Tyler Bleyendaal defends Leinster selection policies at No.10

It will be fascinating to see who Leinster play at out-half in Saturday's URC quarter-final against the Lions

Ciarán Frawley's performance off the bench for Leinster against Bordeaux in the Champions Cup final was one of the few positives for the Irish side. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie

It takes a lot to ruffle Tyler Bleyendaal.

The Leinster attack coach walks about the team building in flip flops in the middle of winter. He shakes hands and answers sometimes awkward questions with an ease and grace that speaks for the years he surfed the maelstrom of the pro game as a classy No.10.

It was the fourth question about Ciaran Frawley that had him just a touch exasperated.

Frawley’s performance off the bench in last weekend’s heavy Champions Cup final defeat to Bordeaux-Begles was one of the few positives for the club on the day. And it highlighted again just how curious it is to see him leaving for Connacht this summer.

The 28-year old brought some life and danger to Leinster’s attack, admittedly at a point when the French had already declared their innings, but it raised again questions over why he hasn’t had more opportunity at out-half with the club.

Bleyendaal doesn’t subscribe to the opinion that all of Leinster’s out-halves are the same, but he isn’t of a mind to suggest that Frawley is some maverick that brings something a Sam Prendergast or Harry Byrne can’t match either.

“It's not like Frawls is out there freestyling.” Still, it was striking to think that he was tasked to play pivot for the last 35 minutes against Bordeaux-Begles in a campaign where he hasn’t once worn the No.10 jersey, Leinster using him instead to fill holes left by injuries at full-back.

“I know we're trying to focus on Frawls - you probably have an angle or an agenda - but Harry was the form 10 for us, and he made the Irish squad, or he was involved,” said a slightly irked Bleyendaal.

"Sam started the Six Nations as 10, so it's not like he was getting excluded. The guys were doing a good job for us and he was involved in most games this year. He had to be in a different position, that's just the way it's gone.

"And then I thought he came on [in the final], and he was prepped, and he did well on the weekend. So there's no agenda, it's just how it's fallen this year and when I first arrived he played away to Benetton. I think he started 10 that match.

"So he's had 10. If he was ripping it up and he was fit, I don't see why he would have left it. So was it injury, was it form? I'm not sure. But this year the guys that were playing 10 have been doing a good job for us and were rewarded for Ireland.

“He played the most games for us, so we just needed to put him at 15 for a lot of them. That's the honest truth."

How Leinster go at out-half this week in another knockout tie - what with Frawley due to leave in a matter of weeks, Byrne replaced so early last week and Prendergast out of form and favour - will be fascinating.

One man definitely out is loosehead Paddy McCarthy who is out for the season having lasted just six minutes of that decider in Bilbao from off the bench in what had been his return from another, unrelated foot injury picked up last January.