British & Irish Lions stars Robbie Henshaw and Sean O’Brien returned to club colours for the first time since October to help Leinster secure a home Champions Cup quarter-final.
As the top European competition’s pool stages drew to a close Leinster secured a 37-19 victory away at Wasps and now know they’ll host Ulster in the final eight.
Robust centre Henshaw, who made four appearances on the 2017 Lions Tour to New Zealand, has been a vital cog in the Ireland and Leinster machine for some time and resumed his midfield partnership with Garry Ringrose at the Ricoh Arena.
Ringrose stepped his way to the game’s first try on 16 minutes as the potent centre partnership helped Leo Cullen’s men race into a 20-0 half-time lead.
Henshaw took part in proceedings for over an hour while two-time Lions tourist O’Brien started at No.8 and played the full 80.
O’Brien, an inspirational Test figure in New Zealand in 2017, is looking back to his best in time for Ireland’s Six Nations campaign and for Leinster’s business end of the season – while Lions props Jack McGrath and Tadhg Furlong also played a part in the Champions Cup win.
Another Lions man who returned to action this weekend was Bath and England centre Jonathan Joseph, who has been out for a sustained period but wasted no time in making a positive impression.
Bath were always up against it playing away at Toulouse but fought their way to a valiant 20-17 defeat in France, with Joseph impressing both in attack and defence.
