On the eve of the Guinness-sponsored inter provincial championship and before the European Cup transfer deadline at the end of the week, Leinster have recruited their third overseas player. The 28-year-old wing forward cum number eight Tony Goldfinch, from the Hastings club in Hawke's Bay, arrived in Dublin yesterday and though selected on the A side to meet their Ulster counterparts at Donnybrook on Saturday, he is on standby for the senior encounter should Stephen Rooney's calf injury rule him out.
Goldfinch comes highly recommended to the Leinster management, although he has not represented Hawke's Bay. He has been allotted to Blackrock College, who were next in line in the lottery for Leinster's overseas recruits after Clontarf and Lansdowne were allotted Mervyn Meredith and Aaron Freeman. Freeman has been selected in the second row while Meredith is on the replacements for the A team.
Aside from Freeman, Leinster give interprovincial debuts to Declan O'Brien and Trevor Brennan in a mobile-looking pack. O'Brien, the 6ft 5ins, 161/2 st former Wexford Gaelic footballer, has been converted to a lock by Leinster after just one season in the game as a number six with DLSP.
O'Brien, along with Victor Costello and Brennan - the strong-running St Mary's flanker recruited from Bective - have been the successes of Leinster's English mini-tour.
All told, there are three changes from the side which beat Moseley last weekend, with Henry Hurley coming into the front row and New Zealander and captain Kurt McQuilkin and out-half Richard Governey returning from injury.
It is a strong-looking Leinster selection, given the loss through a variety of reasons of Paul Wallace, Neil Francis, Malcolm O'Kelly, Mark McDermott and the retired Chris Pim. According to manager Jim Glennon the team "reflects the style of game we intend to play and the hard work that has been done over the last two months - as is the case with all the provinces."
Aside from Goldfinch, another unusual selection on the Leinster A side is that of former Shannon lock Rory Sheriff. Now based in Dublin, and currently unattached, it is believed that Terenure are favoured to sign him - a broad hint in that direction being Terenure's withdrawal from the lottery for Freeman.
Amid all of this, it is a little disappointing that the immensely promising flanker Leo Cullen is merely included on the A team's replacements' bench, and that a 19-year-old Irish player has lost out to an unseen 28-year-old overseas player - no disrespect to the latter.
As for Ulster, they have made three changes in personnel and one positional switch to the starting line-up that played Richmond last Saturday, all of them in the back line.
Centre Stanley McDowell, originally selected for that game before crying off with a shoulder injury, and winger Graham McCluskey, who was unavailable because of injury, come into the side. Jan Cunningham switches from full back to right wing in accommodating the inclusion of Robin Morrow.
The gradual exodus of such international backs as David Humphreys, Mark McCall and Jonathan Bell has been compounded by the absence through injury of Maurice Field and James Topping, both of whom are recuperating from "minor operations".
Ulster's cover at scrum-half has also been stretched because of a freak training accident to Andy Matchett, who broke a finger while working with his forwards at a scrummaging machine, and Neil Doak, who has a broken foot.
The pack, without the English-based quintet of Alan Clarke, Paddy Johns, Jeremy Davidson, Kieron Dawson and David Erskine, remains the same.
Meanwhile, Simon Geoghegan yesterday underwent another operation to remove more bone from the arthritic big toe which sidelined for practically all of last season.
Terenure College have recorded their second win in the third game of a six-match tour in South Africa by beating Walmeres RFC in Cape Town 32-19. Teams And Fixtures
Leinster: C Clarke (Terenure); D Hickie (St Mary's), M Ridge (Old Belvedere), K McQuilkin (Lansdowne), capt, D O'Mahony (Moseley); R Governey (Lansdowne), A Rol- land (Wanderers); H Hurley (Old Wesley), S Byrne (Blackrock), A McKeen (Lansdowne), D O'Brien (DLSP), A Freeman (Lansdowne), T Brennan (St Mary's), V Costello (St Mary's), S Rooney (Lansdowne). Replacements - D O'Mahony (Lansdowne), A McGowan (Blackrock), G Dempsey (Terenure), R Corrigan (Greystones), J Blaney (Terenure), S Jameson (St Mary's), C McEntee (Lansdowne).
Leinster A: K Nowlan (St Mary's); M Dillon (Lansdowne), G Dempsey (Terenure), G Gannon, J McWeeney (both St Mary's); A McGowan (Blackrock), D O'Mahony (Lansdowne); R Corrigan (Greystones), J Blaney (Terenure), P Coyle, S Jameson (both St Mary's), R Sheriff (unattached), J Shine (St Mary's), C McEntee (Lansdowne), T Goldfinch (Blackrock). Replacements - D Hegarty (Terenure), R Ormond (St Mary's), D Coleman (Terenure), E Byrne (St Mary's), P Smyth (Blackrock), M Meredith (Clontarf), L Cullen (Blackrock).
Ulster: R Morrow (Dungannon); J Cunningham, S Coulter, S McDowell (all Ballymena), G McCluskey; S Laing (both Portadown), S Bell (Dungannon); R Mackey (Malone), S Ritchie (Ballymena), G Leslie (Dungannon), T McWhirter, G Longwell (both Ballymena), S Duncan (Malone), S McKinty (Bangor), capt, A Ward (Ballynahinch).
Saturday Interprovincial Championship (2.30): Leinster v Ulster, Donnybrook; Connacht v Munster, the Sportsground.
Interprovincial A Championship (4.0): Leinster v Ulster, Donnybrook; Connacht v Munster, the Sportsground.
Leinster Senior Club: St Mary's v Lansdowne, Templeville Road (3.0).
