Connacht get clean bill of health for visit of Leinster

Connacht head coach Pete Wilkins will have close to a full deck to choose from when they welcome Leinster to the Dexcom Stadium in the BKT United Rugby Championship this Saturday.

The province came through last week's bruising Interpro away to Ulster without picking up any fresh knocks, while back-row Shamus Hurley-Langton is in contention to return from a shoulder issue.

It leaves out-half JJ Hanrahan and prop Sam Illo as the only two long-term absentees for the province, who have also been boosted by the return of their Emerging Ireland contingent.

Wilkins had been without first-team regulars Jack Aungier, Darragh Murray and Sean Jansen for the last three weeks, as well as Hugh Gavin, Chay Mullins and Matthew Devine, but all six have returned to training and are available for selection this weekend.

The province are almost certain to be without versatile forward Josh Murphy this weekend though. The former Leinster man was shown a straight red card in the 71st minute of Saturday’s 32-27 defeat to Ulster, following a dangerous off the ball tackle on James McCormick.

Murphy is set to learn his fate at a disciplinary hearing this week, and it looks unlikely that the province will contest the sending off.

"We’re presuming that he’s unavailable at this point and we’ll find out for how long after that," the Connacht coach said.

"The red looked nasty enough on the replay. I can understand the decision-making from the match officials around it.

"I think Josh was anticipating being part of a tackle that actually never came his way, more so than he was looking at how to intentionally make that kind of contact with someone. So, we’ll await the verdict around that piece.

"Certainly it doesn’t help us when you’re level scores and you’re