Leinster's Max Deegan: This is a big season for me

Max Deegan admits that this is a big year for him at Leinster and says he has no idea where rumours linking him with a move to another province last season came from.

The 27-year-old has been capped twice by Andy Farrell for Ireland, in 2020 and 2022, but is in competition with the likes of Josh van der Flier (64 Irish caps), Caelan Doris (43), Jack Conan (46), Will Connors (9) and Ryan Baird (22) for starting berths at Leinster.

It's a high-quality list and stories about Deegan looking elsewhere to stake a claim appeared reasonable but the Dubliner has always insisted he wanted to fight for his place.

He didn’t feature in a Champions Cup squad last season when Leinster lost in the final for the third year running, and appeared just once in Europe the year before.

Last May, Leinster announced that the former St Michael's College student had signed a contract extension.

"I definitely think this is a big season for myself," Deegan, who will make a 115th Leinster appearance if selected to face Dragons on Friday, told RTÉ Sport.

"There was rumours last year but funny enough, I'd already pre-signed a good few months before then so I don't know where the rumours came from. They probably came at the wrong time.

"[I'm] looking to push forward and get into Champions Cup squads, play in the big games.

"That's what we are all striving to do and then hopefully get back into the Ireland squad, and things like that."

Asked what he feels he needs to do to convince Leo Cullen that he is worth his place ahead of the others, he said: "My game is feeling good, I'm playing a good bit more at 6, I feel like that suits my game well.

"Playing 6, the lineout is a big part of the game, especially how we run our 6s here, having that lineout ability,