Dragons v Leinster. Sun 06 Dec. 17:00.

danthefan

Leinster team:

LEINSTER:

15: Niall Morris
14: David Kearney
13: Eoin O'Malley
12: Fergus McFadden
11: Simon Keogh
10: Ian McKinley
9: Chris Keane

1: Ronan McCormack
2: Bernard Jackman CAPTAIN
3: CJ van der Linde
4: Devin Toner
5: Malcolm O'Kelly
6: Rhys Ruddock
7: Dominic Ryan
8: Stephen Keogh

REPLACEMENTS:

16: Richardt Strauss
17: Mike Ross
18: Trevor Hogan
19: Paul Ryan
20: Paul O'Donohoe
21: Ian Madigan
22: Michael Keating

Risteard

McKinley to get a run in the HC?

Haven't seen much of him, is he good?

If Shaun Berne is to be our Heineken cup 10 where's he at?

crisco10

Deleted User wrote: »

If Shaun Berne is to be our Heineken cup 10 where's he at?

Suppose he has just picked a complete second string team aside from Mal +1 or 2 in the pack. Therefore the 1st team can get some good training in together?

Incidentally, will Mal ever get to captain a team?

thomond2006

Dragons team for Leinster

Jason Tovey, Aled Brew, Rhodri Gomer Davies, Tom Riley, Richard Fussell, James Arlidge, Wayne Evans;
Hugh Gustafson, Steve Jones, Pat Palmer, Rob Sidoli, Luke Charteris (C), Dan Lydiate, Gavin Thomas, Grant Webb

Replacements: Duane Goodfield, Peter Bracken, Hoani MacDonald, Adam Jones, Martyn Thomas, Will Harries, Alex Walker

Lots of youth in the team, definitely a match to watch so!

thomond2006

Is McKinley being considered for the Heineken Cup or is Berne being wrapped in cotton wool for it?

Rhys Ruddock and Dominic Ryan are making their Leinster debuts in this.

danthefan

thomond2006 wrote: »

Is McKinley being considered for the Heineken Cup or is Berne being wrapped in cotton wool for it?

Rhys Ruddock and Dominic Ryan are making their Leinster debuts in this.

Far more likely he's given 14 of the 15 for the HEC the weekend off (Ross or CJ will have to start) so they can train together. For me this is a clear indication Berne will come in at 10, as you were otherwise.

Riskymove

Deleted User wrote: »

If Shaun Berne is to be our Heineken cup 10 where's he at?

they could hardly risk him could they?

eoin2nc

Riskymove wrote: »

they could hardly risk him could they?

That would be a riskymove.........

Sangre

I think not playing him at 10 is a riskier move tbh.

Zzippy

Is this match on TV? Would be interesting to see how this young selection does, they won't have had much game time together but some serious talent there coming through. McFadden and O'Malley in the centre should be interesting to watch, and the back row too, keen to see how good Ruddock is.

should be on S4c / BBC wales if you have a fta dish

Crash

Coverage starts at 4.30 on Sunday, on Setanta Ireland. Interested to watch that backrow mostly - want to see more of Ryan, piqued my interest from what i've heard about him.

irishbucsfan

Crash wrote: »

Coverage starts at 4.30 on Sunday, on Setanta Ireland. Interested to watch that backrow mostly - want to see more of Ryan, piqued my interest from what i've heard about him.

He says he wants to be as good as Pocock... so let's see some of that please.

chupacabra

Really looking forward to this. O'Malley coming back from a long injury lay off, should be interesting to see how he links up with McFadden. Also why is POD constantly overlooked in favour of Chris Keane for these kinds of games? He is clearly the better player and a young lad who needs the benefit of experience.

danthefan

chupacabra wrote: »

Really looking forward to this. O'Malley coming back from a long injury lay off, should be interesting to see how he links up with McFadden. Also why is POD constantly overlooked in favour of Chris Keane for these kinds of games? He is clearly the better player and a young lad who needs the benefit of experience.

POD hasn't been playing all that well tbf, though how Cheika rates Keane so highly is beyond me.

Mr.Applepie

Deleted User wrote: »

should be on S4c / BBC wales if you have a fta dish

Nice one! I had completely forgotton about this and was just starting to plan out what pub I could watch this in.

magners league site says s4c

http://www.magnersleague.com/matchcentre/fixtures_list.php

thomond2006

Dragons -7 on PP, bookies obviously feel the Leinster "kids" won't do the business.

danthefan

thomond2006 wrote: »

Dragons -7 on PP, bookies obviously feel the Leinster "kids" won't do the business.

That's perfectly fair really.

irishbucsfan

danthefan wrote: »

That's perfectly fair really.

Especially considering we haven't beaten them away in a while.

But still, hopefully the "kids" will be able to produce a winning performance. I think the front 5 has enough experience to carry the team hopefully, I think the rest of it will come down to whether the two young flankers can control the ground game and how well McKinley can manage the game.

subfreq

As a neutral observer I am really looking forward to seeing McFadden. I know other fringe players get more hype but McFadden seems to be the perfect solid International prospect to me.

Kearney also gets a huge rep so will be good to see him get a full game.

phog

Leinster were very lucky with this ML fixture as I suppose the Dragons are the ideal opposition for this sort of blooding the youths and giving your H/C players a rest.

Cheika is damned if does and damned if he doesn't but giving so many players a rest a week before one of their most important HC games this season is risky, the backs shouldn't be rusty as most of them played as a unit in the AIs but still they will have a very different half back unit feeding their backs. Maybe he should have used this game to see how they perform.

gcgirl

I was well impressed with McFadden last week @ the Ireland A match, And from what i've seen of Ryan he is a very promising player!

