RUGBY/European Cup: Leinster have been left to sweat on the fitness of their Irish and Lions lock Malcolm O'Kelly for tomorrow's pivotal Pool Four game away to Montferrand. O'Kelly will travel to France with the rest of the 25-player squad this morning but coach Matt Williams conceded that the odds against the 28-year-old second row playing are no better than 50-50.
A final decision will be made later today or tomorrow and O'Kelly has been formally named in the starting team but in reality the unbeaten pool leaders must be fearing the worst given O'Kelly has been unable to train this week due to the back spasm he sustained in last Friday's warm-up win over the Scottish Borders.
Furthermore, though Williams maintained that O'Kelly had "improved enormously and we're hopeful", he also admitted that both the plane journey and the weather conditions in Montferrand might have a bearing. And the local forecast for the weekend is not good. Anything from rain to snow is possible, and the temperature come kick-off at 3 p.m. local time (2 p.m. Irish) could be close to freezing.
"What we don't want is for him to last just 10 minutes," added Williams, who will also be mindful that there is an equally critical return meeting just five days later.
The likelihood is that Aidan Kearney would step into the breach, though there is also the option, according to Williams, of moving Eric Miller into the second row. Des Dillon, who provides additional squad cover along with the travelling Liam Toland and Peter McKenna, would be added to the bench.
Either way there are two changes from Leinster's last European Cup outing - the 51-10 win away to Swansea, with Emmet Byrne replacing the injured Paul Wallace and the fit-again Miller reclaiming his place at the expense of the unlucky Aidan McCullen.
Williams admitted that the latter was "a very hard call", admitting that in the three matches McCullen had replaced Miller he "has been nothing short of brilliant. It's a testimony to how hard he has worked and his improvement. He didn't play well earlier in the Celtic League and we dropped him, but he's come back and been magnificent."
Even amid the upturn of the last few years Leinster's 43-7 defeat in Toulouse last year constituted their sixth defeat out of six in France. "We're in a lot better position now than we were when we played Toulouse," maintains captain Reggie Corrigan.
"We don't have the same amount of injuries for one thing. The team has been playing together during the internationals as well. Nine or 10 of this squad have beaten the world champions so there's a belief there that we can go out and give a good performance against the French team as well, but we do realise it's going to be all hands on deck."
Montferrand make four changes. Raphael Chanal replaces the injured Tony Marsh in midfield, Gregory Soudre replaces Dave Von Hoesslin at scrumhalf, Eric Lecomte makes way for Troy Jaques in the second row and Marc Reynaud replaces Elvis Vermeulen at number eight.
LEINSTER: G Dempsey; D Hickie, B O'Driscoll, S Horgan, G D'Arcy; C Warner, B O'Meara; R Corrigan (Capt), S Byrne, E Byrne, L Cullen, M O'Kelly, E Miller, V Costello, K Gleeson. Replacements: P Coyle, G Hickie, A Kearney, A McCullen, B O'Riordan, N Spooner, D Quinlan.
MONTFERRAND: S Viars; J Marlu, J Ngaumo, R Chanal, D Bory; G Merceron, G Sudre; S Bozzi, R Cockerill, L Tsabadze, T Jaques, O Brouzet, A Audebert, M Raynaud, O Magne. Replacements: D Ashvetia, A Castola, E Lecomte, J Machacek, D Von Hoesslin, X Sadourny, Y N Gog.
