Rugby – team news:A trio of Irish internationals in Gordon D'Arcy, Rob Kearney and Eoin Reddan will start for Leinster for the first time in the new Magners League campaign when they take on Italian side Benetton Treviso on Saturday.
The trio come into a backline which includes Isa Nacewa, who scored 19 points (including a try) in the 34-23 win over Cardiff last time out. With Kearney starting at his usual fullback position it means Luke Fitzgerald reverts to the wing. Fitzgerald has played in his preferred fullback position in the absence of Kearney but struggled to make any great impact.
Reddan will pull the strings behind the scrum with D’Arcy to form a centre partnership with Eoin O’Malley, who played a full 80 minutes against Glasgow and 20 minutes against Cardiff.
In the pack, Cian Healy comes into the front row after making a second half appearance last weekend and will partner John Fogarty and Mike Ross, while Rhys Ruddock forms a backrow partnership with Sean O’Brien and skipper Shane Jennings.
Isaac Boss, Fergus McFadden and Heinke van der Merwe are named on the bench.
Reddan says Leinster travel to Italy taking nothing for granted with Benetton’s main goal for the season to win their home games at Stadio di Monigo.
“They’re a very tough side,” said Reddan. “We know that their main goal for the season was to be good at home and you have to respect that and know what you’re getting into this week. It’s going to be very tough out there; (we’re expecting) a tough physical battle and we have to be ready for it.
“Having away games at this stage in the season is an opportunity to capitalise on the work you’ve done and maybe get wins away from home. That’s what the goal is over the next few weeks. We need to win these next two games (Benetton and Edinburgh) and hopefully put the squad in a good position in the Magners League going forward,” adds Reddan, who says they need to build on the win against Cardiff.
“It wasn’t a great game of rugby against Cardiff but we managed to put a few more phases together. We’ve got to keep working on that, keep getting the shape that Joe (Schmidt) wants and put a good performance together against Treviso this week.”
Kick-off on Saturday is 6.05pm Irish time and will be broadcast live on TG4.
Looking ahead, in excess of 43,000 tickets have been sold for the Leinster versus Munster Magners League clash at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, October 2nd. (kick-off 7.30pm). Limited tickets are still available from the usual outlets.
Leinster team (v Benetton): Rob Kearney, Isa Nacewa, Eoin O'Malley, Gordon D'Arcy, Luke Fitzgerald, Ian Madigan, Eoin Reddan, Cian Healy, John Fogarty, Mike Ross, Nathan Hines, Ed O'Donoghue, Rhys Ruddock, Shane Jennings (capt), Sean O'Brien Replacements: Richardt Strauss, Heinke van der Merwe, Simon Shawe, Mariano Galarza, Stephen Keogh, Isaac Boss, Fergus McFadden, David Kearney