With Johnny Sexton out of Leinster's reach over the coming weeks, the province have come up with an interesting solution to their captaincy predicament.
The Irish out-half is currently Leinster's club captain but with frequent deputies Rhys Ruddock and Luke McGrath, along with an array of other senior players, away in Japan along with 34-year-old, Leo Cullen has been seeking players capable of performing the role of captain.
However the team, as a whole, devised a solution to their current leadership predicament, nominating a five-man group that will step into the leadership roles. The group consists of Scott Fardy, Ross Molony, Ed Byrne, Jamison Gibson-Park and Fergus McFadden.
Speaking at today's Pro14 season launch at the Aviva Stadium, Cullen said:
Johnny is still captain at the moment but we haven't seen a huge amount of him lately. We went through a process of voting for leaders that the players voted for.
The season is tricky with the guys away and coming back in. Last season we had Johnny as our captain, Rhys as vice-captain and Luke McGrath was there as well. Those three are at the World Cup now but we have a strong group of leaders.
We haven't made an announcement as such but Johnny is the captain of the club and he's still captain of the club. I think everyone would recognise that.
Hopefully he's going to play a huge part in Ireland progressing at the World Cup but it's the status quo as things stand.
Leinster begin their Pro14 campaign away to Treviso on Saturday, October 28. The game will kick off at 5.15pm in the evening, following Ireland's early morning game against Japan which kicks off at 8.15am.
