What's seldom is wonderful. Leinster have won back-to-back matches and reported another clean bill of health in advance of tomorrow's crunch European Cup game against Leicester at Welford Road, so Mike Ruddock yesterday took the opportunity to announce an unchanged team for the third game running - a first in his three seasons in charge.
The main areas of contention were liable to concern the full backcum-wing slots, where Girvan Dempsey was considered, and at blindside flanker, given Trevor Brennan's high-octane role as replacement in the win over Glasgow Caledonians last week. But, in the heel of the hunt, Ruddock and Matt Williams, his assistant, decided to eschew change.
"We gave everybody in the squad a good hearing and we didn't just show blind loyalty to the 15 who started against Glasgow," Ruddock said after squad training at Anglesea Road yesterday. "We looked at the back three and we looked at the blindside flank position, but our train of thought was that this is our Cup final and the players have been performing well, so we decided to start with the same team.
"In the case of Girvan and Trevor, they haven't had as much match practice lately due to a couple of injuries and that has counted against them a little. But it's a 22man game and I would be surprised if we didn't use some of our replacements at some stage."
Ruddock derives comfort from having what he believes is his strongest replacements bench - where the one change in the squad sees Leo Cullen return for Gabriel Fulcher - in his tenure as coach. He also believes that Leinster will be much less rusty than they were in last week's match, which came after the festive break.
All-conquering Munster have given Leinster inspiration, and Ruddock goes so far as to produce his team notes to demonstrate how "Munster showed us the way" to overcome the Irish province's hoodoo on English grounds in the Heineken Cup by virtue of their win over Saracens at Vicarage Road.
Ruddock says he hopes "Glasgow do us a favour" by beating Stade Francais in this weekend's other Pool A game, at Hughendon tonight. That would leave the door ajar for Leinster, as a win tomorrow would see them top Pool A and reach the quarter-finals. Alternatively, a Stade victory would leave Leinster with only one of the two best-runners-up slots to aim for - a much more complex and forlorn equation.
Interestingly, Leicester coach Dean Richards will await the result from Hughendon before finalising his team tomorrow morning, suggesting a Stade victory would encourage him to keep some of his leading lights in reserve for the crunch Allied Dunbar Premiership game against Saracens the following week.
Meanwhile, pride, and pride alone, will be the spur when Ulster entertain Bourgoin at Ravenhill in their final competitive game of the season. The abdicating holders will be seeking to avoid the ignominy of following last season's glorious success with a pointless campaign. Ulster are one of only two teams without a point (Padova are the other) but they are entitled to regard this as their best chance of a win, given Bourgoin have only won once, against tomorrow's hosts.
With Spencer Bromley and Allen Clarke still sidelined, Harry Williams has again little scope to shuffle his deck, and the only change from the team beaten 49-17 by Wasps last week's sees Gary Longwell return for Mark Blair in the second row.
London Irish last night qualified for the European Shield knockout stages after European Rugby Cup directors took disciplinary action against French club Agen.
Agen, who head the group, have been docked four points and fined £5,000 for fielding ineligible players during this season's Shield competition.
LEINSTER: P McKenna; D Hickie, B O'Driscoll, S Horgan, J McWeeney; E Farrell, S Forster; R Corrigan, S Byrne, G Halpin, R Casey, M O'Kelly, D O'Brien, V Costello, L Toland (capt). Replacements: G Dempsey, M McHugh, D Hegarty, P Coyle, P Smyth, G Fulcher, T Brennan.
ULSTER: S Mason; J Topping, R Fredericks, J Bell, T Howe; D Humprheys (capt), S Bell; J Fitzpatrick, R Weir, J Veitayaki, P Johns, G Longwell, D O'Cuinneagain, E Miller, A Ward. Replacements: J Cunningham, N Malone, M Edwards, T McWhirter, M Blair, S Best, P Shields.
The following have been selected for the Ireland under-21 squad which will train at Blackrock College on Sunday in preparation for the forthcoming Six Nations Championship. G D'Arcy (Lansdowne), F Baynes (Greystones), G Brady (Ballina), J Norton (UCD), G Hayes (UCD), S Moore (UCD), M Lawlor (Shannon), D McCombe (Kircaldy), P Wallace (UCD), K Lewis (Dublin University), D Rossi (Clontarf), G Rossi (Old Belvedere), A Dunne (Old Belvedere), S Keogh (Old Belvedere), A O'Brien (UCD), N Foxe (St Mary's College), A Flavin (London Irish), G Hickie (St Mary's), N Brady (Dungannon), N Treston (Blackrock), F Roche (Shannon), B Urquhart (DU), D O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution), A Kearney (UCD), P O'Connell (Young MUnster), T Hogan (DU), C McCarey (Ballymena), N Breslin (UCD), A Hughes (Dungannon), E Collins (Lansdowne), D Dillon (UCD), J Skurr (Otley).
