Leinster hopeful of Furlong return against Connacht

Tadhg Furlong is on track to make his first appearance of the season for Leinster in next week's trip to face Connacht.

Aside from those who were injured in the off-season, Furlong is the only one of the province's international contingent yet to feature this season, with the tighthead not included in the squad for tomorrow's BKT United Rugby Championship meeting with the Sharks at the RDS.

However, head coach Leo Cullen says the 29-year-old is on course to be available for selection in next Friday's Round 5 meeting with Connacht.

"He trained pretty much fully this week, so he should be close to featuring next week," Cullen said of Furlong.

The Leinster coach has made four changes to his side following last week's win against Ulster, with Johnny Sexton drafted in to make his first start of the campaign, having featured off the bench at Kingspan Stadium last week, helping them see out a 20-13 win.

The province have been able to pick from a settled squad in recent weeks, particularly in the pack, where Will Connors is the only fresh face from last week's win in Belfast, and Cullen says it's important to be able to have cohesion in their selection early in the season.

"The cohesion does help for sure, we probably chop and change our team more than most, but we've opted for a bit of cohesion because with the structure of the season, you have 18 URC games, and you have this block at the start of the season.

"There'll be different stages of the season where players will be missing, but there's not much margain for error when it comes to 18 games.

"We think we've got a good group there, they're all hungry to kick on, play, well and perform well. Sharks won't make it easy, but from our point of view we've had a decent week's training.

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