European Debuts For Leinster’s Dooley & Molony
After the Captain’s Run this morning, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen has named his team to tackle Bath in round 5 of the European Chamions Cup at the RDS on Saturday (kick-off 5.30pm).
It is very much a mix of youth and experience with six players – Garry Ringrose, Luke McGrath, Peter Dooley, James Tracy, Tadhg Furlong and Ross Molony – making their first European starts. Three of them are still in the Leinster Academy and Dooley and Molony will be making their full European debuts.
Zane Kirchner, the 31-times capped Springbok comes in at full-back, with Isa Nacewa captaining Leinster from the right wing and Dave Kearney, who scored two tries last weekend against the Ospreys, on the left.
In the centre Ben Te’o and Ringrose are once again selected having performed well together in the recent interprovincial victory over Connacht, while Luke McGrath makes his first European start at scrum half in what will be his 38th cap for the province, alongside Ian Madigan.
It is a new-look front row with Dooley, Tracy and Furlong starting for the first time in the Champions Cup. Similarly to McGrath, Furlong has 39 Leinster caps to his name to date, but Saturday will be his first European start having come off the bench in six European games up until now, scoring one try against Castres Olympique last season.
Mike McCarthy is joined by Molony in the second row, while in the back row Rhys Ruddock starts at blindside flanker, with Josh van der Flier at openside. Jordi Murphy completes the pack from number 8.
With 14,500 tickets sold, tickets for the Leinster v Bath fixture are still on sale from leinsterrugby.ie and from the ticket office on matchday from 4pm.
The Leinster Rugby Student Pass is also available for this weekend’s match with student tickets as low as €;10 – all you have to do is sign up at leinsterrugbystudentpass.com to get matchday specials for all our home games!
Finally, the Leinster Rugby App Random Rewards are also available for the Bath game – make sure to download the App and check your emails to see if you were one of the lucky ones selected to be in with a chance of winning free Leinster loot…but be quick…if you get that email, redeem as soon as possible as it is first come, first served!
LEINSTER (v Bath): Zane Kirchner; Isa Nacewa (capt), Garry Ringrose, Ben Te’o, Dave Kearney; Ian Madigan, Luke McGrath; Peter Dooley, James Tracy, Tadhg Furlong, Ross Molony, Mike McCarthy, Rhys Ruddock, Josh van der Flier, Jordi Murphy.
Replacements: Sean Cronin, Jack McGrath, Martin Moore, Tom Denton, Sean O’Brien, Eoin Reddan, Jonathan Sexton, Noel Reid.