Leinster announce touring squad for England

A 37-strong Leinster touring party for the forthcoming friendly matches against Coventry (Thursday, 7.30pm) and Worcester (Saturday, 2pm) has been named.

Declan Kidney has chosen an experimental squad for the coming pre-season friendlies as Leinster bid to gain valuable match practice ahead of their first Celtic League match of the season on Sunday week against the Cardiff Blues in Donnybrook.

Ex-Connacht centre Shane Moore is one of six Clontarf players named in the squad alongside John Duffy, David McAllister, David Hewitt, Aidan Kearney and Ben Gissing.

There are also places for Blackrock College backrow forward Tom O’Donoghue and his clubmate Conor Kilroy who sealed victory in last week’s 16-13 defeat of Worcester with a last gasp penalty.

There are also places for UCD’s Simon Crawford, Kevin Croke, Dara Geraghty and Gareth Hayes.

Leo Cullen will again skipper the touring party while Ireland stars Victor Costello and Emmett Byrne should take some part in Saturday’s game against Worcester.

Leinster touring party:
Forwards:
Emmett Byrne, Peter Coyle, Gavin Hickie, David Blaney, Anthony O’Donnell (Arklow), Warren O’Dowd (Coolmine), Steve Barretto, Jason Moran (UCD), Leo Cullen (Captain), Ben Gissing, Simon Crawford (UCD), Aidan Kearney (Clontarf), Aidan McCullen, Victor Costello, Ciaran Potts, Niall Ronan, Shane Jennings, Des Dillon, Tom O’Donoghue, Kevin Croke, John Duffy
Backs:
Brian O’Riordan, Dara Geraghty (UCD), Eoin Burke (Barnhall), David McAllister, David Hewitt (Clontarf), Christian Warner, Shane Moore (Clontarf), David Quinlan, Gary Brown, Ken Kennedy (Lansdowne), Fiachra Baynes (Lansdowne), Gareth Hayes (UCD), James Norton, John McWeeney, Conor Kilroy (Blackrock)