Cheika hopes he can count on O’Kelly
The vastly experienced lock was yellow carded by Christophe Berdos for the incident during the first-half of Saturday’s game against Wasps in Twickenham and will be explaining his actions to an ERC disciplinary panel tonight.
Should O’Kelly receive a ban, an appeal would be unlikely before Sunday given the short time-span involved.
The coach has innumerable other headaches before kick-off on Sunday lunchtime.
Leinster will definitely be without the services of O’Kelly’s second row partner and captain Leo Cullen who damaged his shoulder in London five days ago.
Should O’Kelly join him on the sidelines, Cheika would be forced to turn to a lock partnership consisting of Trevor Hogan and Devin Toner with Cameron Jowitt in reserve.
“We are looking into that but the first step for us is the hearing,” said the coach. “Looking at it in detail and also looking at the reports from referees, we obviously can’t say much, but Mal has an impeccable record.
“He has never been sent off and never had a suspension in his career, which has gone on a long time. We are hoping that a combination of things will free him to play. But we’ve got our own contingency plans on that front.”
The province will be further hamstrung by the loss of CJ van der Linde who retired last weekend having aggravated an injury first reported a week earlier in the Magners League tie against Cardiff.
The South African dislocated a toe against the Welsh region before doing ligament damage against Wasps and the prop will now concentrate on being fit for the side’s next engagement against Llanelli in late February.
Said Cheika: “He’s now in a boot to take all the swelling out and we are going to give him 10-14 days off his feet doing nothing. We will get another picture of it and hopefully he will be ready for selection when we come around to our next Magners League game.”
Cian Healy will be the man to profit from van der Linde’s misfortune, just as he did before Christmas when he started against Castres in France.
News on the other prop, Stan Wright, is encouraging. The Cook Islander injured his neck and back last weekend but is expected to train tomorrow. His well-being will be crucial. Ollie le Roux is next in the queue and Cheika readily admits that 80 minutes is not within the Springbok’s compass.
Add to that Ronnie McCormack, who is struggling with injury and hasn’t even been named in the squad, and Cheika’s problems in the front five are glaringly obvious ahead of a game that will decide their Heineken Cup fate this season.
“Losing two of your starting tight five is not ideal but, in saying that, a player like Devin Toner was excluded from the squad last week and was quite unlucky to lose out so he gets an opportunity to come back in,” said Cheika.
“We are still very hopeful about Malcolm’s situation and we are hoping that we won’t be deprived of him after (today) either. With CJ, Cian has been coming on in leaps and bounds and it is a great opportunity for him to start a game in Heineken Cup.
“Edinburgh have really improved their scrum over the last few months and it is going to be a big challenge for him in that department. He has been playing well though so it is something to look forward to.”
LEINSTER SQUAD: Forwards: C Healy, Ollie le Roux, J Fogarty, B Jackman, S Wright, T Hogan, D Toner, C Jowitt, M O’Kelly, R Elsom, Stephen Keogh, S Jennings, S O’Brien, J Heaslip.
Backs: C Keane, C Whitaker, I Nacewa, J Sexton, L Fitzgerald, Simon Keogh, F Contepomi, G D’Arcy, B O’Driscoll, S Horgan, G Dempsey, R Kearney.
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