European Cup: Gloucester v LeinsterCaptain Brian O'Driscoll, fullback Girvan Dempsey and hooker Brian Blaney come back into an extended Leinster squad in the hope of securing a home quarter-final draw in the knock-out stages of the Heineken European Cup.
Dempsey, who has been out with an injured ankle since before Christmas, and O'Driscoll, who missed Leinster's 49-10 romp against Edinburgh last week, are likely starters against Gloucester tomorrow night at Kingsholm. "Obviously with O'Driscoll and Dempsey coming back, it will be hard to leave those two out," said Leinster coach Michael Cheika yesterday.
Leinster have already secured a place in the quarter-finals but they desperately want to earn a home tie, which they didn't get last season. Cheika also has the luxury of selecting from an almost perfectly healthy squad. All of his players, with the exception of prop Ronan McCormack, are available including the 11 selected in Ireland's Six Nations squad on Tuesday.
With O'Driscoll and Dempsey (despite his long absence from competitive rugby) probably starting, Cheika must also decide whether to play Rob Kearney, who has come back into form, or, Luke Fitzgerald, who has been sidelined through injury in the last few weeks. Both players have also been included in the extended Irish panel. Kieran Lewis is in that mix too, reasonably assuming Shane Horgan's hat-trick last week makes the right wing no real point of real debate.
Cheika's tough decision making also centres on the frontrow and whether Bernard Jackman will continue to play at two instead of Brian Blaney, who had been in possession at hooker before injury sidelined him.
Leinster see the Gloucester challenge not just as a finishing off of their pool matches but as a crucial part in this year's campaign, with the home draw seen as significantly increasing their chances of advancing to the next stage of the competition.
"Our priority is just to win the match," added Cheika. "The management of where you play the quarter-final is going to be a very important part of the puzzle. I think it's always difficult to go to someone else's house and play and we had to do it last year. But we'd rather be in charge of our own destiny, so winning is imperative.
"It is always hard to predict the mentality, or to know if our own mentality is right even though we have qualified already. It's different to last week. No doubt about it. We just focus on the fact we know the chances of us progressing further - and that is our ambition - will take a big step if we have a home quarter-final."
With the Six Nations Championship about to start in just over two weeks' time, four of the Gloucester squad will be playing for places on Brian Ashton's England side that faces Scotland at Twickenham in their opening match. Forward, Alex Brown as well as backs Mike Tindall, Iain Balshaw and Peter Richards are included in the extended England panel. European Cup or not, there will be an added step in the Gloucester backline, with part of their mindset fixed on impressing the new coach.
"With the Six Nations coming up, the backline battle will be interesting because there are a lot of possible players from the Gloucester team there," observed Cheika. "I think they will also feel a little bit that they didn't perform in Dublin and I think they will try to put that right."
With Leinster's star on an impossibly steep, rising curve after last week, the task of bringing his players down may be Cheika's main issue. Leinster have never quite gained the consistency Munster have over so many seasons and, as even Munster found out against Bourgoin in Geneva, if a team has any reason to get motivated then it can and will, especially at home.
"Just because you played well last week doesn't mean you will play well this week," warned Cheika. "But I don't think we'll have a complacency problem. We are very motivated to put ourselves in a position to manage our destiny."
LEINSTER - Forwards:S Wright, R Corrigan, B Jackman, B Blaney, H Vermaas, W Green, T Hogan, M O'Kelly, O Finegan, S Keogh, C Jowitt, K Gleeson, J Heaslip. Backs: C Whitaker, G Easterby, F Contepomi, C Warner, D Hickie, L Fitzgerald, G D'Arcy, B O'Driscoll (capt), S Horgan, K Lewis, G Dempsey, R Kearney ends.
