New blood gives Leinster shot in the arm

If a week is a long time in politics, then image what a year in professional sport must feel like.

Take Leinster, for example, next week they’ll head into Round 5 of the Champions Cup looking to book their spot in the knockout stages of the European competition with one game to spare.

Twelve months ago they weren’t so much looking forward to the same fixture as peering at it through their fingers.

They were already out of the competition, having lost four pool games on the bounce, and rookie coach Leo Cullen threw a group of young players into the deep end to see if they would sink or swim.

Looking back now, it’s hard to underestimate just how pivotal that game has proven to be for Leinster - and for Ireland.

Garry Ringrose, Luke McGrath, James Tracy, Tadhg Furlong, Peter Dooley and Ross Molony all made their first European starts against Bath that night, with three of them still in the Leinster Academy.

The first four have since won Ireland caps, with Ringrose and Furlong being spoken of as potential British and Irish Lions bolters, to boot.

Leinster beat Bath 25-11, but more important is the difference that performance and infusion of new blood has made to the overall club.

“Yeah, it’s palpable - it’s evident around the place,” said Girvan Dempsey, the Leinster coach.

“You can feel the energy around the place. It was challenging this time last year in terms of results and success of where we were at.

“But there’s been a huge amount of work gone in since then and to be in the position we are on both fronts is very encouraging.

“With that, you realise the importance of this next block of matches. There are some massive games in the PRO12 to make sure that we keep in touch and get into that top two. And obviously two big games in Europe that will define the rest of the season for us.”

Dempsey, who was in his first season as a frontline coach last year, says he has been ‘thrilled’ by the way the younger and fringe players grabbed their chance last January. Not only that night, of course, as seen by the progress they continue to make for club and country, and the path they’ve laid for other young players like Joey Carbery and Rory O’Loughlin.

“The work that they did in the summer and towards the end of the season has been huge and it is a credit to those guys,” Dempsey said.

“Through their gym work and then off the field in terms of their preparation. They come in here and they are just bouncing around the place. They bring such energy to the group. It’s great to see them coming through. You could list them all off.

“Just to see how they’ve responded when given the opportunity has been excellent. There were a number of players this time last year who stepped into the fold and did extremely well. You look back at Garry Ringrose - he wasn’t a regular in the team. A number of guys have come through which has been really positive.”

Carbery, O’Loughlin, Ross Byrne and Dan Leavy have continued to show the talent bubbling under at Leinster this season, a squad capable of getting wins even when its star names are not around.

Byrne and Carbery have stepped up when Johnny Sexton, the Ireland out-half, has been rested by the IRFU, but the senior no.10 is finally close to making his return from two troublesome hamstring injuries.

“He’s good, he trained with us last week, he got through work, he is in a really good place,” Dempsey said. “He’s very close, probably close to the end of his rehab programme. I think it was important to get to the crux of it, to resolve the issue. That’s probably why it took so long. It would have been easy to get him to a stage, get him fit and roll him out, but who’d know when he’d break down again.

“Everyone feels we’ve got him to that stage now.”

Dempsey was unclear on whether he’d play against Zebre on Friday night. “He’s back now and in contention and will hopefully be available for selection this week. It’ll depend on how he goes in training the next couple of days,” he said. “But I think it’d be good for him, and he’d like to get some minutes under his belt. Just getting used to the systems and everything. I think he’ll be adaptable either way.”