Leinster to devour dangling carrot and Newport Dragons

"Luke returns this weekend," said a remote Joe Schmidt in his in-house interview with IRFUTV from downtown Clonmel. Maybe he thought Fitzgerald would appear and while Leinster coach Matt O'Connor didn't totally rule out the Irish winger from playing against Newport and noted that he had "looked good" and "trained well" this week, Schmidt could be forgiven for thinking more positively.

Fitzgerald is not in the starting team or on the bench and with Leinster maintaining that he did indeed train well and did finish out the session, they haven’t been inclined to explain why he’s not in the squad.

Conjecture is that although he completed training his abdominal/adductor strain wasn’t quite ready yet to play a full contact Pro12 league match against Dragons. But why not just say that? Or maybe there’s more.

Schmidt out of the loop? Perish the thought and he'll take comfort from being able to watch a few of his other players in whom he has an interest. Fergus McFadden and a lively frontrow of loosehead Jack McGrath, hooker Seán Cronin and Martin Moore, who warmed the bench against Wales but all saw some game time, will stretch their legs tonight.

Ian Madigan also partners scrumhalf Eoin Reddan with the outhalf now having the furthest ground to gain in terms of Irish recognition.

In Leinster Jimmy Gopperth has been keeping Madigan from his start, which is a tough place for the Irishman to find himself.

Creative magic
With Paddy Jackson nicking a try and conversion off the bench last week and starting for Ulster tonight, the young Leinster player can only put his head down and work as hard as he can. One thing he can certainly hold on to is that things always change. An odd piece of creative magic, of which he is eminently capable, won't go astray.

Reddan arrives in after shaking off a calf injury and he’s another player who will want to fast track himself into Schmidt’s thinking. A performance tonight that shows that he’s customarily busy and fully fit should push that along.

In all O'Connor has made seven changes from the side that beat Zebre in Italy last week and he should look forward to most of those players performing as if tonight were a mid-Six Nations tournament Irish trial.

Schmidt has shown that he’s unafraid to change winning teams or shift established faces. For hopeful players that are maybe down on confidence and at the periphery of the Irish squad that’s a redeeming feature of the coach’s stewardship, which should give fresh impetus to everyone.

The Dragons home game at Rodney Parade was cancelled last weekend because of a waterlogged pitch, which leaves them fresh for the challenge. And a challenge this match will be.

The Welsh side have won just one of their last four Pro12 matches and haven't beaten an Irish team at home since Ulster fell to them in 2008. They are clear aspirants arriving in the RDS.

'Certain style'
"Leinster are a very well organised team and are currently doing well in the league. So going over there will be difficult for us," said head coach Darren Edwards. "We play a certain style here and it works really well, so we do get results at home.

“But I do think that we need to do something away from home – we really need to concentrate on the basics of the game. When teams change their squads around like Leinster will have to because of the Irish boys in the national squad, our set-piece and kicking game need to be spot on.”

That’s true and with the venerable Leo Cullen sharing secondrow duties with Mike McCarthy, Leinster can expect their lineout to hum and with the frontrow intent on holding their places behind Cian Healy et al, there is a carrot dangling in their faces.

There are also points to earn. But the coaching mantra is performance comes first. Expect that from Leinster tonight. A win should follow.