Toner keeps competition at arm’s length

Devin Toner will likely earn his 200th Leinster cap this Friday evening when Cardiff come to the RDS and the memory of his first appearance in January of 2006 hasn’t been compromised by the passing years and the litany of events since.

“Yeah, Border Reivers,” he said yesterday with a smile. “Myself and Sexto came off the bench, in Donnybrook, and we won by a fair bit. I don’t remember the score. Who did I replace? Was it … Adam Byrne?” It was. And the score was 62-14. Toner was allowed 15 minutes by Michael Cheika that evening, Johnny Sexton bagged the grand total of eight. A crowd of 4,125 took it all in, oblivious to the divergent paths that lay ahead for all concerned. For the Reivers, the road would come to an abrupt end with disbandment within 18 months. Toner and Sexton would go on to construct careers of impressive stature while Leinster would undergo major upgrades on and off the park.

“It’s been a long road, I suppose. It doesn’t feel that long. It feels as if it has flown by but, looking back at the caps I was getting each season, it was two, then three, then four and five and then 17, 18 and up to 30. So it gradually got there.