Frank Schnittger
With the club season finally over, the time has come to turn our attention to next year’s squad for each of the provinces, starting with Leinster for what will be Leo Cullen’s final season in charge. On the face of it, Leinster’s squad for next season looks significantly weaker with Rieko Ioane (Blues), Ciarán Frawley (Connacht), Will Connors (Connacht)), Luke McGrath (Perpignon), Rabah Slimani (Toulon), Jerry Cahir (Connacht), John McKee (Scarlets), and James Lowe (Tokyo Sungoliath) all leaving, and Joey Carbery (when he recovers from his ACL injury) the sole confirmed recruit.
Stephen Smyth (hooker), Conor O’Tighearnaigh (lock) and Josh Kenny (wing) have been promoted from the academy, which is a meagre haul compared to last season, when eight players were promoted. Perhaps Leinster will make a late announcement of some further promotions, as they will have to lean very heavily on their academy contingent when the international players are away. It may be that there is a lot of belt tightening going on with smaller crowds and the increased costs of hiring the Aviva and Croke Park stadia weighing on Leinster’s finances. Certainly, Leinster’s increased contribution to the cost of central contacts couldn’t have come at a worse time.
James Lowe played almost as often for Ireland (45) and the Lions (3) as he did for Leinster (53) in the last six seasons after he became Ireland eligible and yet Leinster had to pay his salary in full. Clearly Leinster’s finances may have influenced the fact that he was offered a much reduced contract reflecting his less than an average of 9 games a season for Leinster, and with the IRFU unwilling to make a contribution, he had no choice but to go. Unlike previous years, there have also been no big name signings announced to replace Ioane and Slimani.
So, who are the additional academy players who may have to step up? Andrew Sparrow is the obvious replacement for Slimani – he was the first choice tight head on the Ireland u.20 team the season before last. Alan Spicer (Lock) may have to step up when the internationals are away. Ditto Josh Neill who was the outstanding backrow on the Ireland u.20’s last season. Casper Gabriel’s chances of getting game time won’t have been improved by the signing of Carbery but could be much in demand in the early part of the season while Carbery recovers from his ACL injury and the internationals are still in their pre-season. Hugo McGloughlin and Ruben Moloney have already featured impressively in the first team earlier this season and will provide back three cover if required.
But Leinster will once again be scrabbling around for inexperienced academy and AIL players to cover for injuries as they did with Jerry Cahir this season and Dylan Donnellan and Ivan Soroka in previous years. They may not always be so lucky to be able to unearth amateur players of such quality at short notice. It’s hard to imagine the top French clubs having to tap the amateur ranks for front row players for critical fixtures. With prop becoming such an injury prone position and Leinster having up to five props in the Ireland squad, it seems Leinster are taking a big risk having just seven senior props in their squad. Hopefully, Sam Bishti, this years u.20 captain and tight head will be offered an academy contract and continue making rapid progress. Leinster would have been lost without Slimani this year.
Leinster start their 2026/7 season with a tour to South Africa again. Blooding inexperienced academy or amateur props against world class South African props looks neither safe nor serious if Leinster want to have a better start to next season than they had last year. There is a reason why so many of Leinster’s props are injured. With the standard of the URC continually rising, Leinster can’t afford to throw their early season fixtures anymore. Either the IRFU start paying for all the Leinster players they use without giving them central contracts enabling Leinster to recruit more replacements, or Leinster’s place near the top of the European pecking order will be a thing of the past. Perhaps that was the point of David Humhpreys’ appointment. Perhaps that is why Leo Cullen has decided that enough is enough.