Cullen makes a virtue of key Leinster players' absence 

The eastern province visit Cardiff in the United Rugby Championship this evening.

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen during a squad training session at Thornfields in UCD. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

While he is able to call upon a number of experienced internationals, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen is more than happy to give opportunities to some of the fringe players within his set-up for their visit to Cardiff in the United Rugby Championship this evening.

For their latest encounter with the Welsh side in Cardiff Arms Park (kick-off 7pm), Cullen has selected Rieko Ioane and Robbie Henshaw as his centre partnership. Between them, this midfield pairing has accumulated a combined total of 172 senior international caps in the colours of New Zealand and Ireland respectively.

Jimmy O’Brien, Harry Byrne (released from Ireland’s Six Nations squad for this game) and Max Deegan are the other players in the starting line-up tonight to have featured in the test arena, while there are also a quartet of internationals in the form of Gus McCarthy, Rabah Slimani, RG Snyman and Luke McGrath listed amongst the Leinster replacements.

Yet there are also seven players in the match day 23 (not including the aforementioned Ioane) who have made fewer than 10 senior caps for the eastern province with second row Alan Spicer set to make just his second appearance in professional club rugby.

He has become accustomed to operating without a sizable international contingent during Six Nations windows across his time in charge of Leinster and as he prepares to face fifth-place Cardiff in the URC following close to a month without a competitive fixture, Cullen is hopeful some of the province’s young players can seize upon their chance to impress.

“The lads have worked away well. It's just a good time for senior coaches to keep working on the next generation and build in depth and all the rest. Every time there's a player away, it just affords an opportunity for somebody else, so trying not to waste a minute really is the thing,” Cullen remarked earlier this week.

“Cardiff are going well. They've nice consistency. They don't miss a tonne of players to Wales. They've been very, very strong this year. Particularly at home. So it's a good challenge for our fellas.” 

Meanwhile, considering both players have been absent with respective knee and hamstring injuries since Leinster’s European Champions Cup pool stage victory against Bayonne on January 17, Henshaw and O’Brien will be eager to hit the ground running on their return to competitive action tonight.

It remains to be seen if they will return to the fold before this year’s Six Nations Championship reaches a conclusion, but the above-mentioned players still maintain international aspirations and Cullen is more than happy for anybody to have this kind of motivation while donning the provincial jersey.

“That’s what you want. Ireland have plenty of positive headaches off the back of the weekend [against England]. Guys really put their hands up, so anyone coming back into form so to speak is going to have to play well to get back in the mix there. Which is what every team and coach wants, basically. That positive competition for places,” Cullen added.

LEINSTER: J O’Brien; J Kenny, R Ioane, R Henshaw, R Moloney; H Byrne, F Gunne; J Cahir, J McKee, A Sparrow; A Spicer, B Deeny; M Deegan, S Penny, J Culhane.

Replacements: G McCarthy, A Usanov, R Slimani, RG Snyman, J Ericson, L McGrath, C Tector, A Osborne.

CARDIFF: C Winnett; J Beetham, H Millard, B Thomas, M Grady; C Sheedy, A Davies; R Barratt, L Belcher, J Sebastian; J McNally, G Nott; A Lawrence, D Thomas, T Basham.

Replacements: D Hughes, D Southworth, K Assiratti, R Thornton, E Rees, J Mulder, I Lloyd, T Bowen.