Leinster stars to rest, cloud over Furlong's fitness

In the wake of Leinster’s dominant victory over Toulouse in Dublin on Saturday, Head Coach Leo Cullen is set to rest some of his top names this weekend in the URC as they face arch rivals, Munster. 

Leinster were sublime as they brushed Toulouse aside in dominant fashion, the final whistle sounding with the score at 40-17, with captain Johnny Sexton picking up the man-of-the-match award. 

Cullen’s men are on top of the world at the moment, having managed to secure pole-position on the URC log and hosting the Champions Cup final on 28 May, and are thus have a great shot at both titles. 

However, the fitness of Tadhg Furlong is in question after the barnstorming prop picked up an ankle injury this weekend. In addition to this, James Lowe, who was in prolific form at the weekend, is nursing a leg injury while Ronan Kelleher is commencing back to play protocols. 

“We have a big game here next week against Munster: back to the URC everybody!” Cullen said. 

“We want to put on a big performance here next week. There are different layers in the group. You have guys like Johnny (Sexton) who has experienced lots of positive memories and a few tricky ones along the way, as we all have, and then there is a younger group that is striving for success for the first time. 

“We’ll have some players that are desperate to put their hand up, that’s what we want to see from them. 

“So that’s the thing that’s probably occupying most of my thoughts at the moment, is getting ready for a (Munster) team that we know are very ambitious to be very successful as well. They’ve come out publicly and said their desperation for trophies and I guess investment they’ve put in, in terms of getting some World Cup winners into their squad. 

“So that’s probably the thing that is actually taking up most of my head space at the minute because that’s the way our minds go to, which is the next challenge. 

“Then it’s just getting excited. Hopefully there’ll be a few planes and we’ll have a sea of blue down in Marseille because that would be amazing. Last week the support in Welford Road was incredible, the 4,000 people that made the trip over there. 

“We won a final in Bilbao, I know it’s not France, it’s Spain, but there was an amazing sea of blue. It’s one of my most vivid memories, driving into the stadium literally into a sea of blue covering the tunnel. 

“They’re the special moments that you get, I guess the honour of representing this team. We’ll have a group of players that will get to run out here next week and hopefully we’ll have a big turnout again and then we turn the page to Marseilles. 

“We know we’ve a quarter-final the week after that in the URC so it’s an unbelievably exciting period of games, isn’t it. 

“The group have been pretty well managed so we should be fresh and raring to go. We picked up a couple of bangs and knocks, hopefully none of them are show-stoppers, but it’s just getting excited about the next challenge now. It’s not Marseille, it’s back to the Aviva on Saturday.”