RUGBY
Focus turns to provinces after World Cup exit
By Daire Walsh
FOLLOWING their sobering defeat to Argentina in the quarter-final of the Rugby World Cup last Sunday week, Ireland’s international players will be slowly, but surely, integrated back into provincial action.
It may be a while before we see the Irish front-line performers playing for their clubs again, but the past weekend did see a few of the Irish squad members returning to Pro12 duty. This was most notable in Leinster’s game with defending champions Glasgow Warriors on Friday evening, which was the third competitive home encounter of Leo Cullen’s reign as coach.
After being called up as an eleventh hour replacement for Peter O’Mahony, Rhys Ruddock made an appearance from the bench against the Pumas, but he was restored to the Leinster back-row for the visit of the Scottish outfit. Mike McCarthy was another late addition to the Ireland squad, and he reclaimed his spot in the second-row alongside Ross Molony.
Isaac Boss and Tadhg Furlong (who made a cameo appearance against Romania in the pool stages) were included amongst the replacements, but despite facing a Glasgow team that included eight World Cup participants in their 23, Cullen was reliant on the players who have been in the trenches during the absence of their high-profile stars.
Suncroft’s Fergus McFadden was starting his fifth consecutive game for Leinster this season, and he made a valuable contribution on an encouraging night for the hosts. They did find themselves seven points adrift during the opening moments, when Zander Fagerson broke through for a converted try, before McFadden responded with a brace of successful penalties.
Six points from the boot of Duncan Weir did offer the visitors a 13-6 half-time lead, but the Blue Army received a boost at the end of the opening period, when hooker Pat MacArthur was sin-binned for a heavy challenge on opposite number, Aaron Dundon.
Dundon was previously a coach at Newbridge College, and following the knock he picked up from this incident, he was replaced by a former student of the south Kildare school – James Tracy.
The young front-row certainly made an impact upon his arrival, and just four minutes after the restart, Leinster levelled matters when McFadden added the bonuses to a Luke McGrath try. Glasgow did rally with a similar effort from powerhouse winger Taqele Naiyaravoro, but when the same player was issued with a yellow-card for deliberately preventing a McFadden touch down, a penalty try was awarded.
McFadden comfortably added two points to his personal tally, and he sealed Leinster’s third victory of the campaign (23-18) with the final kick of an eventful contest – bringing his overall haul to 13 points.
There were plenty of positives for McFadden and Tracy to take from this game, and there was a huge Kildare interest in the ‘A’ Interprovincial Series clash between Leinster and Ulster on the previous evening in Ballynahinch.
Adam Byrne, Joey Carbery, Jeremy Loughman and Jimmy O’Brien all featured for the province’s ‘A’ side, and in addition to a Byrne five-pointer, a try, conversion and penalty from Athy’s Carbery helped Leinster towards a 37-7 success.