Cardiff Blues vs Leinster; Sat 19th Feb 18:30; RTE/S4C

CouchSmart

Leo Cullen will enter the history books when he becomes only the fifth player in the province's history to reach the 150 cap landmark. In achieving this milestone, the Newmountkennedy second row follows Shane Horgan (198 caps), Malcolm O'Kelly (188), Gordon D'Arcy (183) and Girvan Dempsey (175) in Leinster's all time roll of honour. Cullen leads the team and is one of five Ireland internationals named in the panel for the meeting of the league's second and third placed teams. Isaac Boss links up with Ian McKinley at half-back with former St. Patrick's Classical School Navan centre Eamonn Sheridan making his second senior appearance - and his first start for the province - alongside Eoin O'Malley.
Isa Nacewa, Andrew Conway and Niall Morris - a try-scorer in the 21-16 victory over Aironi last time out - make up the back three. Kevin McLaughlin starts in the back-row alongside Dominic Ryan and Rhys Ruddock.
Stan Wright is named in the panel amongst a strong replacements bench for the first time this season, with the bench also including Ireland international Eoin Reddan and Scotland's Nathan Hines.


CARDIFF BLUES: 15: Dan Fish 14: Richard Mustoe 13: Gavin Evans 12: Dafydd Hewitt 11: Tom James 10: Ceri Sweeney 9: Tom Slater; 1: John Yap, 2: Gareth Williams, 3: Fau Filise, 4: Deiniol Jones, 5: Paul Tito CAPTAIN, 6: Andries Pretorius, 7: Martyn Williams, 8: Xavier Rush


REPLACEMENTS: 16: Rhys Williams, 17: Sam Hobbs, 18: Scott Andrews, 19: Ben White, 20: Ma'ama Molitika, 21: Rhys Downes, 22: Dan Parks, 23: James Loxton


LEINSTER:
15: Isa Nacewa
14: Andrew Conway
13: Eoin O'Malley
12: Eamonn Sheridan
11: Niall Morris
10: Ian McKinley
9: Isaac Boss
1: Heinke van der Merwe
2: Richardt Strauss
3: Clint Newland
4: Leo Cullen CAPTAIN
5: Devin Toner
6: Kevin McLaughlin
7: Dominic Ryan
8: Rhys Ruddock


REPLACEMENTS:
16: Jason Harris-Wright
17: Jack McGrath
18: Stan Wright
19: Nathan Hines
20: Stephen Keogh
21: Eoin Reddan
22: Ian Madigan
23: Michael Keating


http://leinsterrugby.ie/matchcentre/7641.php

Huge game tomorrow. Both teams will be desperate to win. There's only two points between them, with Cardiff having a game in hand(away to Dragons).


Another interesting Schmidt selection with plenty of youth throughout the team. Personally I'm really interested in seeing how McKinley plays, we really need some 10 cover so it'd be great if himself or Madigan could become real options.


Leinster's backrow are going to be really up against it in what can only be thought of as a battle of youth vs experience, should be interesting.


Leinster by 1.

durkadurka

Beat you by six mInutes couchsmart!!

CouchSmart

durkadurka wrote: »

Beat you by six mInutes couchsmart!!

Rats, a friendly merge please mods?

thebaz

big calls for McKinley and Sheridan , a big lad , who seamed to go quiet this year -

would have liked to see locky retained at 2nd row or hines , in preference to toner

another interesting match , should be good

CouchSmart

Has anyone seen much of Sheridan actually?

durkadurka

CouchSmart wrote: »

Rats, a friendly merge please mods?

Sod it I've told everyone to ignore the other one.

roycon

sheridan has been injured all year played about 3/4 games for lansdowne in the last few weeks

Taco Corp

Lots of pace in the backs but I thought that would help against Aironi too only for it turned out to be a struggle.

Great to see Stan Wright back in the squad.

crisco10

David Kearney??

GerM

crisco10 wrote: »

David Kearney??

I believe DK picked up a knock in the Aironi game and is being rested as a result.

David900

I hope Leinster win this to keep themselves ahead of the chasing pack for a home semi.
Great to see Leo gaining his 150th cap. Its quite an achievement given he was at Leicester for a period. It got me thinking about other players after seeing the list of players for Leinster who have reached this. BOD has only made 135 appearances for Leinster (according to Wikipedia) - seems like quite a low figure given the time he has been there and I'm pretty sure Rob Kearney has over 100 as of this season (although his Wikipedia says 81). I guess BOD first preference is to the national team.

funky penguin

Well apart from International duty, he's also had a good few injuries in his time.

