Harry Byrne, one of the four players who play at outhalf in the Irish camp, will make his way back to Leinster this week providing coach Leo Cullen with more options for his team’s visit to Cardiff for the resumption of the United Rugby Championship (URC) this weekend.
As the Six Nations teams take a break after three weekends of competition, Irish centre Robbie Henshaw and backline player Jimmy O’Brien are expected to make an appearance for Leinster, with a short-term view of playing their way back into coach Andy Farrell’s Irish squad.
Both Henshaw and O’Brien were left out of the initial 37-man Six Nations squad when Henshaw suffered a knee injury and O’Brien damaged a hamstring in Leinster’s Champions Cup win against Bayonne last month.
Ireland pull off one of the great Twickenham days against England
Leinster and Ireland fullback Hugo Keenan is also close to coming back into competitive rugby after injuring his thumb, while Ryan Baird’s return to play after breaking his leg has been pushed back to later in the season.
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“There’s players that come and go, and there’s players that are just either in one camp or the other, so we’ve a couple of guys back training now that have been out injured for the last while – Jimmy O’Brien, Robbie Henshaw,” said Cullen.
“So, we’ll just see how all those guys get through the week. It’s good. They’re [Henshaw and O’Brien] back competitively training. They’ll be in the midst of it.
“Hopefully the lads come through the week. As I said, they’ll feature in some capacity at the weekend.”
Keenan’s thumb injury has been a source of continued frustration as it occurred on the back of a hip injury he sustained last year.
The 29-year-old was forced to return home from Ireland’s pre-Six Nations warm-weather training camp in Portugal last month after sustaining a fracture to his thumb.
Keenan had expected to return for the Championship after recovering from his hip issue that required surgery and kept him on the sidelines since the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia in the summer.
“Hugo is closer than Ryan,” said Cullen. “Hugo, I think he’s hoping to do a little training next week, so he may go back into [Irish] camp, I would suggest next week, and he’ll be getting close.
“It’s just how he manages with his actual thumb. It’s more awkward than anything. So hopefully he doesn’t get another bang.”
Baird’s misfortune came during Ireland’s 24-13 loss to South Africa in last November’s Nations Series. Playing some of his best rugby, the Irish flanker was replaced by Jack Conan 20 minutes from the end of the match and left the field in some discomfort.
Initially Baird was expected to return to play around now. However, it is now certain that he will take no part in this Six Nations Championship.
“He’ll be back towards the end of the season, which is always nice to have that feeling,” said Cullen. “It’s like having a new player coming into the group at the end of the season. So, we’ll see how he goes over the next four to five weeks.”
Byrne was unable to get pitch time with Ireland over the opening three matches against France, Italy and England. Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley shared the outhalf duties in the first two games, with Ciaran Frawley coming into the matchday squad for Prendergast against England last Saturday.
Overall, Cullen has been pleased and not at all surprised by his players’ ability to bring up their performance levels against England in Twickenham, with Tommy O’Brien bouncing back from a poor outing against France in Paris and Jamison Gibson Park delivering a towering performance at scrumhalf.
“Some of the aerial things [O’Brien] did in the game, that contrasted to the France game,” said Cullen. “The France game reminded me a lot [of when] we played Stormers at the start of the season, where we couldn’t win any aerial contest, we couldn’t win any of the 50-50 breaking ball at all.
“I think there was 12 different instances in the game of which we remarkably lost all 12, which is quite a hard thing to do in what’s supposed to be a 50-50 contest. We really got beaten on the scoreboard that day. It’s such a big part of the game, but Tommy was outstanding when he came on at the weekend.
“Some of the speed that he showed for his try and some of the other work that he did in the game, it’s great to see. That’s what you want. We’d love to see all our guys at the top end of the game perform at that type of level. It was great.
“James [Lowe’s] misfortune is Tommy’s opportunity. That’s the thing for players, it’s [vital to be] ready for that opportunity. I thought he was great at the weekend.”
Along with Henshaw and O’Brien, international tighthead prop Rabah Slimani has returned for Leinster and is available for selection. French newspaper Midi Olympic reported that Slimani, who joined Leinster from Clermont in 2024, is leaving at the end of the season for French Top 14 club Toulon.
Leinster had no further updates on the injured Jordan Larmour, Paddy McCarthy, Andrew Porter and Jack Boyle.
