September latest date for Carbery
Dempsey paid tribute to the genial Rouse, an Offaly SFC winner as a player and manager with Tullamore who is in his first year with the school having moved from Knockbeg College, who he guided to a historic Hogan Cup title in 2005 alongside ex-laois star Chris Conway.
“When John came this year I said, ‘Do you want to get stuck in with the senior squad?’ and he was delighted.
“He’s been fantastic. Great fella altogether. We do everything together. I don’t want to be taking the credit for this group of lads.
“I recognised from years back that this was a good group of lads. The fact a lot of them did TY meant they were going into sixth year then as a good mature group.
“It’s our first time ever in the ‘A’ final and we’ve been plugging away in football there since I came in ‘81 and we’ve only 400 boys.
“You’re competing against schools like Naas that have over 1,000 boys.”
The final will be played at Tullamore’s O’connor Park though, as things stand, numbers at outdoor events are not due to increase from 100 to 500 until July 20 – three days later.
Dempsey added: “What the crowd add to it numbers-wise will be interesting because there’s great
interest.”
MUNSTER have revealed that Joey Carbery will be sidelined until September.
The Ireland international has struggled with wrist and ankle problems since last August, while preparing for the World Cup.
But any hope he had of returning by the August 22 restart have been dashed.
The province returned to limited training in Limerick yesterday and Carbery was not the only player missing.
Coach Johann van Graan will be without Ireland prop John Ryan for the foreseeable future after shoulder surgery.
Keith Earls, new signing Damian de Allende and Calvin Nash have shortterm knocks but the trio should be on track to face Leinster in the PRO14 clash at the Aviva on August 22.
Tadhg Beirne is making steady progress from the ankle injury he sustained in December. But although CJ Stander and Chris Cloete have returned from South Africa, they must self-isolate for the next fortnight.
Leinster were also back on the training ground for light sessions as they build towards the August restart.
“It’s good to be back,” said head coach Leo Cullen. “It’s great seeing some of the faces coming in today, the guys are out testing away which is great to see.
“They seem to have turned up in very good condition from the naked eye, so we’ll see what the numbers tell us.”
Leinster held off issuing a squad update until today as they wanted to wait for various test results on players but Cullen is relieved to see green shoots of recovery in rugby.
“It’s just baby steps at the moment and once we get closer to a game we’ll start to ramp it up a little.”