IRISH STARS GET CHANCE TO IMPRESS
SEAN O’BRIEN has got his wish to play in Italy this afternoon - and he’ll captain the Leinster line-up too.
Rob Kearney, Dan Leavy and Jamison Gibson-park return from injury for the clash with Benetton at the Stadio Monigo.
And Ireland boss Joe Schmidt will be keeping a keen eye on O’brien (above), Kearney and Leavy and more ahead of the November internationals after they were named in his 42-man autumn panel.
That series gets under way next Saturday against Italy in Chicago.
But, with a smaller 23-strong squad making the trip to the
States on
Monday, it will be interesting to see if any of the above will make the trip or head to Carton House to prepare for the Argentina game the following week.
Out-half Ross Byrne (inset), in particular, will want a big game to provide a timely reminder to Schmidt that he deserves a debut cap in the coming weeks.
“Everyone wants to go to Benetton this weekend after what happened last year,” said O’brien, referring to Treviso’s win at the RDS in April.
“The other thing about it is the international lads, whoever is starting in the Argentina week, won’t be starting against Italy so they’ll hardly want to go three weeks without a game. I definitely want to keep playing.”
Leo Cullen has granted that wish and obviously O’brien needs more game time as he continues his return from the shoulder injury that had kept him out since April until recently.
“We’re coming up against a very tough side again who played very well against us last year and have to be at our best over there,” said O’brien.
“They’re a big pack, have a strong set piece and good strike runners in the backline. They’ve improved and were very good last year.
“We’re all looking forward to getting back out there. We have to make sure we’re in the right place mentally after the disappointment of last weekend.
“We have to put the pressure on them rather than on ourselves which was the case a bit in Toulouse.”
On the bench, Academy player Conor O’brien is due to make his first senior appearance of the season. The Westmeath man has three caps to his name in the Guinness PRO14 from last season.
Prop Jack Mcgrath is also expecting a difficult assignment.
“The way their clubs are going as well, the way they’re being coached, they’re getting the depth of players now that they needed whereas before they just had the guaranteed 15 players,” he said.
“You knew that by the end of the Six Nations those guys had played a lot and they were just fatigued. Now they have guys can step in at that level and they’re much more dangerous than in the past.”
LEINSTER: R Kearney, A Byrne, R O’loughlin, R Henshaw, J Tomane, R Byrne, J Gibson-park; J Mcgrath, J Tracy, T Furlong, S Fardy, J Ryan, S O’brien, D Leavy, M Deegan.