Impressive Dragons face Leinster
Mike Ross, Shaun Berne and David Kearney will all make home debuts for Leinster this weekend as the Irish province welcome the Dragons to the RDS.
Leinster, who went down 18-16 to the Scarlets last weekend, have made a couple other changes to their starting lineup for this weekend match – with Devin Toner coming in to partner Leo Cullen in second row and Sean O’Brien starting at No.8.
Lions tourists Gordon D’Arcy and Nathan Hines are also in the match 22, taking up spots on a powerful looking bench which also includes summer signing Eoin Reddan.
The Dragons, fresh off a great opening round victory, will be led this weekend by Wales lock Luke Charteris with the resurgent Gavin Thomas continuing on the side of the scrum after impressing last weekend.
The teams:
Leinster: 15 Isa Nacewa, 14 Shane Horgan, 13 Fergus McFadden, 12 Shaun Berne, 11 David Kearney, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Chris Keane, 8 Sean O’Brien, 7 Shane Jennings, 6 Kevin McLaughlin, 5 Devin Toner, 4 Leo Cullen (captain), 3 Mike Ross, 2 John Fogarty, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Jason Harris-Wright, 17 Stan Wright, 18 Nathan Hines, 19 Stephen Keogh, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Gordon D’Arcy, 22 Simon Keogh.
Dragons: 15 Martyn Thomas, 14 Aled Brew, 13 Tom Riley, 12 Ashley Smith, 11 Richard Fussell, 10 James Arlidge, 9 Wayne Evans, 8 tbc, 7 Grant Webb, 6 Gavin Thomas, 5 Luke Charteris (captain), 4 Robert Sidoli, 3 Nigel Hall, 2 Steve Jones, 1 Ali McKenzie.
Replacements: 16 Duane Goodfield, 17 Hugh Gustafson, 18 Gethin Robinson, 19 Adam Jones, 20 James Harris, 21 Jason Tovey, 22 Alex Walker.
Date: Saturday, September 12
Time: 19:00 (18:00 GMT)
Venue: RDS
Referee: Graham Knox (Scotland)
Assistant referees: David Wilkinson (Ireland), Jonathan Peak (Ireland)
TMO: Tom Redmond (Ireland)
