LEINSTER HEAD COACH Leo Cullen has said Will Connors is ‘timing his run’ nicely after the openside flanker picked up the player of the match award in his side’s last-gasp 21-20 defeat to the Bulls in the United Rugby Championship on Saturday.

While he often competes with both Josh van der Flier and Scott Penny for the number 7 jersey in the eastern province, circumstances led to the Kildare native playing alongside the latter for the majority of last weekend’s contest at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria. Moments after Alex Soroka had replaced starting No 8 James Culhane for a similar reason, Penny took over from the experienced Max Deegan after he sustained a head injury inside the opening 10 minutes of the action.

This meant Connors played for the full duration of a gruelling encounter that was ultimately decided by a stoppage-time penalty from Bulls centre David Kriel, but a committed performance from the former Clongowes Wood College student earned him the game’s top individual accolade.

At the business end of the 2023/24 season, Connors was selected to start in some big games for Leinster – including their Champions Cup final loss to Toulouse. On the back of his strong showing in Pretoria, he will now hope to be in the reckoning for the forthcoming knockout stages of both the URC and Europe’s top-tier.

“Will, he was excellent at the weekend. It’s a good battle even with him and Scott Penny here as well. They’re two quality players that we have, so we’re very, very lucky there. They’re both great characters within the group. Very, very different characters, but great characters to have. We’re lucky there on a lot of fronts,” Cullen remarked in a video call from South Africa.

“Will, in terms of what are his strengths? His chop tackling ability. He played some big games for us in the Champions Cup last year and he’s timing his run now. It’s great that we have that option to use for later on in the season hopefully.”

A number of injury issues have curtailed Connors’ Leinster career in the past — he made just two provincial appearances in the 18 months that followed his most recent outing with Ireland against Scotland on 14 March 2021 – but he is currently in a good position to challenge for a starting berth.

Cullen is set to have a relatively full squad to choose from for Saturday week’s Champions Cup Round of 16 showdown against Harlequins at Croke Park, but it remains to be seen if Jordan Larmour will be in contention for that game.

The Dubliner last saw action as a replacement in the closing minutes of Leinster’s victory over Munster at Thomond Park in the URC on 27 December, as he has been troubled by a hamstring injury picked up in training in early January.

While Cullen expects Larmour to be back on the field of play before the 2024/25 season has reached a conclusion, he doesn’t have a precise time frame for his return.

“We had originally tried to push Jordie to get back for this [Leinster’s current mini tour of South Africa]. It’s not that he’s had a setback, it’s just he’s a bit slower in trying to get onto the next stage.

“There is still plenty of rugby to be played and he’ll be back for it at some point. At what stage exactly I’m not sure yet, but hopefully we’ll get him back and there’ll still be plenty of rugby to be played at that stage.”

Before returning to home soil, table-toppers Leinster will be aiming to bounce back from their first defeat in this season’s URC when they complete their time in the southern hemisphere with an enticing clash against the Sharks at Kings Park in Durban this Saturday.

With former Leinster (and Munster) lock Jason Jenkins now a key member of their squad, Cullen is expecting a robust challenge from the fourth-placed South Africans. Although he was coy about who might be joining the set-up for this weekend’s game, Cian Healy was pictured at Leinster training in Durban’s Northwood College on Monday.

“The conditions down here are unusual. If you look on Google, the temperature is 27 degrees, but it doesn’t paint the picture of the humidity. It’s sweaty, so handling can be a challenge,” Cullen added.

“A strong aerial game, that’s the first threat. Similar to all South African teams, a good set-piece. They will always challenge us there. Jason Jenkins is in their ranks, so he’ll have an idea about what we are trying to do, which is always a danger.”