LEO TAKING NO RISKS AS ROB RETURNS PBRAEAKTAWIAEY MAKE REDS PAY
LEINSTER boss Leo Cullen has packed the heavy artillery ahead of tonight’s Guinness Pro14 clash with Scarlets in Wales.
After a close shave in Cardiff in last week’s opening game, Cullen (inset) is taking no risks against the 2017 champions, naming
Robbie Henshaw, Cian
Healy, Tadhg Furlong,
Jordan Larmour, James
Lowe, Seán Cronin,
Devin Toner and Jack Conan in the starting XV of a significantly stronger Leinster lineup.
The two sides met four times last season, with Leinster coming out on top in the Champions Cup semi-final and the Pro14 grand final, but both of those games were in Dublin – and the province have not won in Parc Y Scarlets since 2013.
On top of that, Scarlets boss Wayne Pivac has recalled some big names too, as the Welsh region seek to bounce back from last week’s last minute defeat to Ulster in Belfast. International stars Leigh Halfpenny, Johnny Mcnicholl, Hadleigh Parkes, Samson Lee and Jake Ball will start, with Dan Jones starting at No 10, after they lost two out halves to injury in Belfast.
“Against Leinster physicality is required across the board,” Pivac said.
“We saw that from last season there was a gap between ourselves and Leinster in terms of the physical stakes, the boys understand that and we’ve been working hard on that.
“It’s a game we’ve looked forward to, because they are the benchmark, both in this competition and in Europe.
“They wiped us off the park in Dublin the first time, we played better the second time but they were still deserved winners.”
Henshaw and Rory O’loughlin will start in midfield, with new signing Joe Tomane dropping to the bench after a mixed display in the narrow victory over Cardiff.
Two attacking sides will go toe to toe tonight, but defence could be key to Leinster’s hopes of victory.
“Going over and getting five points in Cardiff, if we’d been told that before the game, we would have taken it, but conceding 32 points for us is not good enough, because we pride ourselves on our defence,” said Fergus Mcfadden, who starts on the wing.
“That’s one of the pillars to our game. So that was disappointing, and there was some tough viewing for us on that front.
“We came back into it and worked hard and showed good dog to get back and win it, but really you could say that Cardiff were potentially a bit robbed as well. For a lot of the game they were dominant. So we’ll need to be a lot better.
“The Scarlets, at home, after losing against Ulster, their backs will be against the wall, so it’s not going to be any easier from a defensive perspective. We’re going to have to be an awful lot better.”
Glasgow
25 10
GLASGOW Warriors made it two wins from two as a first-half blitz saw off Munster 25-10 at Scotstoun.
The Warriors came to life after a cagey start, scoring three first-half tries through Callum Gibbins, Stuart Hogg - both finishing off after patient play - and Adam Ashe, who capitalised on a JJ Hanrahan error.
Munster responded in the second half, a Hanrahan penalty getting them on the scoreboard before substitute hooker Rhys Marshall crossed after constant pressure. However, Glasgow defended stoutly and added a Hogg penalty to their first-half tally to take them to the top of Conference A.
The scoring started when the home side showed great patience to work the ball left and then right, before Hastings found space to loop a pass to Gibbins, who finished in the corner, Horne missing the conversion.
Soon after a lineout drive set the Glasgow pack away before stopping short. But Gray, Fraser Brown and Ashe continued to batter away at the Munster line before Hastings provided the craft to match the forward’s grunt, slipping in a sumptuous kick which Hogg got to first to touch down.
The Scotland full-back dusted himself down to fire over the conversion.
Munster may not have had made Glasgow work much for field position but had proven stubborn at defending their own try line, at least until Warriors’ third try.
Hanrahan failed to collect a simple pass from his scrum-half, the ball spilling over the try line with Ashe the first to get his hands on it, Hogg adding the extras.
Munster’s pride was clearly hurt after a lacklustre first 40 minutes which saw them battered and bullied. They came charging forward, attempting to dish out some pain of their own.
The Glasgow wall was eventually breached though after another Munster wave of attack. Replacement hooker Rhys Marshall found a gap between tiring defenders to set up what might have been a tense final 10 minutes, but after Joey Carberry was successful with the conversion Hogg stepped up to knock over a penalty to give the Warriors breathing space.
Munster