Leinster look to future as 21 players earn new deals

No Kane Douglas yet, but Leinster head coach Matt O’Connor was happy yesterday to confirm that the province had retained the services of 21 players on new IRFU contracts for next season.

In a season when Sean O’Brien and Jamie Heaslip led the way in signing new deals that will keep them in Ireland, Leinster yesterday announced more key players were following their example, including Gordon D’Arcy, Dave Kearney, Rhys Ruddock, Shane Jennings, Isaac Boss and Eoin Reddan.

In a break with normal practice, Leinster gave no details of the length of the new deals, other than that all 21 players will be contracted for the 2014/2015 season, and while O’Connor was still in no position to announce the capture of Australia lock Douglas, there was the addition of Irish underage-capped prop Sean McCarthy to the roster from English Championship side Jersey RFC.