Ospreys sign Leinster's McInerney

[Cymro]

The Ospreys have signed former Ireland Under-20 lock Conor McInerney from Heineken Cup champions Leinster.

The 22-year-old captained his country at age-grade levels and played all five Under-20 Grand Slam matches in 2007.

"Our expanding scouting network has identified him as an outstanding medium-term prospect," said Ospreys elite performance director Andrew Hore.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_unio...lsh/8066883.stm

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

He had far too much traffic in front of him to make a significant impact at Leinster but he's a damn good player who has excellent leadership skills having captained quite a few underage teams. There has been some talk of Ciaran Ruddock going in the other direction from the Ospreys academy to Leinster.

Hopefully he's as productive for the Ospreys as other Leinster academy graduates who moved elsewhere over the last couple of seasons. Ian Keatley was buried down the Leinster depth chart, moved to Connacht 12 months ago and is now an Ireland international. Vasya Artemiev lost his academy contract yet won his first few caps for Russia this season. Fionn Carr went from the academy to become one of the leading try scorers in this years Magners League campaign. Felix Jones is another who leaves the academy this year to join up with Munster where he'll challenge strongly for a place in their back three. Colin McEntee is doing a brilliant job churning out high quality players from the underage setup.