And while Rob Penney anxiously waits on news of Simon Zebo and Donnacha Ryan, he'll welcome the return to full training tomorrow of Stephen Archer, Barry O'Mahony and Sean Scanlon. It's a little soon at this stage to know if Archer will be in contention for a seat on the flight to Wales this weekend but O'Mahony and Scanlon should be in consideration for selection.

Good news too is that Niall Ronan is expected to take a limited part in squad training this week while Doug Howlett and Felix Jones - both of whom underwent minor knee surgery recently - are on course for a return to action sometime towards the end of the month.

Howlett, in the absence of Niall O'Donovan on Saturday, took over the team manager's role for the game against Edinburgh.