Leinster bring in the big guns

THE REPATRIATION of Ireland players to the province begins this weekend with seven returning to Leinster’s starting line-up. Cian Healy, an eighth, is named among the replacements.

Brian O’Driscoll, Fergus McFadden, Jonathan Sexton and Eoin Reddan are named in a backline that sees Ian Madigan, who scored 18 points last week in the victory over the Newport Gwent Dragons, shift from outhalf to fullback. He’s played there before at underage and club level but it’ll be instructive to note how he copes this evening.

He certainly possesses the kicking tools but aerially and from a positional perspective he can expect an early examination of his credentials. Jamie Heaslip leads the team from number eight and he’s joined by returning Ireland internationals, Kevin McLaughlin and Mike Ross.

Devin Toner is Leinster’s 20th centurion in terms of appearances while McFadden wins a 75th cap in the blue. Leinster coach Joe Schmidt will be hoping that Test players assimilate quickly in what is likely to be a testing environment.

Benetton Treviso at home presents a difficult assignment and their coach Franco Smith has made a host of changes to the team that started in a 19-6 defeat to Munster at Thomond Park last week. The Italian side beat the Ospreys on the first weekend of the Pro12 campaign at today’s venue; it illustrates the nature of the task ahead.

There were impressive elements in the Irish province’s performance last week, a higher tempo game, better protection of the ball at the breakdown and an appreciation of creating and exploiting space. One area that they’ll need to be more cohesive is in their defensive alignment. The Dragons’ tries were of the ‘softish’ variety and a repeat will court trouble this evening.

Treviso epitomise the traditional virtues of Italian rugby, well drilled set pieces, physicality at the breakdown and a direct approach in carrying around the fringes where scrumhalf Tobias Botes is a threat. Their patterns behind the scrum have evolved under Smith’s direction and they’ll pose some questions out wide.

Leinster won the corresponding fixture in Treviso 30-20 last season and have triumphed on four of the five occasions the teams have met in the league. It would be unrealistic to expect the visitors to be word perfect when almost half the side are enjoying their seasonal competitive blowout. However Leinster’s innate quality and a strong bench suggest that they possess the wherewithal to emerge from what promises to be a tough tussle with a victory.

BENETTON TREVISO: L McLean; E Gori, T Benvenuti, A Sgarbi, L Nitoglia; A di Bernardo, T Botes; A de Marchi, L Ghiraldini, I Fernandez-Rouyet; F Minto, C van Zyl (capt); S Favaro, A Zanni, R Barbieri. Replacements: F Sbaraglini, M Rizzo, L Cittadini, V Bernabo, D Budd, M Filippucci, F Semenzato, K Burton.

LEINSTER: I Madigan; A Conway, B O’Driscoll, F McFadden, F Carr; J Sexton, E Reddan; H van der Merwe, R Strauss, M Ross; D Browne, D Toner; K McLaughlin, S Jennings, J Heaslip (capt). Replacements: S Cronin, C Healy, J Hagan, L Cullen, J Murphy, J Cooney, N Reid, I Nacewa.

Referee: Ian Davies (Wales).

Verdict: Leinster to win