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Sixteen weeks after he last played for them, Leinster give update on Johnny Sexton's availability

A dejected Johnny Sexton leads Leinster off the field following defeat at Toulouse in the Champions Cup earlier this season (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Johnny Sexton has yet to play for Leinster in 2019, but assistant coach Stuart Lancaster is confident the Ireland out-half will finally be declared fit to make his long-awaited provincial comeback.

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Sexton was initially injured in a PRO14 match at Munster on December 29 and while he recovered to start all five matches for Ireland in the Six Nations, he returned to his club with a quad issue and has yet to play since his country’s March 16 Six Nations defeat to Wales.

That lay-off has meant Sexton hasn’t been seen provincially in nearly 16 weeks, but Lancaster has provided grounds for optimism that he will face Toulouse in Dublin in next Sunday’s European semi-final.

Lancaster said on Tuesday: “Yeah, he has trained today. Much can happen between now and the weekend but he has trained today… he’s fine to go. It’s good to get him back.

“It’s not just him. You have fingers crossed that Robbie (Henshaw) will come through. He’s just back. Dev Toner as well. There is a lot of players who have been out with injury who we have been waiting to get back and it’s nice to get them back this week.

“It was good last week as well. Obviously, disappointing to lose (to Glasgow) but for Seanie (O’Brien) to get another game under his belt, it allowed us to rest James Ryan, Jack Conan and Garry Ringrose so they are fresh for this week. We’re looking in a decent shape injury wise… Tadhg (Furlong) should be okay.”

In this third season at Leinster, former England boss Lancaster has experienced emotions at opposite ends of the spectrum concerning the Irish province in recent European semi-finals.

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They were beaten by Clermont in Lyon 24 months ago but bounced back last year to beat Scarlets in Dublin en route to lifting the trophy for the first time since 2012. They are now facing Toulouse for the third time this season having placed each other in winter pool matches where the results in Ireland and France went in favour of the home side.

“Everything’s on the line in a semi-final,” said Lancaster. “We found that two years ago when we lost against Clermont. The pain of losing that semi-final is still etched in everyone’s memory.

“We will prepare well because we know Toulouse well but equally they will know us inside out as well. Their ability to prepare and scout against us was impressive. We could see they clearly understood what they were trying to do against us and it’s one-all in the series.

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“When you are a coach you draw on both experiences. You draw on the positives of winning a final last year, the adaptability we showed in that final, the positivity of beating a quality side like Saracens in a quarter-final and Scarlets in a semi-final.

“They were both at home and you draw on all that, but also you would be naive not to learn from when you have lost in the past as well. Whether it was Glasgow at the weekend, what could we have done better, we never skip around a difficult conversation about a review.

“We always draw learning from it so we can become a better team. If you have always got that mindset then you are always going to be there or thereabouts. Often sometimes the easy thing to do is ignore the difficult scenarios or the defeats, but actually that is sometimes the best learning.”

WATCH: The RugbyPass fly-on-the-wall look at the 2018 PRO14 final

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JW 52 minutes ago
James O'Connor, the Lions and the great club v country conundrum

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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Colin Friels 2 hours ago
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