Leinster v Dragons

[An Tarbh]

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Leinster v Dragons</div>

Leinster's Brian O'Driscoll, Malcolm O'Kelly, Shane Horgan, Girvan Dempsey, Bernard Jackman, Jon Sexton and Cian Healy are back from Ireland duty.

The Dragons are short at flanker, Richard Parks having been ruled out for four months with a shoulder problem.

Colin Charvis (knee) is out and James Harris (knee) a long-term casualty.

Luke Charteris will be on the Wales bench against Australia, while Rhys Thomas is required by Wales all week, although he is not in the match-day 22.

Gethin Robinson replaces Thomas for the Dragons, Jamie Corsi back from injury to sit on the bench.

Rory Sidey is back from a rib injury, but lock Adam Jones (shoulder) misses out, leaving Hoani MacDonald and Andy Hall starting in the second row.

Long-term full-back injury victims Kevin Morgan and Martyn Thomas should be back in December and January respectively, while scrum-half Andy Williams is back in training.

Leinster have lost their last three Magners League games, their worst run since 2004, but they have been defeated in just one of their last 14 matches at the RDS Showground.

The Dragons have lost their last three games, but are on a two-match winning run in the league.

The Newport-Gwent region have never beaten Leinster on their home soil.

"It has to be one of the most difficult tasks in the Magners League, to play last season's champions away from home," said Dragons coach Paul Turner.

"But I'm confident that we travel following a good few weeks of training and an eagerness to build on our previous form in the Magners League.

"I'd like to welcome Corsi back to the squad after a long period of injury and am also pleased that Sidey is fit again for this weekend.

"The players have a big challenge ahead of them on Saturday and I'm looking for a huge performance in Ireland."

Leinster: G Dempsey, S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, F McFadden, S Keogh, J Sexton, C Whitaker (cpt); C Healy, B Jackman, S Wright, D Toner, M O'Kelly, R Elsom, S O'Brien, S Keogh.
Replacements: B Blaney, CJ van der Linde or J Hagan, T Horgan, C Keane, D Holwell, G Brown.

Dragons: Phil Dollman; Gareth Wyatt, Rory Sidey, Marc Stcherbina, Richard Fussell; James Arlidge, Wayne Evans; Adam Black, Tom Willis (capt), Gethin Robinson, Hoani Macdonald, Andrew Hall, Joe Bearman, Lewis Evans, Grant Webb.
Replacements: Steve Jones, Jamie Corsi, Jamie Ringer, Danny Lydiate, Ashley Smith, Shaun Connor, Rob Lewis.

Referee: Andy Macpherson (SRU)

From - BBC Sport

 

[An Tarbh]

Bit harsh against Rocky there, thought he was on his feet but there you go, 6-0 now to the Dragons after 10 minutes.

 

[An Tarbh]

If only someone could teach the British how to pronounce Keogh properly.

 

[An Tarbh]

Leinster were a tad pedestrian in their reaction to that kick coming off the post, good thing the Dragons went offside.

 

[An Tarbh]

You could see that coming a mile off and yet he still gave the pass, absolute clown.

 

[An Tarbh]

Good line from O'Brien, tacling non existent though, good build up play from Healy, decent pass to Keogh who broke the line and then the following play was relatively simple.

Good response from Leinster, 10-13 after 26 minutes

 

[SmokeyMonkey]

I completely forgot about this game because I thought we'd lose by 50 points, I'm still not ruling that out though...

 

[An Tarbh]

I know Charvis is a huge loss but both teams are far from full strength, certainly a better affair than what we were served up last night, don't think we have the cutting edge though to put a score up. Need to take advantage of this card though

 

[An Tarbh]

Has turned into a bit of a damp squib since the sin binning, needs something to get this going again.

13-13

 

[SmokeyMonkey]

There goes the game...

 

[An Tarbh]

Better effort than the first try for the Dragons defence but Jackman just too strong for them, good to see him getting a try for his efforts.

 

[An Tarbh]

would have thought that conversion was a gimme, poor effort from Sexton, not likely to do him much good with Holwell hovering over his shoulder and Cheika firmly not in his camp.

 

[An Tarbh]

good to see it catching then, let off for Leinster

 

[An Tarbh]

Satisfactory in the end but we definitely need more cutting edge with the backs, they looked sharp as individuals but it doesn't seem to be clicking collectively and while we may have enough to get out of our pool and still contend for the league I doubt whether there's enough there to really compete at the back end of the HEC. Plenty of work for Gaffney to do yet.

 

[MunsterMan]

I will be fairly ****** off if Holwell is picked ahead of Sexton. Is 2 non Irish qualified outhalves not enough for Leinster? Nice to see Healy, O'Brien and McFadden playing well though.

 

[An Tarbh]

Is he even eligible for the Heineken Cup games, I would have thought not but even still should something happen to Sexton while Nacewa and Contepomi are both out then we'd be royally screwed, here's hoping Keatley comes back to us before Munster or someone else snap him up.

Sexton did himself no favours but Cheika really needs to cop on or at least someone higher up needs to have a word and tell him to take a look at the bigger picture.

 

[MunsterMan]

Heard a rumour that Leinster register him every year but looking at the ERC site it doesn't look like it. I think Gaffney needs to move on as well based on the performances of Leinster and Ireland's backlines performances. Is this Cheika's last season at Leinster?

 

[An Tarbh]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MunsterMan @ Nov 29 2008, 08:59 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Heard a rumour that Leinster register him every year but looking at the ERC site it doesn't look like it. I think Gaffney needs to move on as well based on the performances of Leinster and Ireland's backlines performances. Is this Cheika's last season at Leinster?[/b]

as far as Gaffney is concerned I'm prepared to give him slightly more time than half a dozen games with Leinster and 3 with Ireland, anyone who gets rid of someone after only that long in the job wants their head examined.

regarding Cheika though, it may well be time for him to go, no doubt he's done a decent job with Leinster but ignoring Irish talent at the expense of imports isn't on and given that it is a consistent pattern of him could well be the final nail in his coffin unless he delivers big time this season.