Jack McGrath has overcome a "difficult" time but is fully focussed on regaining his place in Leinster’s front line, according to Leo Cullen.
The prop will actually lead the Blues out tomorrow for their Pro14 tie against Ulster (5.35pm, live on RTÉ Radio 1) at the RDS – his first time to captain the side at the venue – but has ground to make up in his bid to re-establish himself higher in the pecking order at both provincial and international level.
McGrath played in all three of the Lions Tests against New Zealand but failed to make the match-day squads for Ireland’s November games against South Africa and Fiji.
Leo Cullen is impressed with @jackmc100's hustle as @leinsterrugby welcome @UlsterRugby in the @PRO14Official #rterugby pic.twitter.com/LTN74S46K4
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) January 5, 2018
A resurgent Cian Healy and Dave Kilcoyne took over and McGrath admitted that the last international window contained "only bad memories".
The 28-year-old is determined to force his way back into the first 15 on a regular basis and Cullen has recognised that effort.
The head coach said: "It was difficult because he played a lot of games when he was away on tour with the Lions, not necessarily at lot of minutes.
"You come off that and you come back in, get going again, it’s competitive.
"Cian obviously wasn’t away on tour with the Lions so he started the season a little bit earlier so probably just got the edge on him there at that stage, it had a knock-on effect through November.
"But Jack’s knuckled down. He’s worked as hard as he was before but he’s certainly very focussed at the moment.
"But for us it’s great to have those guys here because it’s great for strength in depth."
Leinster are currently top of the Champions Cup pool and second in Conference B of the Guinness Pro14.
Cullen talked down the notion of his squad being the most competitive he has known in his time as a player and coach but did admit that creating depth is a vital part of their success to date.
He said: "We need to invest more time in more players because there’s certain times of the year we know we are going to be missing X amount of players.
"We’re prepping them to be more and more ready for when they make the step up."
