Robin McBryde would relish returning to Croke Park with Leinster
With crunch encounters in the United Rugby Championship and the European Champions Cup on the horizon in the next fortnight, assistant coach Robin McBryde has acknowledged Leinster’s international stars will need to reintegrate quickly back into the provincial system.
While Jordan Larmour and Harry Byrne played against Cardiff in the URC during a fallow week in the Six Nations at the beginning of this month – and Ciaran Frawley played the first half of their win away to Zebre on Saturday – the remainder of the province’s 19-strong Irish contingent last saw action for Leinster in a European pool stage victory against Leicester Tigers on January 20.
Leinster will once again face the English Premiership outfit on Saturday week (April 6) in a pivotal Champions Cup Round of 16 bout at the Aviva Stadium. Before then, Leo Cullen’s men will take on 2021/22 finalists The Bulls in a top-of-the-table URC contest this Friday in the RDS and it is anticipated their fit and available internationals will play in one or both of these fixtures.
“It’s just a case of sitting down and discussing how players feel, but we are getting to the business end of the season. Nobody can expect to have too long a lay-off because we have got to hit the ground running. We are going to have to get everybody reintegrated and build that cohesion in a very short space of time,” McBryde remarked at a Leinster media briefing yesterday.
Although James Ryan is expected to remain sidelined with an arm injury picked up in Ireland training ahead of their penultimate round Six Nations defeat to England, there is every possibility that Hugo Keenan and Jimmy O’Brien (who was ruled out of contention for this year’s spring international window) will have recovered from their respective hip and neck issues to feature in the Leicester game.
This triumvirate will certainly want to be back and firing on all cylinders for what Leinster are hoping is an exciting and ultimately rewarding business end to both the URC and the Champions Cup. The closing stages of these competitions could prove to be particularly memorable for fans of the eastern province, particularly those who recall their Heineken Cup semi-final win against arch rivals Munster in 2009.
That game took place at Croke Park due in part to the Aviva Stadium still being under redevelopment at the time and with the Lansdowne Road venue set to become unavailable for a significant period later this year, the GAA agreed over the weekend to make their headquarters available to Leinster for potential knockout games in the URC and the Champions Cup.
Having been part of the Welsh coaching set-up for Six Nations showdowns against Ireland in 2008 and 2010 at Croke Park, McBryde would relish a return to the north Dublin stadium.
“I have been fortunate enough to have had the experience of going there, and winning there [in 2008], by the way!” McBryde added.
“It would be welcomed by the supporters as well, I’d imagine. Going there supporting Leinster, I think it would be great.”