Cardiff v Leinster; 20/02/2014, 8pm, live on RTE2 and BBC2 Wales

former legend

Cardiff: Dan Fish, Owen Jenkins, Isaia Tuifua, Gavin Evans, Harry Robinson, Gareth Davies, Lewis Jones; Sam Hobbs (c), Kristian Dacey, Scott Andrews, James Down, Filo Paulo, Macauley Cook, Josh Navidi, Robin Copeland
Replacements: Rhys Williams, Tom Davies, Patrick Palmer, Chris Dicomidis, Luke Hamilton, Tomos Williams, Simon Humberstone, Tom Williams

Leinster: Zane Kirchner, Darragh Fanning, Brendan Macken, Noel Reid, Luke Fitzgerald / Sam Coghlan-Murray, Jimmy Gopperth, Eoin Reddan; Michael Bent, Richardt Strauss, Tadhg Furlong, Tom Denton, Quinn Roux, Kevin McLaughlin (c), Dominic Ryan, Jack Conan
Replacements: Aaron Dundon, Jack O'Connell, Edward Byrne, Mike McCarthy, Rhys Ruddock, Luke McGrath, Ian Madigan, Darren Hudson

Both teams missing key players tonight, Leinster with 14 players in the Ireland 23 for Saturday while Cardiff are without marquee names like Warburton, Cuthbert and Halfpenny while fly-half Rhys Patchell is out long-term and Welsh international scrum-half Lloyd Williams is also absent. Cardiff do get to welcome openside Josh Navidi back into what is an otherwise inexperienced team. Robin Copeland provides some Irish interest at number 8.

Leinster field an inexperienced team themselves, with Jack Conan making his senior debut and Tadgh Furlong getting only his second senior start at tighthead and there is anoter potential debutant on the bench in prop Edward Byrne. Michael Bent continues his impressive rejuvenation at loosehead. Quinn Roux makes his first senior start since November.

There is the by-now-mandatory late fitness test for Luke Fitzgerald, with Sam Coghlan-Murray standing by, but even without Fitzgerald, Leinster have the greater experience in decision-making positions with Reddan, Gopperth and Kirchner.

Both teams have plenty to play for; Cardiff may find themselves scrambling for European qualification next season while Leinster need to keep the pressure on Munster at the top and fend off the challenge of Glasgow for second spot. Cardiff showed themselves to be game for a fight against Munster before collapsing as the game wore on, and then conceded two tries in the last ten minutes to lose at home to Glasgow last week; looking at the strength of the respective benches, we could well see a similar endgame tonight.

Head to Head Leinster have won the last seven meetings between the two teams, averaging 37 points and 4.4 tries per match. Cardiff's last win against Leinster was three years and one day ago, an 11-3 win over a Leinster team that featured Eoin O'Malley and Ian McKinley among a host of other players who have since moved on.

Prediction: Leinster by less than 10.

Paddy Power's take on it is Leinster -7 @ 10/11, or Leinster 1/3 for the outright win.

Says I To Bridey

Joe should have kept Copeland in the Irish squad

molloyjh

Raging I'm going to miss this. Bloody out-laws. :mad:

amtw

molloyjh wrote: »

Raging I'm going to miss this. Bloody out-laws. :mad:

Buy the father-in-law a season ticket for his birthday and advise him that it's mandatory to watch the match tonight to acclimatise himself before he gets to use it.:rolleyes:

peterako

Delighted to see Kevin McLaughlin get a run out as Captain!

COME ON LEINSTER!!

Let's hope we're all happy come Sunday.....

Tomtom364

Dear Cardiff Lions and Leinster Blues,

Make this a very damn entertaining game of rugby to distract me from the alien virus currently melting my brain and pouring it into my lungs or I shall throw pineapples at you from atop my giant mongoose.

Yours,
A Neutral.

Ps. These drugs taste funny...

