Cullen optimistic on Furlong fitness ahead of Boks date
LEINSTER head coach Leo Cullen looked to allay injury fears over Tadhg Furlong and Ciaran Frawley following last night’s hard-fought victory against Munster.
Furlong was a late withdrawal from the starting line-up with an ankle injury, while Frawley took a bang to the shoulder and was withdrawn in the second half of the province’s 27-13 victory.
Andy Farrell was in attendance at Aviva Stadium and the Ireland head coach will be eagerly awaiting injury updates on the pair, as well as Munster out-half Joey Carbery, who also picked up a shoulder injury, with the international clash with South Africa looming large on November 5.
But Cullen was hopeful that Furlong and Frawley would be fit to travel to Ireland’s training camp next week.
‘Tadhg is OK,’ the Leinster boss said.
‘He rolled his ankle on Thursday. When we were here yesterday, I thought he would be OK. He didn’t do the team run, he was pretty confident he wanted to give it until this morning, he was confident he’d be OK.
‘He woke this morning and there was still a bit of swelling, so it was the right decision, it wasn’t worth the risk. A different type of game, a different type of year he would have played, that’s my take on things. But we gave him as much time as we could.’
On Frawley, Cullen added: ‘He had a bang on the shoulder, but he wasn’t too bad.’
Cullen was less positive about young wing Jamie Osborne, who suffered a heavy blow to the head after an awkward collision with
Jean Kleyn, who was looking to charge down a kick from Osborne, late in the first half.
‘He was struggling there, yeah. It’s a fair old impact he took, I’m sure you’ve all seen it,’ Cullen explained.
Asked if he felt a yellow card was a sufficient punishment for the Munster lock from referee Andrew Brace, Cullen replied: ‘I’m curious... I’ll find out exactly what the official line is on it.’
The hosts were far from their best but a powerful effort from their bench and second-half tries from Dan Sheehan, Luke McGrath and replacement Rob Russell sealed a bonus-point win and maintains Leinster’s unbeaten run in the URC this season.
‘In terms of the outcome, we’re delighted to get a bonus-point win in a Leinster-Munster game, it doesn’t happen that often, does it?’ Cullen added.
‘There’s part of the game clearly we can look back on where we created a lot of opportunities in the first half and we’re not particularly clinical in terms of finishing them off.
‘We were probably just a little impatient at times. We were forcing certain things in the game. We were falling on the wrong side of some calls with the officials and so it’s just the composure part that we’re lacking. Having said that, to come away with four tries is a positive outcome for us.’
Meanwhile, Munster head coach Graham Rowntree had nothing but praise for his injury-depleted side after a dogged, gutsy display in the capital.
‘I’m proud of the lads. I just told them there, I’m proud of them. There’s a sombre mood in there, some young men who wanted to do better. I thought they deserved better than the scoreline.
‘But I’m proud of them. I asked them to fight, keep fighting, get off the floor, keep fighting. I asked them to be brave and they did that.
‘I thought they deserved more from that game. They managed the yellow cards quite well. Tight game at half-time and then we had a raft of injuries, which didn’t help momentum.
‘And then a couple of key opportunities where we gave them access to our 22 and they are exceptional there.’
Carbery, Jack O’Sullivan, Kleyn and Tom Ahern all picked up injuries in a bruising encounter. Rowntree has a growing injury list ahead of next weekend’s clash with Ulster at Thomond Park, but the Munster boss insisted his young squad are on the right track.
‘We keep driving that and look at what we can do better,’ he said. ‘It’s been challenging. The injury list has been mounting. Everyone gets injuries, I’m not blaming that, it’s a fact.
‘There’s a lot of young men there having to step up and they’re learning. They’ll be better for it. We’ll have a very honest review again and we drive on.’