Rugby:Tomorrow's Heineken Cup quarter-final against Leicester will come too soon for Shane Jennings who misses out against his former club. Despite being declared available for selection, the Leinster back row does not make the match day 23.
Jennings has not played since suffering a knee injury almost two months ago but returned to full training this week and was said to be “fit for selection” for selection by Leinster coach Joe Schmidt.
But Schmidt has opted to stick with a back row of Kevin McLaughlin, Sean O’Brien and Jamie Heaslip for the visit of the English champions to the Aviva Stadium. McLaughlin’s inclusion should help counter the line-out presence posed by Tom Croft.
Having rattled Ben Youngs so effectively against England last month, Eoin Reddan is restored to the number nine berth ahead of Isaac Boss. Boss had started against Munster last weekend but reverts to the bench.
Unsurprisingly, Schmidt has described tomorrow’s contest as the “biggest game of the season” and is fully aware of the challenges his side face as they seek a place in the last four.
“We are going to have to come up with the big performance to match the occasion,” he explained. "Sure, we are the home side but Leicester are a team who always travel well and we are going to have to be at the top of our game and ready for the battle.
"Leicester were in the same Heineken Cup group as Clermont last season and we had two great battles with them and found out then that they are a formidable team home and away. On top of that they are regularly in the knock-out stages and they know just what they need to do in these situations."
Leicester head to Dublin just three weeks after England were overpowered by an Ireland side that destroyed their Six Nations Grand Slam hopes. England still flew back with the Six Nations trophy, yet it proved a sobering experience against an Ireland team featuring eight of the Leinster starting XV on duty this weekend.
England quintet Loius Deacon, prop Dan Cole, flanker Tom Croft and Tigers half-backs Toby Flood and Youngs are all back for more too, and lock Deacon said: “We need to start well.
“We need to control the ball, look after it and not give it away. If you go back to that England game, we didn’t have the ball for 30 minutes and, when we did, we gave it straight back. That puts pressure on you.
“We’ve got to look after those areas of the game, control the set-piece and get into the game early. This quarter-final is our biggest game of the season so far, and we are going
to have to come up with the big performance to match the occasion.”
Leicester make two changes from the side that beat Harlequins last Saturday, with banned prop Marcos Ayerza replaced by Boris Stankovich and Deacon in for Ed Slater. Number eight Jordan Crane, meanwhile, is again preferred to Thomas Waldrom.
Leinster:I Nacewa; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, G D'Arcy, L Fitzgerald; J Sexton, E Reddan; C Healy, R Strauss, M Ross, L Cullen. [capt], N Hines, K McLaughlin, S O'Brien, J Heaslip. Replacements:J Harris-Wright, H Van Der Merwe, S Wright, D Toner, D Ryan, I Boss, I Madigan, F McFadden.
Leicester:S Hamilton; H Agulla, M Tuilagi, A Allen, A Tuilagi; T Flood, B Youngs; B Stankovich, G Chuter, D Cole, L Deacon, S Mafi, T Croft, C Newby [capt], J Crane.
Replacements:R Hawkins, J White, M Castrogiovanni, E Slater, T Waldrom, J Grindal, J Staunton, M Smith.
Referee:Nigel Owens (Wales)
