Leinster can edge clear on home soil

THERE IS a certain cross pollination of players from this fixture last season. Fionn Carr, Cillian Willis and Jamie Hagan will sport the blue of Leinster this evening having worn the green of Connacht last season, while Dave Gannon actually played for Leinster in a pre-season friendly but subsequently joined tonight’s visitors to the RDS.

Connacht coach Eric Elwood has been hit by a spate of injuries to his secondrows and invited the former Ireland Under-21 captain to return to the province. Scrumhalf Paul O’Donohue, once of Leinster, is on the bench for Connacht.

Elwood’s team have enjoyed a fine start to the season, winning three of five matches and find themselves alongside their hosts on 14 points in the table.

Connacht produced a gritty performance in taking home a bonus point last week (26-21) against table toppers Ospreys.

Ian Madigan, who scored his third try in five matches when coming on as a replacement, starts at outhalf. One of the more interesting duels will be the contest in midfield. Luke Fitzgerald and Eoin O’Malley continue their partnership and it’ll to be interesting to note how they fare against the promising Eoin Griffin and the hard-running Henry Fa’afili.

Home advantage places a little more pressure on Leinster but providing they ensure their performance graph moves upwards this evening, they should just have enough to squeeze home.

LEINSTER: I Nacewa; F Carr, E O’Malley, L Fitzgerald, D Kearney; I Madigan, C Willis; H van der Merwe, R Strauss, J Hagan, S Sykes, D Toner, K McLaughlin, R Ruddock (capt), L Auva’a. Replacements: A Dundon, J McGrath, N White, D Browne, D Ryan, J Cooney, B Macken, D Hudson.

CONNACHT: G Duffy (capt); M McCrea, E Griffin, H Fa’afili, B Tuohy; N O’Connor, F Murphy; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, D Rogers, M Swift, M McCarthy, J Muldoon, J O’Connor, R Ofisa. Replacements: E Reynecke, R Loughney, R Ah You, D Gannon, TJ Anderson, P O’Donohue, M Jarvis, D McSharry.

Referee: P Fitzgibbon (IRFU).