BoD leads Leinster to Ravenhill
Brian O’Driscoll will captain Leinster this weekend as they make the trip to Ravenhill to take on the high-flying Ulster in Saturday’s Interprovincial clash.
There’s an all-new half-back pairing for the log leaders with Chris Keane starting alongside Shaun Berne, while Girvan Dempsey starts on the right wing with Rob Kearney and Isa Nacewa continuing at fullback and left wing respectively.
In the pack, Ronan McCormack lines up alongside Bernard Jackman and Mike Ross in the front row, with Devin Toner partnering Nathan Hines. The back-row remains unchanged.
CJ van der Linde is named amongst a strong replacements panel which includes the likes of Malcolm O’Kelly, Jonathan Sexton and Luke Fitzgerald.
Ulster Head Coach Brian McLaughlin meanwhile has made four changes to the pack.
Nigel Brady starts as hooker, while Andy Kyriacou is benched. Dan Tuohy and Ed O’Donoghue swap, Dan comes off the bench to start at No. 4, Ed is in the No. 18 shirt. Tamaiti Houra replaces an injured Stephen Ferris as blind side flank. Chris Henry takes-up the roll of skipper, starting at No. 8, while Robbie Diack moves to start as a replacement.
Ian Whitten pairs up with Darren Cave in the centre, in-place of Paddy Wallace who is rested under the IRFU World Cup programme.
On the eve of the biggest inter-pro battle to date, Ulster Head Coach Brian McLaughlin commented: “Tomorrow night we have to match the level of performance we produced against Ospreys and Bath. We have to produce this week in week out. Not as a one-off, or occasionally, but consistently.
“The squad have trained hard this week, to ensure that we’re at our optimum level on Saturday. If we’re at our optimum level then I think we’ll be okay.
“The players were deeply disappointed by the performance last week. We all saw it as an opportunity and now we all know, that on the day we didn’t achieve. We fell below our 10 out of 10.
“We know we have an opportunity to redeem ourselves this weekend and the fixture couldn’t be better. The Heineken Cup winners; at Ravenhill.
“The next two league games are massive; Leinster at Ravenhill then Munster at Thomond Park. This is our chance to show how far we’ve come as a team.”
The teams:
Ulster: 15 Clinton Schifcofske, 14 Timoci Nagusa, 13 Darren Cave, 12 Ian Whitten, 11 Andrew Trimble, 10 Ian Humphreys, 9 Isaac Boss, 8 Chris Henry (c), 7 Willie Faloon, 6 Tamaiti Horua, 5 Ryan Caldwell, 4 Dan Tuohy, 3 Brendon Botha, 2 Nigel Brady, 1 Tom Court.
Replacements: 16 Andy Kyriacou, 17 Bryan Young, 18 Ed O’Donoghue, 19 Robbie Diack, 20 Paul Marshall, 21 Niall O’Connor, 22 Simon Danielli.
Leinster: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Girvan Dempsey, 13 Brian O’Driscoll (c), 12 Gordon D’Arcy, 11 Isa Nacewa, 10 Shaun Berne, 9 Chris Keane, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Sean O’Brien, 6 Kevin McLaughlin, 5 Nathan Hines, 4 Devin Toner, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Bernard Jackman, 1 Ronan McCormack
Replacements: 16 John Fogarty, 17 CJ van der Linde, 18 Malcolm O’Kelly, 19 Stephen Keogh, 20 Simon Keogh, 21 Jonathan Sexton, 22 Luke Fitzgerald.
Referee: Andrew Small (England)
Assistant referees: John Lacey (Ireland), Jude Quinn (Ireland)
TMO: John Carvill (Ireland)
