Duffy in team to face Magner League leaders..

By Sea_point
March 23 2007

After the drama of the closing stages of the Six Nations it’s back to Magners League action in Ireland and Leinster welcome back five of their Ireland players for the Magners League derby clash with Connacht at Donnybrook on Saturday.

Leinster v Connacht

 

Donnybrook
Saturday, 24 February
Kick-off: 1715 GMT

Coverage: Setanta, Newstalk 106FM, Galway Bay FM

After the drama of the closing stages of the Six Nations it’s back to Magner League action in Ireland and Leinster welcome back five of their Ireland players for the Magners League derby clash with Connacht at Donnybrook on Saturday.

Shane Horgan, Gordon D'Arcy, Denis Hickie, Girvan Dempsey and Trevor Hogan are all in the squad, but Brian O'Driscoll is ruled out with a hamstring injury. Second row Malcolm O'Kelly also returns to the panel after injury.

Jonathan Sexton, Luke Fitzgerald, Bernard Jackman, Keith Gleeson and Jamie Heaslip, all try-scorers in Leinster's 40-21 friendly win over Treviso last week, are all included in their panel.

Recent re-signing Gavin Duffy returns to the Connacht squad for the first time since coming back from Harlequins three weeks ago. Andrew Farley, John Fogarty and Conor McPhillips have been passed fit to play after overcoming injuries, which is welcome news to Connacht supporters.

They are named in the squad in place of Conor O'Loughlin, Conor Muldoon, Ryan Strudwick and Peter Durcan.

Leinster are favourites to take the Magners League title, sitting a point clear at the top with reigning champions Ulster their closest challengers.

A victory over their Irish neighbours would make it 14 straight home wins in the league for Leinster, tying a record held jointly by Ulster and the Dragons.

Connacht's recent record in Dublin makes that a likely outcome - the team from the west have lost their last five games against Leinster in the capital with the last win coming in 2002. But with summer not too far off and Ireland participatin in the Churchill Cup and also touring to Argentina, the players are aware that this game represents a great oportunity to put themselves into the frame for a place on either venture..

Leinster:

15: Girvan Dempsey; 14: Shane Horgan; 13: Kieran Lewis; 12/10: Christian Warner, Gordon D'Arcy, Felipe Contepomi, Jonathan Sexton; 11: Denis Hickie; 10: (see 12/10); 9: Chris Whitaker

1: Stanley Wright; 2: Bernard Jackman; 3: Will Green; 4: Trevor Hogan; 5: Malcolm O'Kelly; 6: Stephen Keogh; 7: Keith Gleeson; 8: Jamie Heaslip

 

Replacements:

16: Brian Blaney; 17: Reggie Corrigan / Fosi Pala'amo; 18: Owen Finegan; 19: Cameron Jowitt

20: Guy Easterby; 21: (see 12/10); 22: Luke Fitzgerald / Rob Kearney

 

Connacht:

15: Gavin Duffy; 14: Darren Yapp, 13: Daniel Riordan, 12: Gavin Williams, 11: Conor McPhillips; 10: Paul Warwick, 9: Chris Keane; 1: Brett Wilkinson, 2: Adrian Flavin, 3: Stephen Knoop; 4: David Gannon, 5: Andrew Farley (C); 6: John Muldoon, 7: Ray Ofisa, 8: Colm Rigney:

 

Replacements:

16: John Fogarty, 17: Ray Hogan, 18: Michael Swift, 19: Matt Lacey, 20: Mark McHugh, 21: John Hearty, 22: David Slemen

 

Previous ML Encounters: