Leinster Rugby vs Edinburgh 11/10

Leinster Rugby vs Edinburgh
Comp - Pro14
Location - RDS Arena
KO - 19.35
TV - Prem Sports & Eir Sport

Form -
Leinster are two from two, with a fairly impressive looking defeat of Ospreys last time out.
Edinburgh are also two from two, with a comfortable win against Zebre in the first game, and a far closer game against Cardiff.

Everything suggests Leinster should win this game, because...Leinster, but Edinburgh have looked good so far and hopefully it should be a close game.

Maybe there will be a lot of rain and organisers will just gift the game to the Irish. Eh? Eh? (etc)

Edinburgh Rugby make two changes to their starting XV for the trip to face reigning league champions Leinster at the RDS Arena in the Guinness PRO14 this Friday night (11 October, kick-off 7.35pm) – live on Premier Sports

Forward pairing Jamie Hodgson and Mesulame Kunavula – who makes his first start since joining the club in the summer – are named at lock and blindside flanker respectively as Fraser McKenzie and Lewis Carmichael drop out of the squad through injury.

George Taylor – who impressed as a late call-up in last weekend’s 11-19 win over Cardiff Blues - is once again selected in midfield as Scotland international centre Matt Scott continues to recover from injury.


Ahead of the fixture, Head Coach Richard Cockerill, said: “It’s another big challenge for us. Leinster have got some real experience in key areas and in the spine of that team. If you let them get on the front foot and control the tempo of the game they’re going to cause problems.

“Whenever you go to Dublin, you’re always going to face a huge test. They have a huge amount of experience across that team and they can win games with 15 guys missing at the Rugby World Cup.

"We know that they’ll be dangerous and we know that everyone will expect them to win, but people probably thought that last week when we travelled to Cardiff. We’ll go to Leinster with optimism and we’ll go there to win."

An unchanged back-three sees Damien Hoyland named at fullback as wingers Duhan van der Merwe and Jamie Farndale continue on the flanks.

Scotland international Mark Bennett – who has four tries in two appearances so far this season – is partnered by the aforementioned Taylor in midfield, while scrum-half Nic Groom – who skippers the side – and Jaco van der Walt once again link-up at half-back.

Summer recruit Mike Willemse continues at hooker and packs down alongside compatriot Pierre Schoeman and Italian international prop Pietro Ceccarelli in the front row. Hodgson – who makes his first start since November 2018 – is paired with Murray Douglas in the second-row.

The inclusion of former Fijian 7s star Kunavula at blindside flanker is the only alteration to an otherwise unchanged back-row as Luke Crosbie and Nick Haining continue at openside flanker and No.8 respectively.

Elsewhere, summer signing Sam Thomson is named among the replacements and if involved will make his competitive debut for the club.



Edinburgh Rugby team to face Leinster at the RDS Arena in the Guinness PRO14
Friday 11 October (kick-off 7.35pm) - live on Premier Sports


15. Damien Hoyland (65)



14. Jamie Farndale (4)

13. Mark Bennett (22)

12. George Taylor (6)

11. Duhan van der Merwe (43)



10. Jaco van der Walt (41)

9. Nic Groom (2) CAPTAIN



1. Pierre Schoeman (25)

2. Mike Willemse (2)

3. Pietro Ceccarelli (12)

4. Jamie Hodgson (4)

5. Murray Douglas (3)

6. Mesulame Kunavula (2)

7. Luke Crosbie (28)

8. Nick Haining (2)



Replacements: 16. Cameron Fenton (13) 17. Jamie Bhatti (2) 18. Murray McCallum (51) 19. Sam Thomson* 20. Ally Miller (10) 21. Charlie Shiel (8) 22. Simon Hickey (20) 23. James Johnstone (41)



Unavailable due to injury: Fraser McKenzie, Matt Scott, Dave Cherry, Darryl Marfo, Ruan Steenkamp, Jack Blain, Hamish Watson, Chris Dean, Lewis Carmichael

Unavailable due to international selection: W.P Nel, Simon Berghan, Stuart McInally, Grant Gilchrist, Ben Toolis, Jamie Ritchie, Magnus Bradbury, John Barclay, Blair Kinghorn, Darcy Graham, Henry Pyrgos, Viliame Mata

Bit of a worry Scott is still injured just as he was looking back to his best - hopefully it's not too bad and he's back soon.

Leinster Rugby (caps in brackets):

15. Hugo Keenan (7)
14. Dave Kearney (137)
13. Rory O’Loughlin (63)
12. Joe Tomane (15)
11. James Lowe (31)
10. Ross Byrne (73)
9. Jamison Gibson-Park (72)
1. Peter Dooley (63)
2. Rónan Kelleher (4)
3. Michael Bent (126)
4. Devin Toner (233)
5. Scott Fardy (45) CAPTAIN
6. Max Deegan (48)
7. Scott Penny (6)
8. Caelan Doris (18)

16. James Tracy (94)
17. Michael Milne (2)
18. Vakh Abdaladze (9)
19. Ross Molony (84)
20. Josh Murphy (23)
21. Rowan Osborne (1)
22. Harry Byrne (2)
23. Jimmy O’Brien (8)

There's a sniff of a chance for Edinburgh here but that's a pretty experienced Leinster pack up against a very new Edinburgh pack. Luke Crosbie being our most capped player says it all!

There's never really a good time to play Leinster but this is probably as good a time as any. Just a shame we're missing McKenzie and Scott to give us more experience.

There will be at least 2 cross field kicks from Byrne to DK.

Hugo needs to relax into the fullback roll, there were a number of times against ospreys that he had found the gap, but was planning to pass the ball along the line anyway and actually slowed down to let the defense adjust. The lad needs to be more ruthless/selfish.

O'Loughlin at 13 is very handy at this level of competition (usually deceptively quicker than the defense expects).

JGP was very poor with his passing last week and needs to improve markedly.

Byrne has his younger brother as outhalf replacement on the bench. The younger brother could be the better prospect!

Front row is serviceable.

Our lock pairing could start a HC semi-final so very decent in Toner and Fardy.

Backrow is typical Leinster, Penny is great on the ground and Deegan and Doris have very strong all round games.

Leinster replacement props are clones of Healy being trialed in the wild (they were put into a gym with one of Cian Healys jerseys and told not to come out until they fit it).

Overall a decent lineup, should make it a good contest.

Apparently the Irish met office are tracking a deep depression in the altantic heading towards Dublin. If it is upgraded to a "Storm" it's going to be called Storm NaeLuckChuck and Edinburgh will be deducted 11 points for giggles.

I think the Edinburgh pack might be a little green to come out on top in this one, but our backline has already shown itself to be dangerous and last weekend we certainly showed guts in defence.

Should be a great contest.

Ok, not such a great contest. Leinster have been awesome since we dared to take the lead! I think that second yellow card really fired them up.

Not much happening for Edinburgh. Some nice touches and bursts from individuals but we've been outclassed.

Aye we're getting pumped. Nice try from Shiel there - great to see him getting gametime.

Where is Eroni Sau for you guys? I don't see his name on the injured list.

He only just arrived a couple of weeks ago due to family visa issues.

RDW wrote:He only just arrived a couple of weeks ago due to family visa issues.

Ah, hopefully we get to see him in action soon then.

I thought Tomane deserved the yellow for the slide.  That incident is a pet hate of mine and it happens too often every season.

Thought the ref was quick on the yellow card to Bent (not that I particularly like Bent anyway).  The first two scrums went down with the Edinburgh TH going to his knees (first was reset, second was penalty to Edinburgh).  There were two where Leinster infringed with poor shape and the yellow came out quick.

Edinburgh came off the final scrum in that sequence to score and Tomane got the yellow.  Deservedly so, but the two quick yellows and the churpy edinburgh scrum half hopping around the referee asking for the yellow card really irked the crowd who weren't too in to the game up till then.  Edinburgh had been quietly going about the job of getting in position to get a great away win on the road at a tricky venue.  Tomane was due the yellow anyway, TMO was always going to pull it up, but the scrumhalf had to hop around churping for it and bounced his way back the halfway line proud as punch with the card..

But all that happening within a couple of minutes meant the ref and assistants got it in the ear from the entire crowd for the rest of the game.  You're meant to silence the crowd, don't give them anything to rise up about.  Leinster was sleep walking their way through the game up to that point.  Leinster then won the nudge on two scrums with 7 packing down while Bent was off.  They were up for the game.  Wish there was a meme of that scrum half chirping away with a message saying "he didn't realise it, but he had just f'~ked it all up".

Everything after the yellow cards were issued went great for Leinster, proper attitude, focus, pace, vision, agression. Before that, into a tricky wind Byrne had decided to take on 3 unwise kicks at goal missing all 3. Leinster were there for the taking, someone f@~ked up.