Northern | US

Leinster to unleash Ireland big guns for Scarlets clash

Leinster's Irish centre Garry Ringrose (L) talks to Leinster's Irish lock James Ryan during a captain's run at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on May 19, 2023 on the eve of the Champions Cup rugby union final against La Rochelle. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP) (Photo by PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Comments
Comment

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen has named a near full strength side to face the Scarlets tomorrow in the United Rugby Championship at the RDS Arena.

ADVERTISEMENT

Garry Ringrose and James Ryan return to the starting XV to co-captain the side, with the likes of Hugo Keenan, Jamison Gibson-Park, Andrew Porter, Josh van der Flier and Caelan Doris all returning after Ireland’s World Cup campaign. With Dan Sheehan and Tadhg Furlong also on the bench, this is an extremely experienced side married with the inexperience of 20-year-old No10 Sam Prendergast, with Ross Byrne backing him up from the bench.

Leinster currently sit in second place in the URC, level on points with the leaders the Bulls, while the Scarlets are third from bottom having only won one of their first four matches.

Video Spacer

WATCH as departing coach Jacques Nienaber drops a hint that he might return to the Springbok fold in the not too distant future

Video Spacer

WATCH as departing coach Jacques Nienaber drops a hint that he might return to the Springbok fold in the not too distant future

Speaking ahead of the game, Leinster assistant coach Robin McBryde said: “Scarlets had a few tough away trips to the South African teams. They have nothing to lose, and are coming here to make a point.

“There is no more dangerous team than the Scarlets in that mode. They are very dangerous in the backs. If the forwards can give them a platform, they will be a handful.”

Leinster XV(caps in brackets):
15. Hugo Keenan (56)
14. Jordan Larmour (92)
13. Garry Ringrose (116) CO-CAPTAIN
12. Jamie Osborne (34)
11. Jimmy O’Brien (72)
10. Sam Prendergast (7)
9. Jamison Gibson-Park (5)
1. Andrew Porter (108)
2. Rónan Kelleher (47)
3. Thomas Clarkson (29)
4. Joe McCarthy (20)
5. James Ryan (73) CO-CAPTAIN
6. Max Deegan (102)
7. Josh van der Flier (128)
8. Caelan Doris (68)

Replacements:
16. Dan Sheehan (47)
17. Jack Boyle (6)
18. Tadhg Furlong (134)
19. Ross Molony (165)
20. Scott Penny (60)
21. Fintan Gunne (0)
22. Ross Byrne (149)
23. Ciarán Frawley (71)

ADVERTISEMENT

Related

ADVERTISEMENT
Play Video
LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Long Reads

Comments on RugbyPass

T
TL 52 minutes ago
Joe Schmidt bows out on a high - but can the Wallabies escape 'the twilight zone'?

All of that seems fair enough, aside from the 10 criticism: Lynagh was injured so not up for selection this year + missed most of SR, Noah went to Japan league 2, maybe an argument for bringing him back in early, but we had Carter. Dono and Meredith (who looks decent enough). Definitely not a straightforward call. Edmed was an experiment that didn’t bear fruit, I’m happy to forgive him that one though, because he did what Cheik and Rennie didn’t do, which was consistently look to develop young 10s in the face of criticism (Rennie’s chopping and changing wasn’t great for Noah, and it was back to the future too often for Cheik, which hurt our development pathways e.g. Mack Mason, Jack Maddocks, and too often gambling on people out of position—more than Joe!). Tane is one specific failed experiment. l just wish we had a more scrupulous punditry when it comes to the recent past (your obvs not in the crosshairs here, it’s the Aussie media). TBH, I worry about the identity piece: feel it should be the salt on the meal, rather than the meal. The Reds are full of Aussie identity but they play the most hairpulling rugby at times and the identity seems to excuse this, while the Brums with less talent and less of an identity in the Australian mould over perform. To be optimistic, maybe it does look a little like the Ireland transition with Les coming in a bit like Farrell, seemingly more of a emotive, man motivator type than the technician Joe. What would have been fantastic and helped everything also was for RA not to burn bridges with Lancaster and be able to get him back and have the Tahs cooking, that is one big piece of the puzzle (the Tahs) that will make our national coach’s job a lot easier.

257 Go to comments
Close Panel
Close Panel

Edition & Time Zone

{{current.name}}
Set time zone automatically
{{selectedTimezoneTitle}} (auto)
Choose a different time zone
Close Panel

Editions

Close Panel

Change Time Zone

Close
ADVERTISEMENT
Copied to clipboard

Share Article close