Sean O'Brien 'in the thick of it the whole time' - Leo Cullen

A summer of change at Leinster, but a familiarity in the new arrivals.

On the pitch, Leo Cullen's side have brought in two new bodies, Jason Jenkins making the move to Dublin after a disappointing, injury-ridden campaign at Munster, while veteran New Zealander Charlie Ngatai comes in following a spell at Lyon in the French Top 14.

It's behind the scenes that the real changes have been made though.

With Felipe Contepomi returning to Argentina following four years on Cullen's support staff, and Denis Leamy being recruited back to Munster, the Champions Cup finalists added two former Leinster players to the senior coaching ticket, albeit one more high-profile than the other.

Sean O'Brien needs no introduction, although we'll give him one. More than 100 Leinster appearances and over a half-century Irish caps, one of most powerful back row forwards the country has ever produced, and a winner of multiple Six Nations, Champions Cup and URC titles.

The other; Andrew Goodman, a New Zealander who spent a modest two seasons at the province between 2012 and 2014, and in recent years has cut his teeth in coaching with Tasman in New Zealand's NPC, as well as being an assistant at the Super Rugby-winning Crusaders.

Both O'Brien and Goodman (below) would have played with a significant portion of the current Leinster squad, although Leo Cullen says that familiarity is a bonus, rather than a necessity.

"I don't think it’s necessarily essential that there is a Leinster connection there, but it definitely does help," he said, as Leinster continued their pre-season preparations with an open training session at Longford RFC yesterday.

"He [Goodman] went to Japan after an unlucky period here with injury. I was actually injured with an achilles injury