Dan Leavy will make his first appearance of the year as Leinster take on Edinburgh this evening in Murrayfield. The Irish backrow hasn't played since December 22nd because of a calf injury but spent some of the latter part of his rehabilitation period in Ireland camp. Joe Tomane, Luke McGrath and Nick McCarthy also return in a timely fillip ahead of Leinster's upcoming commitments in the Pro14 and Champions Cup tournaments. Also in action this evening, Connacht host Benetton and they've named Ultan Dillane in the secondrow while fellow Irish internationals Kieran Marmion and Jack Carty are included among the replacements.
Ahead of Mick McCarthy's first match in charge of Ireland (in his second coming), he insists that whatever happens in Gibraltar on Saturday evening, the Victoria Stadium's artificial pitch won't be used as an excuse for the team's first Euro 2020 qualifier. "The pitch is fine," he explains, "I was on it and it's fine; it's just a different bounce." Yesterday evening, Northern Ireland saw off Estonia 2-0 in their qualifier at Windsor Park, while Scotland suffered one of their most embarrassing defeats losing 3-0 in Kazakhstan. Ahead of a potential England debut tonight, Declan Rice has had to issue a public apology after it emerged the West Ham United player and former Irish player, had posted apparent support for the IRA on social media back in 2015.
Playing his first event since November after breaking a bone in his wrist, Padraig Harrington carded a two-under-par 70 in the first round in Kuala Lumpur to lie five shots off the lead shared by Australia's Marcus Fraser and Spain's Nacho Elvira. Europe's defence of the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits is still 18 months away, but as a three-time vice-captain, Europe's 2020 captain is well aware of the toll it usually takes on the game of the captains: "My thinking is I can probably play golf for about a year and then with six months to go it will certainly shut down pretty much all the aspirations I have on the golf course."
Meanwhile former Waterford manager Derek McGrath has backed the new hurling league format which will be introduced in 2020. Two mixed-ability groups in Division One rather than a hierarchical 1A and 1B means there will be no realistic threat of relegation for top counties and no opportunity for weaker or emerging counties to test themselves against the top teams in league quarter-finals. McGrath says: "I think it will help player welfare issues because county managers won't be under the same pressure to get results in every game . . . "
