Bernard Jackman: Playing Garry Ringrose cold against Toulouse would be a big risk

Bernard Jackman says he would be surprised to see Garry Ringrose feature in next week's Investec Champions Cup final against Toulouse, if the Leinster co-captain doesn't see any game-time in Saturday's meeting with Ulster.

The centre has played just once since the end of January due to a lingering shoulder issue, briefly returning from the injury for Ireland's final Guinness Six Nations game against Scotland in March.

Ringrose suffered a reoccurrence of the injury upon returning to his province, with the outlook described as "day to day" by attack coach Andrew Goodman on Monday.

Both James Ryan and Hugo Keenan look set to make their comebacks from injury against Ulster at Kingspan Stadium on Saturday evening, with Ringrose's status for this week less clear.

And Jackman says it would be a major risk to put the Ireland international straight back into the team for the Champions Cup final, if he doesn't get minutes in Saturday's Interpro first.

"I rate Garry Ringrose, like everyone does, but it'd a big ask for him to come in with no game-time," Jackman said on the RTÉ Rugby podcast.

"I don't put him in [to the team v Toulouse] because I think they're going to go 6:2 [on the bench], so that's the only thing that would put me off, or else you have to start him. That's a big ask. Ideally he would get some game time this week.

"The Osborne-Henshaw partnership has had a good bit of time recently to gel, and looks strong.

"I really hoped he would get minutes this week, and reading between the lines he's not even in full contact this week, or maybe just not at the start of the week, so it'll be a real race for him."

The province all but confirmed that Ryan and Keenan would feature in some capacity at Kingspan Stadium this weekend, having