Leinster to deliver win in familiar setting

Leinster v Gwent Dragons : Obliged to move to Lansdowne Road for Heineken Cup matches (and henceforth bound for the RDS) as well as end-of-season Celtic League games in latter years, Friday nights in Donnybrook remains Leinster's spiritual home.

They've lost only one of their last dozen meetings at the venue, although the pattern of their four League clashes with the Dragons has seen two away defeats balanced by seven-try, 50-pointers at Lansdowne Road.

Relatively disappointed with their performance, and the 3,000-odd crowd in last Saturday's laboured win over Glasgow, the return to a Friday night setting may ensure more of the real Donnybrook deal. Leinster expects a better performance and even though the Dragons are playing their second away game in four nights, they'll probably need to.

Leinster are unlikely to scale those heights here, but after shuffling his squad about in pre-season and the opening two rounds, Michael Cheika's only change from the starting team sees Reggie Corrigan return for his seasonal opener after recovering from a broken finger, and this ought to bring about their most cohesive performance of the campaign to date. As expected, Lions' wingers Shane Horgan and Denis Hickie are on the bench.

Once again, Cheika has opted for Christian Warner at outhalf and Felipe Contepomi at inside centre, even though Contepomi is the resident Puma outhalf, is the superior kicker out of hand and is expected to fill that role when Gordon D'Arcy and, eventually, Brian O'Driscoll return. "We're looking to take the game to the line and Christian does that for us, and we need to work with players. I can't just say to Christian turn up for the first game of the season and then not again," explains Cheika.

"He's a very good player, the other players like playing with him, Felipe gives us that real confidence in midfield of being the general, we want that dual playmaker role and they mix their roles up; we give them a licence to chop and change as first receiver."

Cheika expects the Dragons to take Leinster up another notch, with their offensive defence, their own running game and, mindful of dangerman Kevin Morgan in a pacy outside three, the best counter-attacking game they'll have faced yet.

Indeed, "the pace of our game" is what Cheika wants more of from his own team. "We improved last week in between resets, but also more dynamic decision-making at the breakdown from our forwards, in particular our loosies in being quicker to the game. If we want to play this style of being a bit flatter against these rush defences, we have to be flatter up in the line, not waiting back. I'd also be hopeful that if players make a break we're right up in support; I want to see two or three extra runners up there charging through."

Nine of the Dragons' starting XV in their 15-9 midweek defeat to the Ospreys will again line up, and aside from the missing Lions, Michael Owen and Gareth Cooper, hooker Ciaran Crawford has joined Ceri Sweeney, Chris Anthony and Nathan Brew on the casualty list. However, new coach Paul Turner is grateful for welcoming Steve Jones back from injury for his first game of the season.

Turner said he was expecting another setpiece battle against Leinster. "That's their strength," he maintained, although this was hardly validated in Leinster's opening defeat to the Ospreys. "Our problem," he added, "is that we are not holding onto the ball for long periods and building pressure."

Cheika could possibly identify with that to an extent but, while this season's campaign looks potentially more unpredictable than ever, if the Leinster coach obtains the improvement he is looking for and expecting this evening, they should maintain their winning Donnybrook habit.

LEINSTER: G Dempsey; G Brown, K Lewis, F Contepomi (capt), R Kearney; C Warner, G Easterby; R Corrigan, B Jackman, W Green, A Byrnes, B Gissing, C Potts, K Gleeson, J Heaslip. Replacements: R McCormack, D Blaney, S Crawford, N Ronan, B O'Meara, S Horgan, D Hickie.

DRAGONS: K Morgan; G Wyatt, H Luscombe, S Tuipulotu, L Hinton; C Warlow, G Baber; D Maddox, S Jones, R Thomas, I Gough, L Charters, A Hall, J Ringer, R Oakley. Replacements: A Brown, A Black, G Robinson, J Forster, R Bryan, J Bryant, A Thomas.

Referee: Andy Ireland (SRU)

Head-to-heads: (03-04) Dragons 35 Leinster 14; Leinster 56 Dragons 39; (04-05): Dragons 34 Leinster 13; Leinster 55 Dragons 3.

Forecast: Leinster to win.

Donnybrook, 7.10pm

On TV: Setanta, BBC Wales