Cameron Hill

Out-half Jack Crowley is ruled out for Saturday's game in Pretoria as he continues to struggle with a leg injury.

He hasn't played since he pulled out in the warm-up ahead of their hosting of Ulster at the end of April.

Finnean Witterly and Alex Nankovell are back training this week, while it's hoped that Captain Tyke Byrne will be back should they make the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, Connacht are preparing for a quarter-final visit to Glasgow Warriors at Scottsdoon.

Caelan Blade, Dylan Tierney-Martin and Finn Tracey have all returned to full training and are available for selection this week.

Their place in next season's Investec Champions Cup was confirmed at the weekend after Ulster lost the Challenge Cup final to Montpellier.

And they can round off a promising start to the Stuart Lancaster era by going deep in the playoffs.

The head coach will come up against his son, Dan, who plays for Glasgow.

And he knows Friday's clash will be a massive challenge.

Lancaster also confirmed yesterday that Matt Hansen's been ruled out of Ireland's games in the inaugural Nations Championship this summer.

Now he's still recovering from surgery on the issue and Lancaster did say that he's running now up and down the pitch but he's not running around with a rugby ball in his hand.

The province are optimistic that Hansen will return in time for pre-season.

Another player that Lancaster should be able to call upon next season is Ciarán Frawley.

He's heading west this summer on a two-year deal following nine years with Leinster.

Now, when that move was announced, Lancaster confirmed that Frawley will primarily be viewed as an out-half while erstwhile 10 Jack Carty retires at the end of the season.

Speaking to Dara Smith-Nocton after the Investec Champions Cup final in Bilbao at the weekend, Frawley admits leaving Leinster was a very tough decision.

That's about all for today's Rugby Daily.

Remember that you can subscribe to this podcast wherever you get your fix so you don't miss an episode Monday to Friday.

I'm Cameron Hill and I'll be back with more Rugby Daily for you tomorrow.

I'll talk to you then.