Williams sticks to winning formula

Leinster coach Matt Williams has named an unchanged starting XV for Friday night’s Celtic League semi-final against Glasgow Rugby.

As expected, Nathan Spooner and Eric Miller are fit having responded well this week after picking up injuries in the hard fought quarter-final win over Newport. Williams has selected both for the Lansdowne Road encounter.

The news was not so good for Emmett Byrne, however. Byrne missed the quarter-final with a shoulder injury and will once again be replaced by Paul Wallace in the front row, while on the replacements bench, Peter McKenna will undergo a fitness test on Friday.

Should McKenna not be deemed fit, Old Belvedere's former Ireland Under-21 international Simon Keogh will be drafted in as cover.

Leinster, undefeated in all competitions this season, will be vying for their 13th win in a row and with the ‘home’ advantage of Lansdowne, come into the match as favourites.

A solid Leinster pack has laid the foundations for attacking rugby and with Spooner in excellent form at out-half and a three-quarters division boasting Brian O’Driscoll, Shane Horgan and Denis Hickie, their opponents this season have been given plenty of food for thought.

Meanwhile, Glasgow, for whom Scottish scrum-half Andy Nicol pulled the strings during last weekend’s win over Connacht, will again be without his fellow internationals Jon Petrie, David Hilton and Glenn Metcalfe. However, coach Richie Dixon is able to choose from the same 22 players who travelled to Galway and announced an unchanged side this afternoon.p> Friday’s semi-final will be only the fourth occasion the two sides have met in the professional era with Leinster edging the results (2-1) to date.

Glasgow won the first meeting, a Heineken Cup match in 1999, by 29-17. Since then, Leinster have enjoyed back-to-back wins, taking the return match at Donnybrook 44-17 the same year before this season’s Celtic League pool match, again at Donnybrook, when the Irish province won 32-15.

Leinster: G Dempsey; D Hickie, B O'Driscoll, S Horgan, G D'Arcy; N Spooner, B O'Meara; R Corrigan (capt), S Byrne, P Wallace; L Cullen, M O'Kelly; E Miller, V Costello, K Gleeson.

Replacements: P Coyle, G Hickie, B Casey, T Brennan, B Willis, P McKenna / S Keogh, A Magro

Glasgow:R Kerr; J Steel, J McLaren, A Henderson, M Bartlett; T Hayes, A Nicol (capt); G McIlwham, G Bulloch, L Harrison, N Ross, J White, G Simpson, G Flockhart, R Reid.
Replacements:G Scott, E Murray, S Griffiths, A Hall, G Beveridge, A Bulloch, B Irving.