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Leavy's return after 573 days out with horror injury nearly gets storybook finish

Leinster's Dan Leavy. (Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

There was a soothing sight for sore Irish eyes in Dublin on Friday night, Dan Leavy of Leinster and Ireland finally making his return to play 573 days after he was left sprawled in a heap with a horrible knee dislocation and fears for his playing career.

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It’s only a short one-kilometre walk from the Aviva Stadium, the scene of the 26-year-old’s terrible injury on March 30 in 2019, to the RDS but it had taken Leavy 19 months to make the trip, so badly crocked was he by the honest Ulster clear-out in the Champions Cup quarter-finals while defending on his 22.

In the interim, back row Leavy had missed 33 Champions Cup and PRO14 matches with Leinster, among them two league finals and a European decider, and there was always the fear with his type of serious injury that he might never be adding to the tally of 63 provincial appearances, never mind his eleven Ireland caps which featured that coming of age Grand Slam triumph in 2018.

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RugbyPass went behind the scenes at the 2018 PRO14 final won by Leinster in Dublin

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RugbyPass went behind the scenes at the 2018 PRO14 final won by Leinster in Dublin

However, back he finally came on 53 minutes, summoned from the bench to replace Rhys Ruddock in the perfect circumstance of the result at that stage being already beyond doubt with Leinster 35-3 to the good and on fire.

In normal times his arrival would have had a five-figure crowd on its feet applauding. Instead, with the match taking place behind closed doors, there was an isolated clap from the grandstand housing some media and a gaggle of stewards and that was that. Down to business with the minimum of fuss. Typical Dan.

What followed largely passed the No23 jersey replacement by, something in keeping with how these things generally go when a forward comes back from a long lay-off. Positioning takes time to get used to again, as does mentally flicking the switch that everything is going to be fine and the knee is ready for whatever physicality that gets thrown at it in a match situation as opposed to hours of endless training. Similarly, with the lungs, you tend to blow very quickly and Leavy did, sucking for air at times.

It was why Leo Cullen had advised pre-game: “People need to be patient and have realistic expectations… we’ve had to wait a long while to get to this point but huge credit to him. As we saw at the time, it was a nasty injury.”

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Leavy’s comeback was quickly celebrated by tries from Josh Murphy and Ciaran Parker and while Michelangelo Biondelli had a Zebre consolation, Tommy O’Brien and Scott Penney pushed the scoreboard out to 63-8, the 9-1 try count fairly illustrating the vast gulf between the sides.

Then came the near storybook finish. With the clock in the red as Zebre fed a halfway scrum, the Italians spilt the ball on the other side of the pitch and Leavy, of all people, gave it an almighty whack along the ground and took off in hot pursuit.

He grubber kicked it a second time and while Biondelli then outpaced him and gathered, his pass to Tommaso Boni was dropped behind the try line. Leavy pounced, touched the ball on the ground and celebrated as if his 19-month wait in between Leinster matches just had a dream finish.

It wasn’t to be though, TMO ruling out the ‘score’, but there will be much more to come from Leavy, that late glimpse boding well for the winter weeks and months ahead when he will surely find his form and be wearing a starting XV jersey.

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As for the match before Leavy’s arrival, it was typical PRO14 in Dublin, Leinster handing out a beating and speeding towards a try bonus point as early as the 37th minute. Their varied attack off the lineout did for outclassed Zebre, whose depth whenever they play on the same weekend as the Italian national team always leaves much to be desired.

Prop Michael Bent was shunted over on 13 minutes, debut-making Dan Sheehan raced in off Zebre ball that spilt over the top of a set-piece seven minutes later, Dave Kearney ran an excellent line with decoy runners distracting the defence on 29 minutes, and it was O’Brien who then banked the bonus point try just before the break after the visitors slacked off tackles.

With Zebre managing a solitary penalty in reply, the margin at the interval was 25 points, but just two second-half minutes were needed for that to spin out to 32, Sheehan grabbing his second try off a close-in pick and go. The rookie hooker went on to collect the match of the match award but the real winner was Leavy. His 19-month hell was at long last over.

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JW 52 minutes ago
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Lol you need to shoot your editor for that headline, even I near skipped the article.


France simply need to go to a league format for the Brennus, that will shave two weekends of pointless knockout rugby from their season and raise the competitions standards and mystique no end.


The under age loophole is also a easy door to shut, just remove the lower age limit. WR simply never envisioned a day were teams would target people under the age of 17 or whatever it is now, but much like with Rassie and his use of subs bench, that day was obviously always going to come. I can’t remember how football does it, I think it’s the other way around with them, you can’t sign anyone younger than that but unions can’t stop 17 or 18 yo’s from leaving for a pro club if they want to. There is a transaction that takes place of a few hundred thousand for a normal average player. I’d prefer rugby to be stricter and just keep the union bodies signoff being required.


What really was their problem with Kite and co leaving though? Do we really need a game dominated by Internationals? I even think WR’s proposed calendar might be a bit too much, with at minimum 12 top tier games being played in the World Championship. I think 10 to 12, maybe any one player playing 10 of those 12 is the best way to think of it, for every international team is max, so that they can allow their domestic comps to shine if they want, and other nations like Japan and Fiji can, even some of the home nations maybe, and fill out their calendar with extra tours if they like them as a way to make money. As it is RA don’t have as good a pathway system, so they could simply buy back those players if they turn good. Are they worried they’ll be less likely to? We wait for baited breath for the new season to be laid out in front of us by WR.

It could impose sanctions on the Fédération Française de Rugby, but the body which runs the Top 14 and the ProD2, the Ligue Nationale de Rugby, is entirely independent.

It’s not independent at all. The LNR is a body under, and commissioned by, the FFR (and Government control) to mediate the clubs. FFR can simply install a new club competition if they don’t listen, then you’d see whether the players want to stay at any club who doesn’t tow the line and move to the new competition, as they obviously wouldn’t fall under the auspice of world rugby. They would be rebels, which is fine in and upon itself, but they would isolate themselves from the rest of the game and would need to be OK with that. I have no doubt whatsoever that clubs would have to and want to fall in line to remain part of the EPCR and French rugby. Probably even the last thing they would want is to compete with another French domestic competition that has all the advantages they don’t.


All those players would do good for a few seasons in France, especially the fringe ones, with thankfully zero risk of them being poached if they turn good. New Zealand had a turn at keeping all of it’s talent, and while it upticked the competitiveness of the Super Rugby teams into a total dominance of Australian and South African counterparts (who were suffering more heavily than most the other way at that stage), it didn’t have as positive an effect on the next step up as ensuring young talents development is not hindered does. Essentially NZR flooded the locate market with players but inevitably it didn’t think the local economy could sustain any more pro teams itself, so now we are seeing a normal amount of exodus for the availability of places again. Are Australia in exactly the same footing? I think so, finances where dicey for a while perhaps but I doubt they are putting money constraints on their contracting now. It’s purely about who leaves to open up opportunity.

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