Leinster v Dragons (Friday @ RDS)

Following on from last week's bonus point victory away to Zebre, Coach Matt O'Connor has mixed things up with a number of additional players now at his disposal having been cleared to play by the Irish set up.

Fergus McFadden, Martin Moore, Sean Cronin and Jack McGrath who all saw game time against Wales in the 6 Nations start, while Rhys Ruddock who was part of the extended match day squad that day, also comes in to the fold.

Leinster, who won the original fixture in Rodney Parade back in November 23 v 19, make seven changes in total to the 15 that faced the Italians last weekend.

Zane Kirchner who scored his second try in Leinster colours last weekend continues at full back. Darragh Fanning switches to the left wing to accommodate McFadden who has now fully recovered from his hand injury and acquitted himself so well against Scotland and Wales.

Brendan Macken and Noel Reid are retained in the centre but there is a new pair at half back with Eoin Reddan and Ian Madigan taking over from John Cooney and Jimmy Gopperth. Gopperth is named amongst the replacements.

Captain Leo Cullen and Mike McCarthy are once again selected in the second row but there is a completely new front row with the aforementioned McGrath, Cronin and Moore selected to start having finished out the game so strongly against the Welsh.

In the back row there is one change with Rhys Ruddock returning in a straight swap with Kevin McLaughlin. Shane Jennings is again selected at 7 with Jordi Murphy continuing at the back of the scrum.


LEINSTER:


15: Zane Kirchner
14: Fergus McFadden
13: Brendan Macken
12: Noel Reid
11: Darragh Fanning
10: Ian Madigan
9: Eoin Reddan
1: Jack McGrath
2: Sean Cronin
3: Martin Moore
4: Leo Cullen CAPTAIN
5: Mike McCarthy
6: Rhys Ruddock
7: Shane Jennings
8: Jordi Murphy

REPLACEMENTS:


16: Aaron Dundon
17: Michael Bent
18: Tadhg Furlong
19: Tom Denton
20: Dominic Ryan
21: Isaac Boss
22: Jimmy Gopperth
23: Darren Hudson

REFEREE: Marius Mitrea (FIR), ASSISTANT REFEREES: Mark Patton, Barrie O'Connell (both IRFU) CITING COMMISSIONER: John Cole (IRFU) TMO: Kevin Beggs (IRFU)


There is more bad weather due to hit on Friday, so this could be a cold wet attritional game.

Dragons Side


Hallam Amos,
Matthew Pewtner,
Pat Leach,
Ashley Smith,
Will Harries,
Jason Tovey,
Richie Rees;

Owen Evans,
T. Rhys Thomas,
Nathan Buck,
Cory Hill,
Rob Sidoli (c),
Lewis Evans,
Nic Cudd,
Netani Talei.

Replacements

Sam Parry, Aaron Coundley, Francisco Chaparro, Matthew Screech, Jevon Groves, Wayne Evans, Steffan Jones, Ross Wardle.

How come Strauss hasn't been involved since the wolfhounds game? Did he take a knock? Or are they just giving him some extra time?

Very strong pack, great to see the depth we have there now

Seem to get that ref a fair bit when we play one of the provinces. Not overly a fan. Madigan should get a few shots at goal.

Not too bad a side from us. Still expect Leinster to be pretty comfortable.

Valentines Day Massacre

Do we know if Boss is ok? That was a very dirty hit.

Hmmm, not much of a massacre after all.  Dragons came to fight and play and even though the final scoreline doesn't suggest so, they were effective and dangerous with it.  They didn't come to just implode.

In the end I felt quite sad for their guys.  I couldn't wish a win on them because too much is riding on it momentum-wise for Leinster, but I did find myself almost wishing they'd score again.

Leinster I feel were being let down by the Schmidt factor.  And all provinces will want to control the impulses of players so eager to get into his mind.  I just feel one or two players (we won't name names) were trying too hard and threatening Leinster's composure in the process.  I'd expect Schmidt to revise his advice and tell players he wants them not to be going off on individual tour-de-forces but to work as part of a Provincial team, follow team orders and he'll decide has he seen enough to impress him.

I just think there was a period there in the game when Schmidt fever lost the team shape and it took some solid heads and Heaslip running on with O'Connor orders to soldify things again.

A bonus point would have been useful for us, but the scoreboard doesn't lie (although it sometimes exaggerates!).

I've lost count of the number of times we've been ahead away from home only to lose it in the last quarter. Sometimes spectacularly. Closing out games is a real problem for us. We seem to be able to score points ok, but leak points like a sieve.

If you had a scrum you probably would have won that tbh.

In saying that, that pack that we had out last night would challenge most packs around Europe. The depth we have now is incredible. Even Furlong and Bent came on and did a job. Now we just need to concentrate on bringing backs through.

Half a scrum would be better than no scrum at all which is what we had last night.

If my maths is correct, 15 against 15 the Dragons won the game 19 to 3. But 15 against 14 they lost 28 to 0 with Leinster scoring all 4 tries against 14 men.

The question I have for Lyn Jones and all Dragons supporters is what is being done about the scrum. Lyn has brought in Rees and Tovey at half back, next season they will be joined by Byrne and Brew and possibly Henson and Matthew Morgan, but to be honest the Dragons already look pretty good behind the scrum with lots of exciting youngsters coming through. But none of these players are going to cause the Dragons to win anything whilst their scrum has only two gears both reverse!

We signed Stankovich who is a great scrummager but we need a lot more eg 2 tightheads and a lock

It's easy to look at our signings and think we aren't trying to address our problems, but we are. Tight heads are hard to come by, so we need to ensure what we can afford to sign is of suitable quality. That's why signings like Byrne etc are easy as you can snap them up knowing what they bring. We've been burned a little before with prop signings like Tim Ryan, Ben Castle and Ali McKenzie so we have to get the next signing(s) right. I know for example we have approached Rhodri Jones with no joy.

I would imagine if we have signed Rhodri Jones it would be announced after the six nations

Rhodri Jones was a very promising loose head but since being converted to tight head unfortunately can't scrumage, which for a prop is a bit of a problem.

He may be second choice tight head for Wales at present (not sure why) but he is probably 4th choice at the Scarlets behind Lee, Adrianse and Manu! So he is unlikely to solve the problems in the Dragons scrum.

Seagultaf wrote:Rhodri Jones was a very promising loose head but since being converted to tight head unfortunately can't scrumage, which for a prop is a bit of a problem.

He may be second choice tight head for Wales at present (not sure why) but he is probably 4th choice at the Scarlets behind Lee, Adrianse and Manu! So he is unlikely to solve the problems in the Dragons scrum.

Yes but a least he is good around the park and has the potential to excel. He isn't a good scrummager yet and isn't international quality yet but he is probably better then they already have. Personally I think it would be a good move. They can't to much worse with what they already have aye.