Ulster1999

From what I've heard the main players to look out for are Rhys Ruddock, Dominic Ryan and Ian McKinley. I also heard from a source in the Leinster branch that another young player who isn't listed on the subs, Jack McGrath, will be brought along to sub depending on the weather (afraid of throwing him in the scrum in wet conditions because of increase of injury) and apparently is a very big prospect. Exciting to see, wish more provinces would do this.

Then I have to ask, are Leinster that cocky that they will finish top 4 that they feel they can throw away games?

danthefan

Ulster1999 wrote: »

Then I have to ask, are Leinster that cocky that they will finish top 4 that they feel they can throw away games?

1) Player management scheme.

2) Throwing the game? I reckon Cheika would have a few words for you if you asked him that to his face.

3) Leinster already have one foot in the playoffs, even at this early stage. Worst case scenario after the Dragons game Leinster will be 4th, 2 points off the top, that's with 8 games played 5 of which have been away from home. With a glut of home games to come it would take a spectacularly poor effort for Leinster to come below 4th, regardless of the result tomorrow.

gearstick

Deleted User wrote: »

should be on S4c / BBC wales if you have a fta dish

no sign of it anywhere..

danthefan

gearstick wrote: »

no sign of it anywhere..

Try again tomorrow.

gearstick

danthefan wrote: »

Try again tomorrow.

ah that could be the problem alright

Trojan

What's the story with Cullen? Isn't he sorely in need of some game time now?

danthefan

Trojan wrote: »

What's the story with Cullen? Isn't he sorely in need of some game time now?

Not really, why would he over anyone else?

Trojan

danthefan wrote: »

Not really, why would he over anyone else?

Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought his last full 80 minutes was the Blues game at the end of October. Did he play in one of the A games?

If he's to play in a HEC game I'd prefer him to get at least 40 mins tomorrow but isn't on the bench.

danthefan

Trojan wrote: »

Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought his last full 80 minutes was the Blues game at the end of October. Did he play in one of the A games?

If he's to play in a HEC game I'd prefer him to get at least 40 mins tomorrow but isn't on the bench.

Leo Cullen? Full 80 against Fiji.

Trojan

danthefan wrote: »

Leo Cullen? Full 80 against Fiji.

Ah, good stuff. Not sure how I didn't notice his ugly mug in that game*! Apologies for the mistake.

*Actually I do - watched it in my local in Donabate, they had a fscking wendyball game on the other TV. Disgusting! Going to Malahide for future rugby viewing.

danthefan

Trojan wrote: »

Ah, good stuff. Not sure how I didn't notice his ugly mug in that game! Apologies for the mistake.

I'll let you away with it just this once!

Thinking about it though it is 3 weeks between games for him which is a while, same with Reddan. Concerned about Reddan/Berne as a combo, Reddan didn't set the world alight against Fiji and Berne is, well, not very good at 10 imo. Nacewa is ages without a game though I don't think it's guaranteed he'll be playing yet.

Edit - Smyths in Malahide, good Leinster pub!

The_boat

irishbucsfan wrote: »

He says he wants to be as good as Pocock... so let's see some of that please.

Hopefully well see some action to back up the ambition on Sunday.

The bid for Giteau cant have helped Berne's confidence.

I havn't seen much of the "kids" so i'm looking forward to the game

ALH-06

The_boat wrote: »

The bid for Giteau cant have helped Berne's confidence.

Looking forward to seeing how McKinley gets on at 10 but I really think Berne should have been selected to play. He needs game time to improve what has been distinctly average form for Leinster and it's not as if he's been overused this season. Risky call by Cheika.

And yeah Chris Keane again? Come on, give O'Donoghue the chance - looks like he can be the real deal, and it's pretty obvious that Keane definitely isn't...

ALH-06

thomond2006 wrote: »

Dragons -7 on PP, bookies obviously feel the Leinster "kids" won't do the business.

I'm not too confident either - these young guys are definitely talented enough but many haven't played at all at this level. It's great to give them the experience though.

Remember a similar team played the Dragons late in the Magners last year and lost quite convincingly.

anonymous_joe

ALH-06 wrote: »

I'm not too confident either - these young guys are definitely talented enough but many haven't played at all at this level. It's great to give them the experience though.

Remember a similar team played the Dragons late in the Magners last year and lost quite convincingly.

How has everyone forgotten that game?

gavkm27

anonymous_joe wrote: »

How has everyone forgotten that game?

Well it was forgettable,i remember turning it off at half time
and Dragons are playing alot better rugby this season than last

anonymous_joe

gavkm27 wrote: »

Well it was forgettable,i remember turning it off at half time
and Dragons are playing alot better rugby this season than last

And they basically spanked this team last season.

They were pretty good against us in the RDS this season, although they never looked like beating the first string.

Spore

Easy try Dragons. 5-0. Ominous signs already...

Spore

Shocking attempt at the conversion. Still 5-0

Aidric

Excellent try from the Dragons, created the extra space out wide to send the winger over.

thomond2006

Nice try for Dragons.

Why isn't POD getting a go if all the other youngsters are out?

Strange..

Conversion missed (awful attempt): 5-0.

thomond2006

Oh oh, Niall Morris does a Denis Hurley on the kick..

Spore

Berne penalty. 5-3

gearstick

these commentators on S4C are dreadful at pronouncing the leinster players names, whatever about Keogh, but you'd think they wolud at least be able to pronounce Kearney!

thomond2006

Alridge tap and go, try in the corner!

Stev_o

Fortune favours the sly.

Spore

Tap and go penalty. Leinster caught with their pants down, shame on Jackman should have been wise to it. 10-3 Another SHOCKER of a conversion attempt.