Glasgow v Leinster: NECESSITY MAY be the mother of invention but when Glasgow coach Sean Lineen casts his eye over this Leinster-lite travelling party, he will see little of the unit that went head to head with Leicester last season in Murrayfield's Heineken Cup final.
Despite the European champions’ oddly fragile performance against Connacht on Wednesday with a more heavyweight team, coach Michael Cheika has stuck with the young guns he picked earlier in the week with just one decision to be made in the replacements between Kyle Tonetti and Brendan Macken.
Leinster are in a good place with 50 points and still sitting at the top of the Magners League table. But their position is not insurmountable.
There is the mathematical possibility they can still be caught, although, third-placed Munster’s match with second-placed Ospreys this weekend will set back one of those two teams in their ambition of a top two place and home semi-final.
Bernard Jackman captains Leinster but man for man, Glasgow should eat them up. Connacht certainly showed that a team on paper is not always a relevant factor and with many of tonight’s cast hoping to secure contracts and regular positions, the match will also act as a trial of sorts for the entire backline and several of the forwards.
Brothers Ciarán and Rhys Ruddock, sons of former Leinster coach Mike, line out at this level for the first time together. They should feel quite at home as 12 players of the 22-man squad are from the academy and between them have a total of 15 Leinster appearances.
Eoin Reddan has more Leinster caps than all the Academy players combined. Glasgow represent a distinctly gruelling challenge for this radically young Leinster side.
Lineen has made two changes to the team that beat Ulster, with Scotland captain Chris Cusiter coming in at scrumhalf to partner place kicker and outhalf Dan Parks and Hefin O’Hare coming on to the wing for the injured DTH van der Merwe. Glasgow also have their international “Killer Bs” backrow intact, with messrs Kelly Brown, John Barclay and John Beattie facing Stephen Keogh, Rhys Ruddock and Paul Ryan.
“We need to get the four points to keep moving up the table. There are just two games to go and we know that if we don’t take advantage of this opportunity then the season could come to a pretty quick end,” said Cusiter.
With Dragons and Ulster successfully seen off in recent weeks, Glasgow are looking for their third win in a row at Firhill in what is also their last home game of the season. The last time Leinster won here was in 2006.
GLASGOW:B Stortoni; C Shaw, M Evans, G Morrison, H O'Hare; D Parks, C Cusiter; K Tkachuk, F Thompson, M Low, T Barker, A Kellock (capt), K Brown, J Barclay, J Beattie. Replacements: D Hall, E Kalman, D Turner, C Forrester, M McMillan, D Weir, R Dewey.
LEINSTER:I Madigan; S Keogh, E O'Malley, F McFadden, M Keating; P O'Donoghue, C Keane; R McCormack, B Jackman (capt), M Ross, T Hogan, C Ruddock, R Ruddock, P Ryan, S Keogh. Replacements: J Harris-Wright, J McGrath, M Flanagan, D Ryan, D Moore, K Tonetti/B Macken, A Conway.
Referee:J Jones (WRU).
Verdict:Glasgow win.
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