Shaggy just needs two more to reach the 200 mile stone, that's amazing!

Hope Leo has a stormer.

Quint2010

Very tough game for Leinster.

CouchSmart

It's a huge game for Sheridan tonight, he's in year 3 of the academy so this is his oppurtunity to show what he can do. It'd be such a pity if he wasn't to get a contract as he offers something completely different than our other centres. That being said with the amount of centres we have I don't know if we can afford another. Hopefully he does well and earns himself a development contract.

Taco Corp

David900 wrote: »

I hope Leinster win this to keep themselves ahead of the chasing pack for a home semi.
Great to see Leo gaining his 150th cap. Its quite an achievement given he was at Leicester for a period. It got me thinking about other players after seeing the list of players for Leinster who have reached this. BOD has only made 135 appearances for Leinster (according to Wikipedia) - seems like quite a low figure given the time he has been there and I'm pretty sure Rob Kearney has over 100 as of this season (although his Wikipedia says 81). I guess BOD first preference is to the national team.

Check out the Leinster site instead on Wikipedia

http://www.leinsterrugby.ie/profiles/index.php

Kearney on 104 and BOD on 144

danthefan

Very callow looking backline, decent enough pack though. Can't really see us winning tbh. These sort of selections never put in a good performance really.

CouchSmart

danthefan wrote: »

Very callow looking backline, decent enough pack though. Can't really see us winning tbh. These sort of selections never put in a good performance really.

Ye true enough. There's only 4 players starting this game that would be on the team if it was a full panel (Strauss, Cullen, Boss and Nacewa), although those 4 do form an important spine to the team. If McKinley and Ruddock play well we're in with a chance.

David900

Surley wrote: »

Check out the Leinster site instead on Wikipedia

http://www.leinsterrugby.ie/profiles/index.php

Kearney on 104 and BOD on 144

Bit of a difference alright, thanks! Maybe I should go update Wikipeadia.

I know its been mentioned before but what kind of contract is Conway on?
He has been quite anonymous in the past few matches he has played, a little run of games should hopefully let him show what he is capable of.

funky penguin

I'm being optimistic about this one......

Leinster to win, with Sheridan scoring a hat-trick. :pac:

CouchSmart

David900 wrote: »

I know its been mentioned before but what kind of contract is Conway on?
He has been quite anonymous in the past few matches he has played, a little run of games should hopefully let him show what he is capable of.

He's on a full contract.

Kristopherus

Could the OP change the title of this thread. Today is Saturday 19th Frebruary.

GerM

Kristopherus wrote: »

Could the OP change the title of this thread. Today is Saturday 19th Frebruary.

Indeed. I believe it's the month after Janruary.

totallegend

danthefan wrote: »

Very callow looking backline, decent enough pack though. Can't really see us winning tbh. These sort of selections never put in a good performance really.

It would be a bit much to expect anything other than a hiding tonight. Cardiff are missing a lot of internationals but still have a good spine through the team.

I think the most interesting selection is McKinley ahead of Madigan, it seemed like Madigan was making ground in establishing himself but he wasn't great against Aironi.

GerM

I would think we're going to see a more controlled Leinster performance tonight judging by the selection. We've gone for a strong pack full of monster sized, mobile men with no openside and a combative scrum half instead of the swifter Reddan. McKinley tends to play a slightly tighter game than Madigan also. In Sheridan they've gone with someone who may be able to take bad ball and make it good with his bulk and set up the pack to go again.

I reckon Conway and Morris might be in for a long evening. To be honest, I think it's probably the way to go. Let the pack take them on. Cardiff have a lot of old legs in that pack: M. Williams 35, G. Williams 31, Tito 32, Rush 33, Deiniol Jones 33, Filise 33. Yapp and Pretorius are the only people under 30 in the pack. I've never rated Yapp but Pretorius is supposedly one to watch.

If we keep it tight with a lot of pick and go, get some territory and our set piece goes well then I've every hope of getting at least a losing bonus out of this one. We've the likes of Reddan, Wright and Hines to come on also after 50mins or so to take the pace up another notch again.

[Jackass]

Hmm, I'm as nervous as most seem to be.

The selection doesn't inspire the greatest hope.

For me, Newland is a big weakness in the front row, and I hope Stan has at least 40 minutes in him.

