Olympian James Stannard will embark on a new coaching journey after taking up a position with the Western Force.
The 2024/25 Pro D2 season gets going next weekend, with Olympique pencilled in for a Friday night home clash versus Valence Romans, and getting organised has been a rush at the second-tier strugglers hoping for an uptick in fortunes.
Joe Schmidt seemed to catch himself out on Thursday after initially suggesting that new captain James Slipper wasn’t “massively keen” on the role.
Leinster have decided to rest many of their frontline players to take on Ulster on Saturday at the Kingspan Stadium, with one eye on the Investec Champions Cup next weekend.
The 22-year-old Irish-qualified Morgan has struggled to get a game for the Hurricanes this season, with All Black Brett Cameron establishing himself as the first-choice No10 and Ruben Love able to cover full-back and fly-half.
The Londoners beat off Gallagher Premiership leaders Northampton with a 41-32 win at Twickenham last Saturday.
The Irish province swatted aside their French rivals, winning 40-13 after successive narrow defeats to Ronan O’Gara’s team in the 2022 and 2023 finals.
But despite other injury problems in the squad also still lingering, Jones was adamant that everything was on course in the preparations to face the Georgians.
.After a 159-day break owing to the coronavirus pandemic, the season resumes on August 14 with seventh-placed Quins hosting second-placed Sale.