Leo Cullen doesn't have any complaints about the Emerging Ireland tour and wants to use it in a "positive way" after naming eight tourists from the recent trip in the Leinster squad to face the Emirates Lions tomorrow.
The province provided 11 of the 30-man panel that played three games in South Africa at the start of the month.
Cullen is well used to serving more than one master with the club bulk suppliers to the full Ireland team, the U20s, not to mention a large swathe will likely head off on Lions duty to Australia at the end of the season.
In that context, and adding in injuries and mandatory rest periods, it’s never straightforward to select a Leinster 23.
Cullen has made ten changes to the team that beat Connacht last week, with Robbie Henshaw (above) making a first appearance of the season.
Sam Prendergast, Andrew Osborne, Gus McCarthy and Hugh Cooney, getting his first start, are all in the XV, while Stephen Smyth, James Culhane, Cormac Foley and Charlie Tector are likely to feature off the bench.
As usual, there is plenty of experience there to help the younger guns settle, with Henshaw, Hugo Keenan, James Lowe and Luke McGrath adding 459 caps to the backline for the top-of-the-table clash.
"It’s great to have Robbie back, and with Hugh. Hugh came off the bench last week and it was nice to see him in the group.
"A lot of guys have got a lot from the Emerging Ireland tour and he would be one. We’ve seen Hugh since he was in school and it was great to see him make his debut last week.
"There’s a little bit of comfort being on the bench, will he get on, will he not get on? Sometimes that the way the game plays out.
"With Robbie coming in there, it’s a great combination, the two of them, they worked well this week. Hopefully they go well.
We need your consent to load this comcast-player contentWe use comcast-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
RG Snyman (above) starts his fourth game in a row
"Some guys were worked out last week, the likes of James Lowe, Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier coming back into the mix
"Ryan Baird hasn’t featured a huge amount so he gets to pack down with RG [Snyman] in the second row.
"There are so many moving parts with players coming back in, you pick up niggles. You see that with all teams, whether they have internationals or not.
"Getting players up and running after a break, there are challenges. Consistency is always the key for players."
The Lions, despite playing a game fewer, are second in the URC table and come in with a 100% winning record, digging out a 10-9 victory over Zebre in tough wet conditions in Parma last weekend.
Out-half Kade Wolhuter comes into the team and there's a new centre pairing which sees Rynhardt Jonker and Henco van Wyk combine. Tighthead prop Asenathi Ntlabakanye returns after a concussion.
"Lions have a very steady group of players and they probably wouldn’t rotate as much as we would.
"It’s a proper challenge for us."
Lions assistant coach Ricardo Loubscher said of Leinster, who boast a perfect record with five bonus-point wins from five: "They like to put you under scoreboard pressure, so the important thing for us is to start well.
"You also can’t go into this match with the mindset of just keeping them out defensively.
"They’re good enough to score tries from everywhere.
"The important thing for us is to fire shots. We must go out and force our game onto them from an attack point of view."
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
