Leinster took 31 players on the last mini-tour to SA; there was a 19/12 split between forwards and backs:
https://www.leinsterrugby.ie/rhys-ruddo ... th-africa/
These matches [@ Lions on 15/04, @ Bulls on 22/04] are dead rubbers for us. We have already clinched top seed in the league play-offs. Last season, we had to get something from the equivalent matches in SA, and then our last fixture was the rearranged Munster fixture from Christmas ... I had misremembered that.
It's a different scenario this time out. The squad have worked incredibly hard to make these matches dead rubbers, to make sure that we don't have to send a strong team to another continent in the middle of [hopefully] a series of European Cup knock-out matches in order to get ourselves home advantage in the league knockouts. For us, the regular season is over. It's all finals rugby from now on.
We could have to play seven knock-out games if we get to the finals of both competitions. That's a lot. But if we do play seven, they'll all be in Dublin. So why would we send anybody we want to be playing finals rugby in Dublin to play meaningless games in South Africa halfway through?
From my perspective, we should be severely limiting risk in terms of exposing players to injury, travel, illness etc. What do we get if we win both games? Will we finish first-er? More home advantage than we already have? Nope. The only senior players I'd bring are those who have missed a lot of time through injury this season and who, as a result, it would benefit the squad more if they got gametime rather than a break.
Front Row [10]
LH:
Ed Byrne ©, Jack Boyle [A], Marcus Hanan [A]
H:
Tadhg McElroy, Lee Barron [A],
Gus McCarthy [∫∆]
TH:
Tom Clarkson, Temi Lasisi [A], Rory McGuire [A],
Paddy McCarthy [∫∆]
Second Row [3]
Brian Deeny, Alex Soroka [A],
Conor O'Tighearnaigh [∫∆]
Backrow [5]
Will Connors, Sean O'Brien [A], James Culhane [A], Diarmuid Mangan [A]
Liam Molony [∫∆]
Halfbacks [4]
SH: Ben Murphy [A],
Fintan Gunne [∫∆]
OH: Charlie Tector [A], Sam Prendergast [A]
Centres [3]
Tommy O'Brien, Ben Brownlee [A],
Hugh Cooney [∫∆]
Back Three [4]
Rob Russell [A], Chris Cosgrave [A], Aitzol Arenzana-King [A], Max O'Reilly [A]
Forwards [1-8]:
Byrne* [c],
McElroy*,
Clarkson*,
Deeny*, Soroka, O'Brien,
Connors*, Culhane;
Backs [9-15]: B. Murphy,
Prendergast, Arenzana-King, Brownlee,
T. O'Brien*, Russell, Cosgrave;
Subs [16-23]: Boyle, Barron, McGuire,
O'Tighearnaigh, Mangan,
Gunne, Tector, O'Reilly.