Meath lock forward close to matching record

Moynalvey man Devin Toner will have to wait a little longer to match Gordon D'Arcy's record number of appearances for Leinster.

D'Arcy tops the charts with 257 appearances in a memorable, protracted career in the blue jersey with Toner currently just one behind him on 256.

However Toner has been left out of the Leinster squad for the PRO 14 clash with Ulster at the RDS on Friday night, 7.35.

The 34-year Meathman is being rested but it seems only a matter of time before he not only equals D'Arcy's impressive record but beats it. That would be another significant milestone in the career of the Moynalvey native who has earned 70 caps for Ireland.

Leinster are still clearly one of the top sides in Europe but the reality of how fortunes can change in the most unexpected ways was revealed to Toner and his colleagues last Saturday when red-hot favourites Leinster lost by 11 points (24-35) to Connacht in the PRO14 at a bitterly cold RDS.

As shocks go this was right up there as Leinster were on a 26-match winning sequence and they went into this game as nailed-on certainities by the pundits even though they were without a number of their front-line players.

The significance of the result was underlined in the fact this was Connacht's first victory over Leinster since September 2002 although they too were without a number of players.

The victory was underpinned by the impressive display from Connacht out-half Jack Carty who scored 25 points, including two tries.

During the contest Toner executed a notable steal from a Connacht line-out but, as is customary these days, he was substituted in the second-half.

Last October Toner achieved a very significant milestone when he made his 250th appearance for Leinster in their 63-8 trouncing of Zebre, a win that was part of the team's unbeaten sequence of 26 games.

Toner played for close to an hour in that one-sided encounter.

The experienced lock-forward had a very eventful 2020 making a re-appearance on the Irish team for Six Nations games.

The previous Autumn he was dropped for the 2019 World Cup in Japaan. The high point of Toner's international career was reached when he helped secure the Six Nations Grand Slam in 2018.

He has also enjoyed some great days for Leinster including European Cup triumphs in 2011, 2012 and 2018 but last Saturday evening the unpredictability of life and sport was brought forcefully home to him and his team when Connacht came to town and chalked up a shock win.

Now he must wait until he gets a chance to match D'Arcy's record.

Leinster squad to face Ulster on Friday night is (caps in brackets):

15. Hugo Keenan (22)

14. Jordan Larmour (52)

13. Ross Byrne (93)

12. Robbie Henshaw (51)

11. Dave Kearney (157)

10. Johnny Sexton (169) CAPTAIN

9. Jamison Gibson-Park (97)

1. Cian Healy (224)

2. Seán Cronin (188)

3. Andrew Porter (69)

4. Scott Fardy (67)

5. James Ryan (43)

6. Rhys Ruddock (182)

7. Josh van der Flier (87)

8. Caelan Doris (35)

Replacements

16. James Tracy (119)

17. Ed Byrne (60)

18. Michael Bent (150)

19. Ross Molony (104)

20. Jack Conan (96)

21. Luke McGrath (137)

22. Harry Byrne (17)

23. Jimmy O'Brien (27)