Ticket lottery continues

LEINSTER HAVE confirmed that they received 5,200 applications for the 4,000 tickets made available to season ticket holders for the Heineken Cup final against the Leicester Tigers at Murrayfield on Saturday week in a lottery-style draw. Allocations were limited to one ticket per season ticket holder and the successful applicants have been notified and can collect same on Friday and Saturday.

Any tickets than remain uncollected by Saturday evening will go into a redraw on Monday. The two finalists split 15,000 tickets between them, each receiving 7,500. The Irish province’s remaining 3,500 tickets were split between clubs, schools, sponsors and the Leinster executive.

ERC had already made 45,000 tickets available to the general public and these were snapped up before the end of January.

Leinster coach Michael Cheika will today announce his squad for Saturday’s final Magners League match against the Newport Gwent Dragons at Rodney Parade on Saturday.

The Australian indicated after last weekend’s entertaining victory over Llanelli at the RDS that he would probably rest the majority of his front-line players ahead of Saturday week’s European final. It would give him the opportunity to provide game time for those hoping to earn a place among the replacements against Leicester Tigers.

Ireland fullback Rob Kearney, who missed the European semi-final win over Munster and the Llanelli match because of mumps, is expected to start against the Dragons. He is likely to be joined by Girvan Dempsey, Simon Keogh, John Fogarty, Ronan McCormack, Devin Toner, Trevor Hogan, Sean O’Brien, Cameron Jowitt and Stephen Keogh, all of whom would love to lock down a place in the match 22 for Saturday week.

Connacht coach Michael Bradley is expected to confirm a squad today ahead of Friday night’s trip to Firhill where they face the Glasgow Warriors.

His counterpart Sean Lineen found his selection compromised by a lengthily injury list that included John Barclay (foot), Tim Barker (hand), Johnnie Beattie (shoulder), Max Evans (knee), Dougie Hall (ankle), Ed Kalman (shoulder), Sam Pinder (shoulder) and Richie Vernon (foot).

Meanwhile Ryan Lamb has signed for London Irish following his release from Gloucester. Lamb (23) joins the Exiles on a two-year deal and will be considered as a replacement for the outgoing Shane Geraghty. He has won caps for England at all age-grade levels and for the England Saxons and scored 570 points in his 85 games for Gloucester.

GLASGOW WARRIORS SQUAD:K Brown, J Eddie, C Forrester, R Gray, A Kellock (capt), M Low, P MacArthur, S Swindall, F Thomson, K Tkachuk, D Turner, J Welsh, T Evans, L Fa'atau, C Gregor, P Horne, R Jackson, M McMillan, G Morrison, H O'Hare, J Maria N Piossek, C Shaw, B Stortoni.