Other than that, the pack is fairly solid, and we need a massive performance from the lads in the back-row. They're all quality players and are all pushing for first team spots, if they can gel and put in a big performance, then we really do have a shot.

McKinley at 10 is another one I'm nervous about. I know we have great young players, but I don't want to get sucked in to believing our own hype too much either, and with a proven out-half to steady the ship, I'd be a lot more confident, but having said that, McKinley was probably ahead of Madigan before his injury, so now is his oppertunity to step up.

As for guys like Morris and Sheridan, I'm not sure they're the ones who'll make it big from the academy, and may both be Connacht bound, I would have prefered to see Keating and Berne, but I'll happily eat my words if they put in good displays, because I haven't seen enough of them at senior level to pass judgement yet, and Morris did have a couple of decent games for us.

Hope to see Keating get a good run as he has a big future and is tearing up the AIL with Clontarf. Conway is on fire too with the A team and is top try scorer in the B&I Cup, and we'll be looking to guys like him, Nacewa & O'Malley to make things happen in the backline.

At least Cardiff aren't at full strength either, but our youth will really be tested here, and they did the job last season when it was guys like O'Malley & McFadden looking to impress, and did a magic job, who would have thought McFadden would be unavailable due to full international commitments a year later, but this is a MASSIVE game, worthy of both teams best 23's, so it's a shame they are such depleted squads, but the win is still crucial and would really cement us into second place, from where we can start a serious assault on Munsters lead.

I'm nervous, but always have to back my team, I'm going for Leinster by less than 3.

ALLEZ LES BLEUS!!

Taco Corp

"I don't think the six seconds would have tired him too much"

Joe on Leo's appearance last week. Good man Joe

TheHighRoad

Did Eoin O'Malley just clean and jerk a flanker or did I imagine that?

Taco Corp

TheHighRoad wrote: »

Did Eoin O'Malley just clean and jerk a flanker or did I imagine that?

He pretty much did. He might want to be a bit more careful in how he puts the tackled player down.

Anywhere doing live text updates for this? Or is it on any radio stations? In library on phone for the evening

TheHighRoad

I've seen enough, Boss for Ireland. Seriously though hes just as physical as O'Leary, can mix it up like Reddan and has a pass not far off Stringer's as well.

Taco Corp

good early defense from Leinster but Cardiff looking dangerous in attach.

RuggieBear

17min 3-0 to cardiff

RuggieBear

touch judge with flag...

[Jackass]

Silly peno, not sure there was an infringement from Leinster, 3 - 0 Cardiff.

RuggieBear

RuggieBear wrote: »

touch judge with flag...

rudduck with forearm to face seemingly...pair of them innit tbh. james jones feels the need to involve himself. penalty to cardiff

CouchSmart

James Jones strikes again!

Burgo

What was the infringement that led to the 3 points? it looked like a knock on from cardiff tbh.

RuggieBear

car looking more dangerous but leinster crunching them

RuggieBear

Burgo wrote: »

What was the infringement that led to the 3 points? it looked like a knock on from cardiff tbh.

strass fell on the wrong side

rudduck doing very well to steal ruck ball but hopless kicking give car the chance to put us deep into 22

Taco Corp

Burgo wrote: »

What was the infringement that led to the 3 points? it looked like a knock on from cardiff tbh.

Might have been given for Sheridan off his feet.

RuggieBear

car trying to probe out wide constantly

.

apologies for crap typing ...cant do two things at once

RuggieBear

sweeney almost thru

car have pen advantage in corner

RuggieBear

kicked to corner.

RuggieBear

mauling...rush held up inches short

RuggieBear

scrum 5 blue

Taco Corp

knock on by cardiff not given. ref must be blind

Listening to this in welsh, only radio station I could find was BBC Cymru. Not a breeze what going on, but at least I'll know when to check the thread for scores!

TheHighRoad

I am incredibly impressed with the physicality of the young Leinster players. They are smashing players!

RuggieBear

yeah knock ons are play on

rush knocks on after breaking from scrum

Scrum lein

Crash

James Jones' interpretation of "ball went backwards" is interesting at times - if I come in to a ball on the ground, from my side, hit it with my fingertips, and the ball moves, I cannot see any physical way that ball didn't go what one might refer to as "forward", unless your initials are JJ.

edit: Referee isn't JJ, now I feel bad :P

RuggieBear

newland got killed and cardiff pushes us over own line but leinster clear...somehow!!!