Irish Provinces make only a few changes ahead of this weekend’s Heineken Cup action
By Declan Whooley
Munster coach Rob Penney has not sprung any major surprises in his team to face Edinburgh on Sunday.
In the pack there are two changes with Donncha O’Callaghan coming back into the second row instead of Billy Holland while Mike Sherry starts ahead of Damien Varley at hooker.
Injury has ruled Ronan O’Gara out with the reshuffling seeing former Connacht man Ian Keatley moving into the number 10 jersey and Denis Hurley comes in at full-back.
Penney is keen not to read too much into Edinburgh’s heavy defeat against Saracens.
“If you look at that game closely you’d be remiss to disregard their display totally. Because they did some really good things,” he warned.
Munster v Edinburgh, Thomond Park, Sunday, K.O. 12.45pm,
Munster XV: Denis Hurley; Doug Howlett (c), Casey Laulala, James Downey, Simon Zebo; Ian Keatley, Conor Murray; Dave Kilcoyne, Mike Sherry, BJ Botha; Donncha O’ Callaghan, Paul O’Connell; Donncha Ryan, Sean Dougall, Peter O’Mahony.
Joe Schmidt welcomes back Gordon D’Arcy to the Leinster team as the familiar centre partnership with Brian O’Driscoll is resumed. D’Arcy will now become the most capped Leinster player of all-time with his tally set to reach 209 appearances in Wales, with Fergus McFadden switching to the wing.
Sean Cronin comes in at hooker for Richardt Strauss in an otherwise unchanged line-up for the trip to Wales.
Scarlets v Leinster, Parc Y Scarlets, Saturday, K.O. 1.35pm
Leinster XV: Ian Madigan; Fergus McFadden, Brian O’Driscoll, Gordon D’Arcy, Isa Nacewa; Jonathan Sexton, Eoin Reddan; Cian Healy, Sean Cronin, Mike Ross; Leo Cullen (c), Damian Browne; Kevin McLaughlin, Shane Jennings, Jamie Heaslip.
Dan Parks and Adrian Flavin
Eric Elwood has made just one change from the side that claimed victory in Italy last week with Adrian Flavin coming in for the injured Ethienne Reynecke.
A calf injury rules the South African hooker out as Elwood keeps faith with the rest of the side that claimed the 19-10 victory over Zebre.
Connacht v Harlequins, The Sportsground, Saturday, K.O. 6pm
Connacht XV: Robbie Henshaw; Tiernan O’Halloran, Eoin Griffin, Dave McSharry, Fetu’u Vainikolo; Dan Parks, Kieran Marmion; Denis Buckley, Adrian Flavin, Nathan White (c); Michael Swift, Mike McCarthy; John Muldoon, Willie Faloon, George Naoupu.
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