Schmidt waits on Leinster’s walking wounded

Four Leinster players are being sent for scans today to assess injuries they picked up in their RaboDirect Pro12 win over Munster on Saturday.

Joe Schmidt’s side accounted for Munster but Brian O’Driscoll (ankle), Isa Nacewa (haematoma), Kevin McLoughlin (arm) and Andrew Conway (shoulder) all picked up knocks in the 30-21 win.

With Exeter coming to the RDS on Saturday for the first round of Heineken Cup games, it leaves coach Joe Schmidt sweating. He already had injury concerns over RobKearney, Cian Healy, Isaac Boss and skipper Leo Cullen.

“Right now the biggest concern for us is injury,” he said.

“For me the frustration is that there is a lot of wait and see at the moment. It’s great to get in on a Monday and say these are the plays I want, these guys to run in the positions. But when you’re not sure who you have Monday and Tuesday means that when you’re looking for clarity and continuity it just compromises the preparation a bit.

“But a game against Munster can’t do us any harm going into Europe and the win gives us a bit of confidence,” he said.

Those sentiments were echoed by second row Damian Browne. Ina week when his former club, Connacht, knocked the Euro champions for six at the Sportsground, Browne felt the win at the Aviva was both deserved and satisfying.

“From our point of view that defeat in Galway gave us the chance to reflect,” he said. “The build-up [to this game] was good and sometimes you learn a lot more from defeats than from victories.”