Preview: Connacht v Leinster
Leo Cullen makes his first start of the season for Leinster for Saturday's Magners League clash with Connacht at the Sportsground.
Leo Cullen makes his first start of the season for Leinster for Saturday's Magners League clash with Connacht at the Sportsground.
Cullen starts after coming on as a replacement during Leinster's 25-23 victory over Saracens last weekend and the Newtownmountkennedy man partners Devin Toner, fresh from his call up to the Ireland squad earlier this week, in the second row.
Isaac Boss partners Jonathan Sexton at half-back, with Eoin O'Malley lining up at centre with Fergus McFadden in a backline which also includes Shane Horgan, Rob Kearney and Isa Nacewa.
Andrew Conway's good form, after the Ireland Under-20 wing scored a brace of tries in Leinster's opening round 33-28 British & Irish Cup win over Newport last Sunday, sees him take his place on a replacements bench which includes the likes of Gordon D'Arcy, Nathan Hines and Eoin Reddan.
“Connacht have made a really good start to the year,” said Leinster Coach Joe Schmidt.
“I saw the quality of the Bayonne team that went there (Sportsground) and were beaten, so Connacht have a fair bit of form about them as well.”
“I'm expecting them to really charge at us, particularly some of our exports (who are) there. There are some really good young guys who have gone there and are showing a fair bit of form; the likes of Jamie Hagan, Ian Keatley and Fionn Carr just to name a few.
“I thought that our discipline was pretty good against Saracens, though we did struggle a bit in the last 20 minutes. Having had a good look at the video, we got some pretty tough calls against us in that last 20 minutes, so we have to try and maintain that discipline and improve upon it this week.
“I thought our defence was really good, so I think we'll be looking to put a few more attacking phases together.”
“Connacht could have, and maybe should have, beaten Ulster in the last Irish match-up that they had. With the quality of the start of the season that Ulster have had it speaks volumes for what Eric (Elwood) has done there and is doing there currently.”
Meanwhile, Eric Elwood makes just one change on the bench as Ezra Taylor replaces Andrew Browne who is ruled out through sickness.
Ireland trio John Muldoon, Sean Cronin and Gavin Duffy are included in the same starting line-up that beat French high-flyers Bayonne in the Amlin Challenge Cup.
Connacht will be keen to complete a three-in-a-row victory over Leinster in Galway.
Form: Connacht beat Bayonne 16-13 at the Sportsground in the Amlin Challenge Cup on Friday, to end a three game winless run. Connacht's only defeat in their last five home games in all competitions was 12-19 to Toulon in the semi-final of last season's European Challenge Cup. Leinster have won their last three games since their 24-32 reversal in Edinburgh on 24 September. The Leinstermen have lost only one of their last six encounters with fellow Irish provinces: 13-27 at the Sportsground in this equivalent fixture last season. The last four games between the two teams have all been won by the home side on the day, whilst Leinster's most recent victory in Galway was 16-10 on 29 February 2008.
The teams:
Connacht: 15 Gavin Duffy, 14 Darragh Fanning, 13 Niva Ta'auso, 12 Keith Matthews, 11 Fionn Carr, 10 Ian Keatley, 9 Frank Murphy, 8 John Muldoon (capt), 7 Ray Ofisa, 6 Johnny O'Connor, 5 Michael McCarthy, 4 Michael Swift, 3 Jamie Hagan, 2 Sean Cronin, 1 Brett Wilkinson.
Replacements: 16 Adrian Flavin, 17 Barry Fa'amasuili, 18 Ronan Loughney, 19 Bernie Upton, 20 Ezra Taylor, 21 Cillian Willis, 22 Miah Nikora, 23 Troy Nathan.
Leinster: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Shane Horgan, 13 Eoin O'Malley, 12 Fergus McFadden, 11 Isa Nacewa, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Isaac Boss, 8 Jamie Heaslip (C), 7 Shane Jennings, 6 Sean O'Brien, 5 Devin Toner, 4 Leo Cullen, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Richardt Strauss, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Jason Harris-Wright, 17 Heinke van der Merwe, 18 Simon Shawe, 19 Nathan Hines, 20 Dominic Ryan, 21 Eoin Reddan, 22 Gordon D'Arcy, 23 Andrew Conway.
Date: Saturday, October 23
Venue: The Sportsground
Kick-off: 18.05 BST (17.05 GMT)
Referee: George Clancy (IRFU)