Irish scrumhalf, Eoin Reddan makes a welcome return to the Leinster panel this weekend after an horrific leg break against France in the Six Nations Championship in March. Reddan fell awkwardly beneath a tackle in the final minute of the match at the Aviva Stadium before being carried off and so missed the rest of the season.
Reddan is back on the bench for tonight’s match against Northampton and should expect a run-out as Leinster coach, Matt O’Connor, has again decided to cast his net wide and have a look at what he’s got to keep the show on the road when bodies go missing for the November international series and again after Christmas in the build up to the Six Nations.
A friendly match, yes but the Premiership side represents a significant challenge for this young side. Guy Easterby acknowledged as much on Wednesday, when he observed that the English team are probably further along the road in their pre-season preparation than Leinster.
The size
It's far from a Heineken Cup home side, although the seasoned Shane Jennings is captain in the absence of Leo Cullen. With Jimmy Gopperth at outhalf, Quinn Roux in the second row and blindside Rhys Ruddock starting, that's about the size of the experienced group, although Roux's season was destroyed by injury last year and Gopperth is a new arrival.
Incidentally the second row will be a dogfight with Roux, Cullen, Mike McCarthy, Devin Toner and a few others including Tom Denton, who starts today, arm-wrestling for the prime starts.
Ireland Under-20 captain Luke McGrath partners Gopperth at half back, with the Academy's Sam Coghlan-Murray named on the left wing.
The front row is interesting with prop Jack McGrath beside hooker Aaron Dundon and tighthead Martin Moore, Jennings forming a backrow partnership with Ruddock and number eight Jordi Murphy.
Northampton arrive to Donnybrook with a strong line-up and have included their close season signings, Lions left wing George North and prop Alex Corbisiero as well as former Leeds tighthead, Gareth Denman.
James Wilson also comes in at fullback as the only other change from their win over Edinburgh last week. The rampaging England lock Courtney Lawes is the only front five forward who started in last week's match and he partners Samu Manoa in his first appearance of the season after international duty with the USA.
LEINSTER: D Hudson; D Fanning, B Macken, N Reid, S Coghlan-Murray; J Gopperth, L McGrath; J McGrath, A Dundon, M Moore, Q Roux, T Denton, R Ruddock, S Jennings (Capt), J Murphy. Replacements: S Cronin, J Tracy, J O'Connell, T Furlong, T Beirne, B Marshall, D Ryan, D Leavy, L Auva'a, E Reddan, J Cooney, C Marsh, T Daly, C O'Shea, F McFadden, A Byrne, D Kearney.
NORTHAMPTON: J Wilson; K Pisi, G Pisi, L Burrell, G North; S Myler, L Dickson; A Corbisiero, R McMillan, G Denman, C Lawes, S Manoa, C Clark, P Dowson (Capt), S Dickinson. Replacements: M Haywood, A Waller, T Mercey, C Day, T Wood, B Nutley, J Craig, CJ Van Velze, R Glynn, J Elliott, V Artemyev, T Stephenson, T Collins, P Diggin, S Olver.
Referee: G Clancy (IRFU)
