RUGBY/Scarlets v Leinster: THE TEAM-SHEETS came trickling in yesterday lunchtime with one selection jumping off the page. Michael Cheika has finally relented on the stubborn streak that saw Isa Nacewa retained at number 10 as Leinster squeezed into the knockout stages of European competition in January. Mr Versatility is named on the left wing as Dr Felipe Contepomi returns to the conductor's chair at Parc y Scarlets this evening.
Round 11 of the Magners League is dropped into the middle of an already engaging Six Nations campaign, which should reach stratospheric proportions in seven days’ time. But a host of players who still retain aspirations of donning a green jersey this spring will be on view tonight in Llanelli and Cork.
Starting with Leinster’s trip to Wales, Bernard Jackman makes a welcome return to the bench, while Girvan Dempsey reattaches the number 15 jersey that not so long ago was tattooed on his back. Gordon D’Arcy gets another game alongside fellow-Clongowes old boy, Fergus McFadden.
With a two-week break until the next outing and a month before the international contingent return, Cheika tries out a few alternatives. The 2007 Irish under-20s Grand Slam-winning scrumhalf, Paul O’Donohoe, gets a first competitive start after the recent experiment of seeing if can impersonate Jean-Baptiste Élissalde and play outhalf as well is presumably shelved. Concerns about the briskness of delivery surrounded Tomás O’Leary a few seasons back and O’Donohoe brings a similar physicality to proceedings.
The former Belvedere schoolboy gets a deserved opportunity after 34-year-old Chris Whitaker, out of contract this summer, and Chris Keane were both ruled out with knee injuries. Simon Keogh provides cover.
Shane Jennings appears to be the wrong type of flanker in the current Irish mix but leads Leinster after recovering from injury that denied him the platform of Ireland A last week.
Seán O’Brien was a late replacement against Scotland A at the RDS but after a man-of-the-match display the Tullow bruiser also sustained knee damage so misses out here. High-profile Springbok signing CJ van der Linde remains in rehab with a dislocated toe.
Welsh coach Warren Gatland retained Llanelli quartet Matthew Rees, Dafydd Jones, Stephen Jones and Mark Jones in the national set-up but Simon Easterby still leads a decent side.
Down in Cork another two penalties will suffice from Mr Owens. Such a return is unlikely as the Welsh official returns to these shores for the first time since the French match in Croke Park in what promises to be an interesting encounter for two primary reasons.
Firstly, Munster can maintain top spot while putting a dent in the Scottish visitors’ title aspirations but, more pertinently, in this lull period before the English game, it provides an opportunity for four players to put cases to Declan Kidney for promotion.
Peter Stringer refuses to slip quietly off the international radar, and proved against Italy that he remains useful, while Keith Earls has been hampered recently by injury and illness after a superb breakthrough season up to Christmas. He slots into outside centre as Rua Tipoki’s recovery process continues.
In the pack, Denis Leamy and Tony Buckley will be relishing the chance to put troublesome campaigns behind them. Who would have foreseen Leamy losing his green jersey 12 months back but after a shoulder operation and further damage playing for Munster against the All Blacks in November, Stephen Ferris has bulldozed into the Irish backrow. It being a Lions year, Leamy must be straining at the leash.
Illness has hampered Buckley’s season but he is provided another opportunity to enhance the all-too- brief glimpses that he is capable of replacing John Hayes, when the Bruff warrior finally takes leave of Munster and Ireland. Despite some astonishing shows of power when decimating opposing rucks, a question mark remains over Buckley’s sustainability.
Ian Dowling (hamstring) and Barry Murphy (shoulder, sustained at the RDS) remain in recuperation. Edinburgh carry a 10-man injury list themselves but this is hardly a dud team with Ali Hogg leading at number eight with Chris Patterson and Nick De Luca in the back-line.
Still, the Munster second string have earned themselves a decent reputation of late and after a warm-weather training camp in Lanzarote this week they should be re-energised and focused.
This little Magners League interlude presents chances aplenty for those who, mainly due to injury, have yet to put their best foot forward for the new Irish management.
SCARLETS: M Stoddart; D Daniel, R King, J Davies, M Jacobs; R Priestland, M Roberts; I Thomas, K Owens, D Manu; L Reed, D Day; V Cooper, D Lyons, S Easterby (capt). Replacements: P John, M Schwalger, J Turnbull, R McCusker, G Cattle, G Evans, C Thomas.
LEINSTER: G Dempsey; S Horgan, F McFadden, G D’Arcy, I Nacewa; F Contepomi, P O’Donohoe; C Healy, B Blaney, S Wright; T Hogan, M O’Kelly; C Jowitt, S Jennings (capt), R Elsom. Replacements: B Jackman, R McCormack, D Toner, S Keogh, S Keogh, J Sexton, G Brown.
Referee: Andy Macpherson (SRU).
MUNSTER: D Hurley; D Howlett, K Earls, L Mafi, C O’Boyle; P Warwick, P Stringer; F Pucciariello, D Fogarty, T Buckley; M O’Driscoll (capt), D Ryan; D Leamy, N Ronan, N Williams. Replacements: M Essex, D Hurley, B Holland, A Quinlan, M Prendergast, J Manning, K Lewis.
EDINBURGH: C Paterson, A Turnbull, B Cairns, N De Luca, M Robertson, D Blair, G Laidlaw, K Traynor, A Kelly, R Grant, C Hamilton, B Gissing, S Cross, A MacDonald, A Hogg (capt). Replacements: Steve Lawrie, Bruce McNeil, Scott MacLeod, Scott Newlands, Ben Meyer, Jim Thompson, Roland Reid.
Referee: N Owens (Wales)
