Johnny Sexton remained with Ireland this week and will not take part in Leinster's game against Edinburgh on Friday night in the RDS. But Leinster coach Leo Cullen has been able to select Joey Carbery for the outhalf's first start since he injured his ankle against Northampton in the European Champion's Cup last year.
Carbery played for 30 minutes at fullback last week and in the centre but starts at 10 with an eye on making his way back into Irish coach Joe Schmidt’s thinking.
“Yeah Johnny was with Ireland this week so they’re gone to Monaghan at the moment so they’ve a closer handle on what he’s been doing,” said Cullen. “We get reports but he’s under their (Ireland’s) care at the moment.”
Dave Kearney, Josh Van der Flier, James Tracy, Mike Ross and Jack Conan are all lining out in a relatively young looking Leinster side.
“Dave got through 70 minutes and Joey and Mike (Ross) got 30minutes each so good to have them all back,” said Cullen.
Fergus McFadden is another front line player who has come back but because of the short turn around between last week’s Sunday match in Italy and Friday’s meeting with Edinburgh he has been left out of the squad.
“Fergus is good,” said Cullen. “Difficult with a short week, obviously playing on Sunday and coming back in so Ferg is back available now.
“He was pushing close for selection this week but the difficulty was we only had one proper training session this week with a five day turnaround. It was difficult in regards to that. But Ferg is back and he’ll come into full consideration next week.”
Isa Nacewa is another who is not in the running as he had a 'procedure' during the week. Initially it thought to be a serious matter but Leinster medics were relieved when the knee problem was less serious than first expected. No matter, the Leinster utility back will not be available for a number of weeks.
“He had a little bit of a flair up last week so he saw a specialist at the start of the week and had a keyhole procedure done Tuesday,” said Cullen. “He had a bit of a loose body taken out and that was causing a bit of irritation. Couple of weeks to turn it around so that’s where he’s at currently.”
Leinster: Zane Kirchner, Dave Kearney, Rory O'Loughlin, Noel Reid, Barry Daly, Joey Carbery, Luke McGrath, Peter Dooley, James Tracy, Mike Ross, Ross Molony, Mike McCarthy, Dominic Ryan, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan. Replacements: Bryan Byrne, Andrew Porter, Michael Bent, Mick Kearney, Dan Leavy, Jamison Gibson-Park, Ross Byrne, Adam Byrne.
