O'Kelly in line for record appearance

SQUAD NEWS:  Malcolm O'Kelly is in line to become Leinster's most capped player should he take to the field against Llanelli Scarlets in Saturday's Magners Celtic League encounter at Stradey Park.

O'Kelly was today named in Michael Cheika's initial 26-man squad and the Templeogue College lock could make his 140th appearance for the province. The secondrow is currently level with former captain and prop Reggie Corrigan on the all-times caps list.

O'Kelly made his debut for Leinster against Northern Transvaal in Donnybrook in 1995 and has been a permanent fixture with them for over 13 years.

There are four chasing him hardest in terms of provincial caps: Gordon D'Arcy is closest with 137 outings; Girvan Dempsey and Shane Horgan have 134 caps each; and captain Brian O'Driscoll is about to break into three figures on 99 caps.

O'Kelly is also a potential candidate to reach 100 international caps - and would be the first Irishman to do so - if he can keep the fire and form alive for another season; he has already earned 91 caps and is the most-capped Irish player ever.

Though he turns 34 in July and has shipped the usual litany of playing injuries, O'Kelly has kept himself in fine physical shape.

Leo Cullen, who started alongside O'Kelly in the secondrow last weekend, could also make his 100th appearance for Leinster.

Leinster are boosted by Girvan Dempsey's return from injury and he is likely to slot into the backline alongside Shane Jennings, Jamie Heaslip and Shane Horgan (2), who all scored in last week's five try demolition of Glasgow.

Jonathan Sexton, a second half replacement in the RDS, made his first appearance in two months while Horgan, Heaslip and Luke Fitzgerald currently share second place in the individual top try-scoring chart with five, two behind Llanelli Scarlets' Regan King.
 
Horgan is now second in the overall Magners League try-scoring list with 24, five behind Matthew Watkins.
 
Leinster currently top the table with 46 points, 10 clear of Llanelli with fours games to go, while Munster and Edinburgh are third and fourth respectively on 35 points. Munster have a game in hand on the leaders with the two Irish provinces due to meet in a crucial encounter at the RDS on Saturday, April 12th.

Munster welcome back David Wallace and Denis Leamy to their squad for their clash with Connacht on Friday night. Both Ireland internationals missed last weekend's win over Ulster having picked up knocks in the final Six Nations defeat against England.

Also included are backs Rua Tipoki and Ian Dowling with coach Declan Kidney hoping all will play a part at the Sportsground.

"We are obviously pleased to be able to name them in the squad,", explained Kidney. "Now it's a case of seeing how they come out of that training session today before we finalise the side tomorrow.

"We're hopeful that Rua will take some part in the game on Friday."

Connacht coach Michael Bradley named an extended 28-man squad ahead of the provincial derby. Outhalf Andy Dunne has been recalled to the squad as have three quarters Liam Bibo and Darren Yapp. In the forwards, hooker John Fogarty is recalled, as are the Galwegians pairing of Brian McGovern and Liam Casserly.

Meanwhile, Mike McCarthy has been suspended for four weeks after an IRFU disciplinary hearing in Dublin last night found the player guilty of a high tackle during Connacht's Magners Celtic League defeat against Edinburgh last Friday.
 
"After considering all of the available evidence, the IRFU disciplinary panel found the player guilty of the offence and suspended the player for four weeks.  The suspension will expire on midnight, Friday 18th April, 2008," the statement read.

Leinster squad: 
 
Brian Blaney, Leo Cullen, Keith Gleeson, Cian Healy, Jamie Heaslip, Trevor Hogan, Bernard Jackman, Shane Jennings, Cameron Jowitt, Stephen Keogh, Stephen Knoop, Ollie le Roux, Malcolm O'Kelly, Stan Wright, Michael Berne, Gary Brown, Felipe Contepomi, Girvan Dempsey, Luke Fitzgerald, Shane Horgan, Chris Keane, Rob Kearney, Jonathan Sexton, Christian Warner, Chris Whitaker, Cillian Willis.

Munster Squad:

D Hurley, S Payne, I Dowling, D Howlett, R Tipoki, K Lewis, L Mafi, B Carney, P Warwick, R O'Gara, T O'Leary, P Stringer, M Horan, J Flannery, F Sheahan, J Hayes, T Buckley, M O'Driscoll, D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell, D Ryan, A Quinlan, D Leamy, D Wallace, N Ronan, J Coughlan, A Foley.

Connacht squad:

Liam Bibo, Andrew Browne, Liam Casserly, Mel Deane, Gavin Duffy, Andy Dunne, Peter Durcan, Andrew Farley, Adrian Flavin, John Fogarty, David Gannon, Ronan Loughney, John Lyne, Keith Matthews, Michael McCarthy, Brian McGovern, Conor McPhillips, Joe Merrigan, Robbie Morris, Matt Mostyn, John Muldoon, Troy Nathan, John O'Connor, Conor O'Loughlin, Colm Rigney, Daniel Riordan, Brett Wilkinson, Darren Yapp.