European Cup, Leinster v Leicester: The form player of last year's Six Nations, Gordon D'Arcy, has again sought a few more days in the hope that his troublesome hamstring will be strong enough to allow him line out on Saturday against Leicester in the European Cup quarter-final at Lansdowne Road.
It could be the last chance the centre has of saving his season from bottoming out through injury. With Shane Horgan's hand injury also putting his place in doubt, Leinster coach Declan Kidney has once again delayed naming the team, and has instead selected a squad of 27.
The two players will have their final fitness tests at 10am tomorrow. According to ERC regulations the team must then be announced by noon.
A "reasonable chance" of both players taking to the field is how Kidney phrased it. Whether there is a reasonable chance of both finding any sort of form for the match if they are fit would be the next question on his mind. That issue Kidney delicately avoided and when asked whether he would pick the two players if both were fit, his non-committal "we could select them" was again the coach keeping his private thoughts to himself.
D'Arcy has not played a match since he hobbled off the pitch against Italy in Ireland's opening Six Nations Championship match while Horgan missed Ireland's final two games of the series against France and Wales.
Importantly Kidney will also have to decide whether to use the same pack against Leicester that played against Llanelli in last week's Celtic League match.
The logical progression leading into the biggest game of the season would be to stick with the same eight that successfully saw off the challenge of Llanelli last Friday.
That would put Victor Costello and Shane Jennings on the bench with Ciarán Potts starting the quarter-final at blindside flanker alongside Keith Gleeson at openside flanker and Eric Miller at number eight.
The two locks, Malcolm O'Kelly and Leo Cullen, would form the front five with captain Reggie Corrigan at loosehead prop, Shane Byrne at hooker and former Leicester player Ricky Nebbett at tighthead.
"They (Horgan and D'Arcy) have a reasonable chance of being fit," said Kidney.
"The only reason I'm hedging on that is because before I'd have said fifty-fifty or seventy-thirty and it bit me. It is the same injury (to D'Arcy) and he's still recovering from it, building up the strength.
"We've trained again this afternoon. You only want players to play if you feel that they're fully fit to go and fully fit for the 80 minutes. So medically he has to be passed but you also have to take into consideration the conditioning side of things, how much rugby he has under the belt and also see how he is to go himself. So there are a number of things and only one of them is under my particular jurisdiction and that's whether or not I pick him. I'll take advice from the medics, the conditioning people and the players themselves."
Speculation is that Horgan could be fit to play on the wing, not centre, while Brian O'Driscoll, who did not line out in Lansdowne Road last week against Llanelli in the Celtic League, has sufficiently loosened his tight hamstring to take a leading role. In the absence of D'Arcy, Felipe Contepomi could again slot in at 12.
Overall Kidney has an extremely flexible backline and even without Horgan and D'Arcy has a number of players on the squad able to move between wing, fullback, centre and even outhalf.
Last week Kidney also opted for a split of five forwards and two backs on the bench. Given the huge reputation of the Leicester pack, particularly the front row, he may also opt for that split again on Saturday.
While Costello may not be all that enamoured with coming off the bench in what could be his last big game for the province, he represents an awesome impact player for Kidney against a side who will be keenly aware that they under-performed last week. Kidney bemoaned the fact that Leicester were surprising losers at Leeds, where they went down by a point to the struggling Tykes.
"It's a pity they had the hiccup," he said. "They usually respond pretty strongly after they've lost a match. The script is written for them to finish on a high this season, go on and win the Zurich and European Cup, do that double given that they've some players retiring. It was a hiccup. That sometimes happens and I think they will come out all the stronger for it this week."
Leicester named a starting line-up yesterday with international second row Ben Kay ruled out through injury and replaced by uncapped Louis Deacon. Kay is struggling with ankle ligament damage but will be given every opportunity to make the replacements.
Austin Healy has been dropped with Geordan Murphy returning to the right wing and Sam Vesty at fullback. International props Julian White and Graham Rowntree are both back to full fitness after recent injury problems.
LEICETER: S Vesty; G Murphy, O Smith, D Gibson, L Lloyd; A Goode, H Ellis; G Rowntree, G Chuter, J White; M Johnson, L Deacon; L Moody, N Back, M Corry.
LEINSTER (Squad): Forwards (14): Reggie Corrigan (Captain), Ricky Nebbett, John Lyne, Emmett Byrne, Shane Byrne, David Blaney, Leo Cullen, Malcolm O'Kelly, Eric Miller, Shane Jennings, Keith Gleeson, Victor Costello, Des Dillon, Ciaran Potts. Backs (13): Brian O'Riordan, Brian O'Meara, Guy Easterby, David Holwell, Denis Hickie, Gary Brown, Gordon D'Arcy, David Quinlan, Kieran Lewis, Brian O'Driscoll, Girvan Dempsey, Felipe Contepomi, Shane Horgan.
