Edinburgh vs Leinster Pro 14 09/02

Edinburgh Head Coach Richard Cockerill has named his team ahead of tomorrow night’s crucial Guinness PRO14 encounter with three-times European champions Leinster at Myreside (Friday 9 February, kick-off 7.35pm).

The team selection sees the return of several key internationalists as Edinburgh look to secure their eighth consecutive home victory in all competitions.

Dougie Fife gets the nod at fullback after crossing the whitewash in Edinburgh’s final European Challenge Cup pool stage fixture against Stade Francais a fortnight ago. The Scotland Sevens star is joined in the back-three by wings Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe.

After being named Man of the Match against Southern Kings in his last outing at Myreside, Scotland international Mark Bennett is named in the centre alongside Chris Dean – who makes a timely return to action following a four week lay-off due to injury.

Nathan Fowles – who last month marked his 50th appearance for the club against Stade Francais – and Jaco van der Walt form the half-back partnership.

In the front-row, Jordan Lay gets the nod at loosehead and packs down alongside Cameron Fenton and Murray McCallum, who returns to Edinburgh duty after making his Scotland debut against Wales in the NatWest 6 Nations last weekend.

The dynamic paring of Lewis Carmichael and club captain Fraser McKenzie form the second-row, whilst academy graduate Luke Crosbie returns to the starting XV to link up with Jamie Ritchie and Bill Mata in the back-row.

Edinburgh Head Coach, Richard Cockerill said: “This block of four games is going to be crucial for us. We’ve got to knock some big teams over.

“It will be a test for us mentally, as we’re missing a few senior guys with the national team, but we’ve played pretty well across the squad this year.

“Leinster present a huge challenge, because as they’ve shown throughout the season, they’re one of the best teams in the Guinness PRO14. But, we’ve worked hard again this week and are going into the game with a positive mindset around how we’re going to play.”

Secure your tickets today as we look to maintain our push for the playoffs!

Edinburgh team to face Leinster in the Guinness PRO14 at Myreside on Friday 9 February (kick-off 7.35pm) – live on BBC ALBA.




15. Dougie Fife (97)

14. Darcy Graham (5)

13. Mark Bennett (3)

12. Chris Dean (57)

11. Duhan van der Merwe (8)

10. Jaco van der Walt (8)

9. Nathan Fowles (50)



1. Jordan Lay (2)

2. Cameron Fenton (6)

3. Murray McCallum (33)

4. Fraser McKenzie (95) CAPTAIN

5. Lewis Carmichael (23)

6. Luke Crosbie (8)

7. Jamie Ritchie (44)

8. Bill Mata (28)



Replacements: 16. Neil Cochrane (66); 17. Rory Sutherland (58); 18. Matt Shields (6); 19. Magnus Bradbury (43); 20. John Hardie (25); 21. Sam Hidalgo-Clyne (100); 22. Junior Rasolea (23); 23. Glenn Bryce (30)

Strong team all things considered

I did not realise that this one is o the box as well. Plenty of rugby this weekend then!

Looks like Bradbury is being banished to the second row for this one when he comes on!

Byrce only got back from the sevens in NZ a day or so ago, he is going to be seriously let lagged.

Aye our second row resources are slightly diminished with CHH picking up an injury on his loan spell with Newcastle and Toolis & Gilco with Scotland.

Not massively confident in that pack picking up some wins for us in this 6N period - it will be good experience for a lot of youngsters at least.  Who would have guessed at the start of the season that the back row would feature together at some point! Credit for Cockerill sticking to his guns about Hardie - he said he had to earn his place back and he obviously means it. It would have been easy to bring him straight back in given the inexperience of the pack.

Fenton, McCallum, Charmichael, Ritchie, Crosbie - 5 out of the 8 of the pack are very inexperienced.

On the plus side the backline looks good and I'm glad the Dean-Bennett partnership gets a chance together - they could be pretty good IMO.

it isn't a star studded Leinster team but it doesn't need to be - there's a lot of experience in their team and I think they'll have too much for us. Strangely our bench is a lot more experienced than the starting back so if we can be in with a shout with 20 to go then you never know!

Would be keen to see Sutherland, Cochrane and McCallum play at some point together in this game, as that's a decent front row.

Also it's a massive backrow, with Crosbie at 6.4", Ritchie 6.3" and Mata at 6.5"

EWT Spoons wrote:Would be keen to see Sutherland, Cochrane and McCallum play at some point together in this game, as that's a decent front row.

Also it's a massive backrow, with Crosbie at 6.4", Ritchie 6.3" and Mata at 6.5"

It's certainly a tall backrow but I wouldn't call it massive - Crosbie and Ritchie are fairly lightweight flankers in professional rugby terms. They're both athletic but there's no real bruiser in the back row.

Aye, sorry by massive I was meaning height wise.

Leinster Rugby (caps in brackets)

15. Dave Kearney (118)
14. Fergus McFadden (164)
13. Rory O’Loughlin (33)
12. Noel Reid (93)
11. Barry Daly (18)
10. Ross Byrne (41)
9. Jamison Gibson-Park (43)
1. Peter Dooley (42)
2. Richardt Strauss (151) CAPTAIN
3. Michael Bent (99)
4. Ross Molony (55)
5. Scott Fardy (13)
6. Josh Murphy (3)
7. Will Connors (0)
8. Max Deegan (11)

Replacements

16. Bryan Byrne (22)
17. Ed Byrne (17)
18. Óisín Heffernan (2)
19. Mick Kearney (29)
20. Peadar Timmins (8)
21. Luke McGrath (88)
22. Ciarán Frawley (0)
23. Adam Byrne (31)

Decent pace in the back line for Leinster. Good to see Adam Byrne back in the match day squad.
Josh Murphy has been very good in his 3 senior caps so far, he could surprise people.
A lot of hype around Max Deegan, for a youngster he ticks all the boxes to be some player. Lets see if he meets expectations.
Ross Byrne should control the game well from outhalf, his younger brother is in the Ireland u20 squad at the moment if I'm not mistaken.
One Byrne starting and 3 Byrnes on the bench, the commentating will make us feel like the one player is all over the pitch (cross field kicks, fielding on the wing, lifting in the lineout and throwing in at the lineout, Byrne does it all).