Serbian

When will we know if Luke makes the cut? If he's fit, I wonder will Coughlan-Murray drop to the bench and Hudson out of the squad? I really feel like both Hudson and Coughlan-Murray should be in ahead of Fanning, but I'll just grin and bear it for now.

Cardiff's home form has been mostly good recently, but they've had some freak results between beating Toulon and losing to Zebre. I think this game will be a very close one.

Prediction: Leinster by 2.

ssaye2

Earthquake 30k from Cardiff at lunch

4.1

DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNN
An update on the BGS website said the 4.1 magnitude quake originated in the Bristol Channel.

molloyjh

amtw wrote: »

Buy the father-in-law a season ticket for his birthday and advise him that it's mandatory to watch the match tonight to acclimatise himself before he gets to use it.:rolleyes:

I'm nearly there. Have the rest of them converted (mother-in-law included). He's the only one withholding.

ssaye2 wrote: »

DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNN

It's only 2 dun's and he's on the bench. Plus he's more of a shark man than a tremors man.... :pac:


I'll get my coat.

arodabomb

former legend wrote: »

there is anoter potential debutant on the bench in prop Edward Byrne.

Great write up, but I think Ed Byrne made his debut against Zebre, got on for a minute or two. (as pedantic as that is)

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience

Fitz starts lads!

matthew8

Fitz is playing. Leinster just tweeted:

Swan Curry

I won't believe them until kickoff,there's still time for him to get injured in the warmup...

thomond2006

There's still time for him to get injured changing from his training gear to match gear. I'll believe it when he survives his first contact!

former legend

Kick off is actually 8.05 lads, sorry about that

wowy

Ah, commentating via walkie-talkie I see...

Taco Corp

first time leinster have played on a artificial pitch?

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience

what the **** is going on with the commentary

Paleface

wowy wrote: »

Ah, commentating via walkie-talkie I see...

Either that or Tron works for RTE these days

wowy

wowy wrote: »

Ah, commentating via walkie-talkie I see...

This is hurting my ears.

vienne86

wowy wrote: »

Ah, commentating via walkie-talkie I see...

Irritating. Is this on any other channel?

lologram

wowy wrote: »

Ah, commentating via walkie-talkie I see...

Tin can on a string

phog

Game is also on BBC 2 Wales

Gidea

Look like I'm listening to music while watching ....

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience

ah jaysus, how didn't he finish that

DGRulz

RTÈ transmitting from the International Space Station it seems.

Dravokivich

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience wrote: »

what the **** is going on with the commentary

Sample rate seems to be off with the outboard gear being used by the commentators. All other sound there is fine.

iDave

Cant wait for Sky to take over

Robot Rabbit

Is everyone elses audio wonky?

Dave_The_Sheep

Unlucky bounce, but he really should have done better there.

vienne86

phog wrote: »

Game is also on BBC 2 Wales

TG. I'm outta here....no wait....maybe....

Podge_irl

Four first choice props gone and Leinster still driving the oppo off the ball...

Gidea

Now there's an echo

Heroditas

"Apologies for the poor quality in commentary"


Yeah fair enough saying that about the two lads but the sound is brutal too.

Burgo

We'll they are doing something with the audio, dat echo now.

OldRio

And now we have an echo

RTE FFS

Quinn Roux looks to have filled out of late.

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience

try conan

Big Nelly

Do RTE not do a sound check? instead of starting the game and then f**king around trying to fix it

thomond2006

Wow nice debut!

Burgo

Ha what a first cap.

OldRio

And now no crowd noise.
Try

LeeroyJones

Well that's one way to settle your nerves

Taco Corp

ffs, no ref mic either

Robot Rabbit

really weird not being able to hear the crowd or the whistle!
Great work on the try.

RuggieBear

groovy

Podge_irl

Nice combination of third choice TH and third choice no 8 leading to a try there!

vienne86

Excellent. Well done Conan.

Quint2010

This a synthetic surface?

Podge_irl

Sound is perfect on BBC2W folks (along with ref mike)

justsomebloke

Surprisingly good scrummaging