Leinster Select Squad To Face Edinburgh

The Leinster squad to face Edinburgh in Sunday’s must-win Heineken Cup Pool 2 clash at the RDS (kick-off 1pm) has been named.

Leinster have named 11 Ireland internationals in the extended panel for Sunday’s showdown with Edinburgh, alongside the likes of Australian international Rocky Elsom and Argentina’s Felipe Contepomi.

Leinster coach Michael Cheika will confirm his starting team and replacements on Friday afternoon.

Looking forward to the Edinburgh encounter, Cheika said: “They’re a strong and competitive team and they’re going quite well in the Magners League.

“They have been very competitive in this pool so far, having done the double over Castres, and they gave us a very tough game up there in Round 1 where we (capitalised) on a couple of lucky breaks. 

“Edinburgh competed both times against Wasps and suffered only narrow defeats. But we’re under no illusions as to how tough a task it will be.

“Because we know them very well, having come up against them so often in the Magners League and the Heineken Cup, we’re very wary of our opponent.”

Asked about the province’s injury situation, the Australian added: “Obviously losing two of your starting tight-five is not ideal, but, in saying that, a player like Devin Toner, who wasn’t in the squad last week, was quite unlucky to miss out and will get an opportunity to come back in.

“We’re still very hopeful about Malcolm O’Kelly’s citing situation so we’re hoping that we won’t be deprived of him after tomorrow (Thursday).

“Cian Healy has been coming on in leaps and bounds, which is fairly evident to all. Edinburgh have really improved their scrum over the last few months and I think it’s going to be a big challenge for him. But he has been playing very well.

“Stan (Wright) will be fine. He hasn’t trained much this week and that’s not ideal, but we’re hoping to get him out on the paddock by Friday and he’ll get a run out then.

“CJ (Van Der Linde) suffered a dislocated toe that popped straight back in. So after the (Cardiff) game he actually felt quite good and he asked himself the question as to whether he should have come off at all.

“He felt good towards the end of the week, he scrummed, but I think he may have done himself a bit of ligament damage and that became apparent in the Wasps game.”

Almost 16,000 tickets have now been sold for Saturday’s game. Tickets are on sale here, at Spar Donnybrook and the Leinster Rugby Store and can also be purchased from Ticketmaster outlets nationwide.

LEINSTER Squad (v Edinburgh): Backs (12) – Chris Keane, Chris Whitaker, Isa Nacewa, Jonathan Sexton, Luke Fitzgerald, Simon Keogh, Felipe Contepomi, Gordon D’Arcy, Brian O’Driscoll, Shane Horgan, Girvan Dempsey, Rob Kearney.

Forwards (14) – Cian Healy, Ollie Le Roux, John Fogarty, Bernard Jackman, Stan Wright, Trevor Hogan, Devin Toner, Cameron Jowitt, Malcolm O’Kelly, Rocky Elsom, Stephen Keogh, Shane Jennings, Sean O’Brien, Jamie Heaslip.