Leinster's Ringrose and Conan fit to face Bulls

Ringrose resumed full training last week after his return from a shoulder injury.

FIT AND AVAILABLE: Garry Ringrose during a Leinster Rugby captain's run at the Aviva Stadium. Pic: Harry Murphy, Sportsfile

Leinster’s URC title ambitions have taken a turn for the better ahead of Saturday’s semi-final away to the Bulls with news that Garry Ringrose and Jack Conan have both been declared fit for the Loftus Versfeld clash.

That said, Ringrose has been passed fit once before in recent weeks and failed to make the weekend. His shoulder injury has sidelined him since the Six Nations and so it remains to be seen if the Ireland centre is finally ready to make that reappearance.

Conan missed last week’s quarter-final defeat of Ulster in the Aviva Stadium due to what was termed a ‘precaution’ and he is expected to return to full training this week. Ringrose did that last week but still didn’t make that Ulster game either.

Leo Cullen will be planning again without Charlie Ngatai (shoulder), Jason Jenkins (knee), Liam Turner (arm), Lee Barron (shoulder) and Alex Soroka (foot). 

Meanwhile, the match officials for the semi-finals have been announced, with Italian referee Andrea Piardi set to referee Munster's Thomond Park clash with Glasgow Warriors. 

Piardi will be assisted by fellow countrymen Gianluca Gnecchi and Federico Vedovelli, while Matteo Lipirini will be the Television Match Official (TMO) for the June 15, Saturday evening clash. 

SEMI-FINAL DUTIES: Referee Andrea Piardi. Pic: Ben Brady, Inpho

Scottish official Sam Grove-White will be the man in the middle as the aforementioned Leinster travel to Pretoria.

Grove-White leads a refereeing team that also contains fellow Scot Mike Adamson, as well as Welsh officials Adam Jones and Ben Whitehouse, the latter of whom will be on TMO duties.

URC SEMI-FINALS SATURDAY, JUNE 15 

Vodacom Bulls v Leinster 

Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria – KO 15.00 IRE & UK / 16.00 ITA & SA 

Referee: Sam Grove-White (SRU, 45th league game) AR 1: Mike Adamson (SRU) AR 2: Adam Jones (WRU) TMO: Ben Whitehouse (WRU) 

Live on: SuperSport, RTÉ, Premier Sports, Flo Rugby & URC.tv 

Munster v Glasgow Warriors 

Thomond Park, Limerick – KO 18.00 IRE & UK / 19.00 ITA & SA 

Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR, 44th league game) AR 1: Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR) AR 2: Federico Vedovelli (FIR) TMO: Matteo Lipirini (FIR)

Live on: TG4, Premier Sports, SuperSport, Flo Rugby & URC.tv