken Cup.

The rise and rise of Jordan Larmour could go to another level today with Robbie Henshaw and Girvan Dempsey backing the young back-three star to be included in Joe Schmidt’s Ireland squad for the 2018 NatWest 6 Nations.

The usual New Year cheer should be all the more pronounced in Ballsbridge today, writes Brendan O’Brien.

Keith Earls’ admiration for the next generation of Irish talent was obvious when he sat down to chat prior to Ireland’s latest trio of November internationals.

The man circling the athletics track situated below Jamie Heaslip as he spoke to the gathered media was the perfect metaphor for the conversation taking place.

Eight months passed between the news that Leinster had signed James Lowe and his debut for the province, but everything the Kiwi wing has said and done since his belated arrival in Dublin suggests he was well worth the wait, writes Brendan O’Brien.

Jamie Heaslip was once renowned as the rugby player who could not be broken.

Barry Daly insists he's not out to prove anyone wrong after finally hitting the big time with Leinster.

The mood in South African rugby is understandably glum after the Springboks lost 57-0 to the All Blacks at the weekend, but none of that worried Leinster backline coach Girvan Dempsey yesterday.

Ronan O’Gara believes Joey Carbery has the talent to go all the way to the top and he expects that process to start kicking in this evening at the Red Bull Arena in New Jersey when the 21-year-old makes his first Ireland start.

The Irish squad have set up base in New Jersey with eight players hoping to make their international debuts and a few others on red alert for a call from New Zealand and elevation to the Lions squad.

Joe Schmidt says the IRFU offered Donnacha Ryan a financial deal similar to the package he was already on but the second row decided to leave Munster for Racing 92 next season for a combination of professional and personal reasons.

Joe Schmidt has thrown the gauntlet down to Ireland’s World Cup 2019 hopefuls to cope with Japan’s unique rugby conditions and also challenged a string of second-row forwards to fill the remaining vacancy on next month’s tour.

Joe Schmidt has warned Donnacha Ryan that his move to France to join Racing 92 will make it “more difficult” for the second row to continue to be selected for Ireland.

Rob Kearney is under no illusion that Ireland are in for an easy ride against Scotland at Murrayfield this weekend.

If a week is a long time in politics, then image what a year in professional sport must feel like.

Following his first start at the RDS in over a year against Connacht last Saturday evening, Jack Conan admits he is in a hurry to re-establish himself as a major contender for a starting place in Leinster.

Girvan Dempsey believes Rob Kearney is poised to return to something like the form of old now that the Leinster and Ireland full-back finally appears to have put a prolonged period of injury frustration behind him.

Top of the league, two games to go and with a near fully fit squad: everything is falling into place for Leinster as the Guinness Pro12 season comes to a close, but Girvan Dempsey knows that it takes just one slip for their position to be badly compromised.

Leinster backs coach Girvan Dempsey confirmed yesterday that the province wouldn’t be losing any players to international duty for this Friday’s Guinness Pro12 encounter against the Ospreys in the Liberty Stadium.

Keeping up with the blur of moves made by players this past year or so has been an impossible task, but the scale of the migrations and the quality of the players involved are evident just from those involving Leinster’s Champions Cup pool opponents this term.

It’s less than a year since Matt O’Connor remarked that he wouldn’t turn Robbie Henshaw away if he turned up on his doorstep, but the new coaching ticket at Leinster was rather more coy when quizzed yesterday on the possibility of Connacht’s poster boy moving east.

As a veteran of the 2003 and 2007 tournaments, Leinster coach Girvan Dempsey can easily identify with the emotions that the Irish squad will be experiencing ahead of the upcoming Rugby World Cup.

Leo Cullen is the type of special character who can make light of his limited coaching experience and succeed in the daunting task of guiding Leinster back to the summit of the Pro12 and European games, according to Jonathan Sexton.

Isa Nacewa has failed in his attempt to bring ‘the next Joe Schmidt’ to Leinster.