In Pics: Leinster Training At UCD

As Leinster and Munster gear up to take on each other at the RDS on Sunday, we bring you photos from the Magners League champions’ latest training session, which took place in sunny conditions at UCD on Tuesday.

Pleased to have his two latest signings – Australia’s Rocky Elsom and South African CJ Van Der Linde – on board, Leinster coach Michael Cheika said: “It’s always good to get your full squad together. We have close to a full deck to choose from in the forwards.

“It’s slightly different in the backs, with Gordon D’Arcy and Isa Nacewa injured…so we’re going to have to make some decisions.

“Rocky (Elsom) has had an interrupted Tri Nations because he had one week off with an injury, but there seems to be quite big gaps in this format where teams played three games and then had a break.

“CJ (Van Der Linde) has obviously had a bit of a break, so he should be fresh! We’ll just see how training goes.

“If anything the break would have been good for them both. I think they’re very keen to play from what I’ve seen of the two of them.

“Now that they’ve in the team format, we’ll have a look at how they blow out this week and make some calls.

“I think that what you’ll see with Rocky is that he is a power player, a good lineout operator and a good defender. The main thing is that they’ll need to adjust their game because there are differences in the Northern Hemisphere.

“CJ is an excellent scrummager and a very dynamic player as well being able to play both sides of the scrum, as can Stan (Wright), which means that there’s good versatility in all our props,” he added.

To view photos from Leinster’s training session at UCD on Tuesday, please click here.