Tyler Bleyendaal impressed by 'fresh' Joey Carbery

Leinster fans are yet to see the Carbery 2.0 version in action. He hasn’t played since suffering an ACL injury with the French club back in February but Bleyendaal has been impressed by what he has seen off the field so far.

“It's like there's a level of familiarity, but also a completely fresh relationship, almost. I'm really impressed at the way he's come back from his rehab. He looks sharp, and he's had new experiences over in the Top 14, which will be valuable for him.

“Hopefully we all learn from him as well. But, physically, mentally, he's come back really fresh. He's gonna still have to find his way into the squad and how we do things and what the gap is between where he was at Bordeaux and what we do here.

“But I've been impressed with him.” 

When we will see Carbery back in blue isn’t yet certain.

He is one of 41 players Leinster brought to South Africa for a two-game tour that started with a one-point defeat to the Lions last weekend in Johannesburg and continues this Saturday with a date in Durban with the Sharks.

The Kildare man has been training with the rest of the squad for a good month now but he is a player with a long and frustrating injury history and a long season lies ahead so utmost caution will be used in deciding his return date.

Leinster may be light on No.10 options right now with Harry Byrne, like Max Deegan, ruled out of this round two URC game with a concussion sustained last week when he replaced 20-year-old prospect Caspar Gabriel at Ellis Park.

Sam Prendergast has travelled. He is one of the Ireland players who made the journey having toured Down Under in the summer, but not all will play any rugby as minutes are managed. Cullen did say, though, that four more internationals may be available this time around.

Charlie Tector may have to be on his toes if that’s the case. The 24-year-old played a lot of rugby at out-half in his younger days but has morphed into more of a midfield option with the Leinster senior side.

“We’ve always got options” said Bleyendaal. “It always has to be an element of versatility, or it's the next man up, or someone might play or cover 10 as a position. So we're going to find that across … we've got a big squad over here.

“Some guys are unavailable, and some are going to have to double up in positions or fill that void. So, Caspar's going well. We're very confident in him, and whoever wants to or needs to back him up will do a great job.” 

Ultimately, this is a time of year when the coaching staff wants to see younger and less experienced players step up and grab their chances. Gabriel and scrum-half Fintan Gunne did that last week, especially the latter.

Gunne’s first-half hat-trick stood out on the day for the province while Gabriel, a hugely talented Austrian who is now Irish qualified, showed enough on his first senior start to back up the talk that has whirled around him for a number of years now.

“Fintan had a lot of involvements, good positive moments for us, finished off a few of those tries, and Caspar outside of him, he just got stuck into everything.

"I thought at the beginning of the matches, defensive efforts were massive for us. Then, whether he was putting guys into space or he was having a crack at the line himself, it was a lot of positive moments.

“Then, I guess that's balanced out there with a few errors, which is to be expected. It's a big match for him, a big start in a competitive game against the Lions at altitude.

"So, I thought the two of them put us in great positions. Like I said earlier, it was a game we probably could have won had we been a bit more accurate at times.” 

Leinster will also be without young No.8 Josh Ericson who picked up a neck injury against the Lions while scrum-half Cormac Foley is building up his return to play and reintegrating into training.