Berne ready to stake his claim

LEAGUE points may be Michael Cheika’s first priority when Leinster take on the Ospreys at the RDS tomorrow but, for almost everyone else, Shaun Berne’s performance will be the ultimate arbiter as to the evening’s success.

A summer signing from Bath, the Australian out-half-cum-centre has been a useful squad player thus far, standing in when the internationals were away or rested and riding the pine when the big names returned.

The cracked jaw suffered by Jonathan Sexton against Clermont Auvergne last weekend may change all that. The Dubliner is rated as 50-50 for the Heineken Cup semi-final in Toulouse on May 1 and Berne is the only other 10 in the squad.