Fresh from his ‘Waterboy’ role against the Dragons last weekend, Brian O’Driscoll looks set for his first game of the season against Treviso on Saturday.
By Declan Whooley
The Italians already difficult task just became even harder with the news that O’Driscoll and most likely Gordon D’Arcy are likely to return with injuries to other midfielders.
“The chances are really good that Brian will be back playing,” assistant coach Richie Murphy said in today’s Irish Independent.
“We’ve got three centres who are out at the moment with Brian, Gordon and Fergus McFadden, so you’ll find that a couple of those guys will be back in the centre.”
All the Irish internationals are available for selection bar Sean O’Brien but Joe Schmidt will only select a few with the player welfare programme in mind. Sean Cronin was the only Irish international playing for Leinster last weekend and that was due to an injury crisis at hooker.
“It’s a case of trying to find that balance of what we’ve had on the pitch in the last couple of weeks and bringing these guys back in as well,” Murphy added.
While Leinster will be heavy favourites to win the fixture, they will need no reminder of their defeat in Italy two years ago when Treviso came out on top 29-13.
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