Oh, and for anyone in Ireland, TG4 will be broadcasting the match Friday night.

EWT Spoons wrote:Aye our second row resources are slightly diminished with CHH picking up an injury on his loan spell with Newcastle and Toolis & Gilco with Scotland.

Which makes the decision to offload Bresler (who is actually a very good player) look even worse now.

Detailed updates please as I can't watch tonight!

What a try from crosbie! Pace!!!!

Sounds a hell of a first half! 3 missed kicks from VDV though + SHC is a better kicker.

Definitely watching this on iPlayer - if only our Kickers could kick some feckin points!

Great stuff.

Definitely wouldn't have predicted a bpw against Leinster!

Well done Edinburgh, fantastic win.

Will watch it tomorrow morning.

Well done luvvies!

I think they are more scared of Cockers than they are of the opposition. Its pretty much the same squad as last year but this year they are winning close games. Credit to Cockers

Well if there's one word that can describe Edinburgh this season it is character - something we've not been able to say for a long time!

Yes it wasn't full strength Leinster by any means but it was still Leinster FFS. It was a very young Edinburgh team, particularly up front with 5 of the pack not older than 23.

I saw the tries on twitter and we certainly rode our luck with some of the tries but as the old cliche goes you make your own luck. Was a big call to go for the chip at the end by VDW executed it very well and we had enough players charging through to make the most of the bouncing ball.

The challenges keep coming though - Ulster away will certainly keep the players grounded!

RDW_Scotland wrote:
Was a big call to go for the chip at the end by VDW executed it very well and we had enough players charging through to make the most of the bouncing ball.

There was a penalty advantage for a high tackle but still it was very well executed.

ulster away is a critcalgame - beating Ulster puts Edinburgh in a euro cup place automatically

Just watched the game and Edinburgh did really well to never let the game get away from them.

Leinster pretty much looked like they could score whenever they put their minds to it, but were not able to open up that two score lead, which would probably have killed the game off and that is a credit to the luvies, who just kept on coming back at them.

Very impressed with Luke Crosbie's pace for his try (especially as he looks to be quite a big guy), I imagine he might be in Townsend's thoughts soon enough.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Well if there's one word that can describe Edinburgh this season it is character - something we've not been able to say for a long time!

Yes it wasn't full strength Leinster by any means but it was still Leinster FFS. It was a very young Edinburgh team, particularly up front with 5 of the pack not older than 23.

I saw the tries on twitter and we certainly rode our luck with some of the tries but as the old cliche goes you make your own luck. Was a big call to go for the chip at the end by VDW executed it very well and we had enough players charging through to make the most of the bouncing ball.

The challenges keep coming though - Ulster away will certainly keep the players grounded!

Swings and roundabouts, we were very lucky to come away with the win the last time we played you guys. It's good to see Edinburgh rugby finally coming good with a great coach like Cockers at the helm, the league needs a strong Edinburgh team. There looked to be a decent crowd there too which is good to see.

TJ wrote:ulster away is a critcalgame - beating Ulster puts Edinburgh in a euro cup place automatically

Ulster picked up e few injuries last night, most notably to Piutau. I suspect Edinburgh would have put a similar scoreline against the Kings if they hadn't played in atrocious conditions.

Forget Euro competition, Edinburgh are aiming for 3rd place of conference B, or so they should be.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Well if there's one word that can describe Edinburgh this season it is character - something we've not been able to say for a long time!

Yes it wasn't full strength Leinster by any means but it was still Leinster FFS. It was a very young Edinburgh team, particularly up front with 5 of the pack not older than 23.

I saw the tries on twitter and we certainly rode our luck with some of the tries but as the old cliche goes you make your own luck. Was a big call to go for the chip at the end by VDW executed it very well and we had enough players charging through to make the most of the bouncing ball.

The challenges keep coming though - Ulster away will certainly keep the players grounded!

Swings and roundabouts, we were very lucky to come away with the win the last time we played you guys. It's good to see Edinburgh rugby finally coming good with a great coach like Cockers at the helm, the league needs a strong Edinburgh team. There looked to be a decent crowd there too which is good to see.

Very gracious comment there

Just watched the game and I agree the key thing is we kept ourselves in the game, which was crucial to give us that chance at the end. The tries were mainly opportunistic but the key thing was we took those opportunities. With 5 minutes to go we had a lineout on our own line yet we managed to work our way up the pitch to get the win.

It certainly wasn't an 80 minute performance but there were good aspects of play, and plenty not so good too.

I don't think our halfbacks had a good game, particularly Fowles. I don't see why he's been given the starting spot recently and he's certainly not international class - his box kicking was particularly bad. I also don't remember him ever doing match turning contributions like SHC did for our 4th try - something Sam does a lot.

Crosbie is certainly a great athlete but like Bradbury last season you need a lot more than the odd break from your flanker. He put himself about but he's got plenty development to do - he's got plenty time to do it which is good!