As Leinster prepare to take on Munster at the Aviva Stadium in the final game of the interprovincial derbies, the European champions have players littered all over the country that are looking to prove a point.
Joey Carbery, Andrew Conway and Tadhg Beirne will all be looking to show those within Belfield that they made a mistake in letting them leave Dublin for pastures new while nine of the 46 players that kitted out for Connacht and Ulster in Belfast on Friday also first started out at the eastern province.
In total, 30 of the 92 players involved at the four provinces this weekend will have come through either the Leinster sub-academy or academy system.
Players like Ulster’s Alan O’Connor will have started at the club’s sub-academy before leaving for Ulster’s academy, Connacht’s Paul Boyle moved on from their academy before leaving for Connacht while the likes of Joey Carbery and Andrew Conway will have played for the club’s senior team before moving on to other provinces.
92 players listed for the four provinces this weekend.
Leinster – 30
Munster – 17
Ulster – 16
Connacht – 10
New Zealand – 7
South Africa – 5
England – 4
Australia – 3*By their first academy/senior club #PRO14 #LEIvMUN #ULSvCON
— Jack O'Toole (@jackjotoole) October 6, 2018
Leinster are by far the best represented province with Munster producing 17 players, Ulster producing 16 of their own while Connacht have produced just 10 players within the matchday squads.
There are 19 overseas players in the matchday squads with New Zealand best represented with seven players (Jamison Gibson-Park, James Lowe, Michael Bent, Bundee Aki, Tom McCartney, Alby Mathewson & Sean Reidy), South Africa have five players (Jean Kleyn, CJ Stander, Marcell Coetzee, Quinn Roux & Chris Cloete), England have four players (Billy Burns, Kieran Treadwell, Johnny McPhillips and Ciaran Parker) while there are three Australians (Jarrad Butler, Kyle Godwin and Colby Fainga’a).
There are some qualifying factors. For instance, Munster centre Sam Arnold attended school in England but chose to play for the Ulster academy and then ultimately moved to Munster, and therefore, in this instance, has been counted as a product of the Ulster system.
Similarly, Connacht prop Finlay Bealham would have attended school in Australia but moved to Galway and played club rugby in both Belfast and Galway before graduating through the Connacht system.
Meanwhile players like Matt Healy would have played club rugby in Leinster before ultimately signing for Connacht.
