Celtic League Previews Borders v Leinster Netherdale, 9.0Michael Cheika makes four changes to the Leinster side that beat Toulouse for tonight's late kick-off in Netherdale. Shane Horgan and Gordon D'Arcy drop to the replacements, as does Cameron Jowitt, while loosehead prop Reggie Corrigan gets a well-deserved break this weekend.
Robert Kearney is named on the right wing with Kieran Lewis partnering the Leinster and Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll in the centre. Lewis is named at inside centre despite suffering a knock in training and if he succumbs to that injury, will be replaced by Horgan.
Cheika felt that Kearney, Lewis and Niall Ronan, who is called into the backrow in place of Jowitt, needed game time. The fourth alteration sees Ronan McCormack named at loosehead.
The Australian has yet to finalise his backline replacements on the bench because of the Lewis situation.
One person who probably merits inclusion there is Gary Brown who has scored a hat-trick on the last two occasions the Irish province have played the Borders. D'Arcy is nursing a neck and shoulder injury and there seems little point in taking an unnecessary risk.
Border Reivers head coach Steve Bates has made four changes to the pack from the side that lost to Connacht a fortnight ago. Prop Tom McGee and flankers John Dalziel and Scott Gray are handed starting berths. McGee comes into the starting line-up for Paul Thomson with his frontrow colleague, Scottish international Bruce Douglas, taking over the captaincy.
Dalziel is introduced at blindside flanker, Kelly Brown switches to number eight in place of Semo Sititi, while Scott Gray is preferred to Andy Miller.
Bates enthused: "The guys that came off the bench against Connacht performed well and deserved to keep their places. We have had plenty of time to prepare ourselves for the late kick-off and are very much looking forward to the game."
Cheika has always stressed his desire to field his best team and has said he won't accept any lowering in standards. He's stressed the importance of trying to win not alone the Heineken European Cup but the Celtic League.
In that respect Leinster should be focused on the task in hand. They rattled up 62 points the last time these teams met this season and while they won't find it anything like as easy, they should he too good for the hosts.
The players will be aware that they can't afford to lose a single game on the run-in if they want to win the league and there is the added attraction that victory tonight will see Leinster lead the Celtic League in its present format for the first time.
BORDER REIVERS: S Moffat; S Danielli, B MacDougall, C MacRae, N Walker; G Townsend, B McKerchar; T McGee, S Scott, B Douglas (capt); O Palepoi, S MacLeod; J Dalziel, S Gray, K Brown. Replacements: W Kay, P Thomson, C Stewart, S Sititi, J Weston, A Miller, J King.
LEINSTER: G Dempsey; R Kearney, B O'Driscoll, K Lewis, D Hickie; F Contepomi, G Easterby; R McCormack, B Blaney, W Green; M O'Kelly, B Williams; N Ronan, K Gleeson, J Heaslip. Replacements (from): E Byrne, D Blaney, C Jowitt, E Miller, B O'Riordan, S Horgan, G D'Arcy, G Brown, J Hepworth.
Referee: N Ballard (Wales).
Recent meetings: March 2004 (CL) at Donnybrook: Leinster 35 Border Reivers 12; September 2004 (CL) at Donnybrook: Leinster 50 Border Reivers 13; January 2005 (CL) at Netherdale: Border Reivers 29 Leinster 16; January 2006 (CL) at Donnybrook: Leinster 62 Border Reivers 14.
Leading points scorers: Border Reivers - Charlie Hore 116; Leinster - Felipe Contepomi 201.
Leading try scorers: Border Reivers - Nikki Walker 5; Leinster - Contepomi 5.
Verdict: Leinster to win.
