ULSTER’S trio of British & Irish Lions will not feature in tomorrow’s end-of-season PRO12 clash with Leinster, it was confirmed yesterday.
Iain Henderson, Rory Best and Jared Payne, who are part of the 41-man Lions squad which will tour New Zealand, are to be given every chance to recover from knocks they have picked up in recent weeks, confirmed Ulster’s director of rugby Les Kiss.
“JP [Jared Payne] is just not quite right,” said Kiss during a press conference in Dublin yesterday.
“Rory and Hendy, they are carrying knocks. They couldn’t train earlier in the week. They could play for sure but, talking as a group with the players, we have decided not to play them and let them get those knocks right.
“Hendy has been carrying his elbow for the last number of weeks. Besty has been carrying his shoulder. We are going to give them a chance to get absolutely right to go to the Lions camp and get that going and gain that experience. Particularly for someone like Hendy, hopefully he’ll come back to the Ulster team having gathered a lot of experience. That decision has been made.”
With little likely to be riding on tomorrow’s game - barring a bonus-point win against Leinster and favourable results elsewhere, Ulster's season will be over – Kiss explained he thought it wouldn’t be fair to expect the trio to risk their fitness.
“We possibly could have pushed it but, at the beginning of the week, we said ‘no, no, he’s probably two weeks [away]’,” he added, referring to Payne.
“Next weekend, he would have been alright. If we were in the hunt [for the Pro12 semi-finals], he would have been up in there. He’s going to be absolutely flying [for the Lions].
“You’d hate for him to come on and do something. It’s a once in a life time experience and we have agreed internally.”
Kiss also confirmed that back Stuart Olding will miss Ireland’s summer tour as he is set to undergo surgery on his left ankle. The 24-year-old centre consulted a specialist in the capital yesterday.
“[Olding] will have to have surgery, which will be tomorrow,” said Ulster’s director of rugby, who hopes he will be back for in time for preseason.
“[It’s a case of] syndesmosis and other elements in the ankle, so it will be eight to 12 weeks that he’ll be out, unfortunately.”
In more positive news, Ruan Pienaar looks set to be fit on time to play his final competitive match at the Kingspan Stadium against Leinster after overcoming a back spasm earlier this week. Pienaar will end his seven-year stay at Ulster with a game against Barbarians at the Kingspan on June 1 to join French club Montpellier.
“He’s running around this morning. There shouldn’t be any issue with that one. He’s super keen to play,” said Kiss.
Charles Piutau (elbow) and Stuart McCloskey (thigh) also suffered injuries against the Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium last weekend, but have not yet been ruled out of this weekend's game.
Chris Henry is said to be "progressing well" following a recent calf muscle tear and could be involved, but 10 players remain unavailable.
