Toner in line for more caps

Devin Toner will be hopeful of adding to his collection of 10 Irish caps in the forthcoming Six Nations campaign.

As expected the 27-year-old Moynalvey lock forward was named in the extended Irish squad for the Six Nations.

Toner, who has clocked up 139 appearances for Leinster since making his debut in January 2006, played in the autumn internationals against Samoa, Australia and New Zealand and performed well against some of the world's top forwards. The 6' 10'' player was especially impressive against the All-Blacks.

He also played a part in helping Leinster engineer an impressive comeback last weekend when Matt O'Connor's side recovered from a slow start in their Heneken Cup game against Castres. They went 0-14 down but bounced back to win 29-22.

In an interview in the Sunday Independent last weekend Toner outlined how he has had to work on getting his 'physical mindset' right going into games and basically becoming 'more aggressive' especially against the top sides.

He outlined the immense influence Kiwi forward Brad Thorn had on him in terms of preparing for top-level rugby.

Jimmy Geoghegan.