Leinster Rugby vs Ulster Rugby
Guinness Pro14 Rainbow Cup
RDS Arena, Dublin
Friday, 14th May 2021, 20:15
TV: Live: Eir Sports
Well that was a strange game. After a terrible start, Leinster came back from 16-0 down to absolutely blow Connacht off the park. Now they face an Ulster side who lost both their opening two Rainbow Cup fixtures to Connacht and Ulster. Quite where that leaves them in the table is anyone's guess. That's because this tournament is such a ragball rovers, ramshackle effort that there isn't an official website. So there might be one large pool or two pools of six. Who knows? They announced the details of the fixtures for rounds four to six and now there's a bye week for some reason so that each team will only play two more games after tomorrow. Then there will be a final somewhere against someone, maybe against a team from South Africa, but probably not. It's a level of sport administration that John Delaney would be proud of.
For Leinster they need to keep going through the motions to at least maintain match fitness for the Lions or Ireland's summer tests. The likes of Jimmy O'Brien would love to be involved with Ireland this summer and he returns from injury to play at full back tomorrow. There are other changes to the backline with Jordan Larmour and Robbie Henshaw also coming in to start. In the pack it's nearly all change though with only Josh Murphy retaining the same jersey from last week. Cian Healy, Sean Cronin and Tadhg Furlong form a new front row and Ryan Baird and James Ryan are in the boiler room. Josh van der Flier is on the flank alongside Murphy and Caelan Doris is named at number eight.
After getting thumped 38-10 against Munster last week Dan McFarland has made 12 changes with only Jacob Stockdale, Stuart McCloskey and skipper Iain Henderson retained. Robert Baloucoune and Craig Gilroy are named on the wing while James Hume partners McCloskey in the centre. Billy Burns and David Shanahan are the half backs. Eric O'Sullivan, Rob Herring and Marty Moore form a new front row and Sam Carter partners Henderson in the second row, Matty Rea, Sean Reidy and Nick Timoney are the back row.
It's a strong Ulster team and they will hope to at least give Leinster a decent game.
| Leinster Rugby |
Ulster Rugby |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | Jimmy O'Brien | 15 | Jacob Stockdale |
| Jordan Larmour | 14 | Robert Baloucoune | |
| Garry Ringrose | 13 | James Hume | |
| Robbie Henshaw | 12 | Stuart McCloskey | |
| Dave Kearney | 11 | Craig Gilroy | |
| Ross Byrne | 10 | Billy Burns | |
| Luke McGrath (C) | 9 | David Shanahan | |
| Cian Healy | 1 | Eric O'Sullivan | |
| Sean Cronin | 2 | Rob Herring | |
| Tadhg Furlong | 3 | Marty Moor | |
| Ryan Baird | 4 | Sam Carter | |
| James Ryan | 5 | Iain Henderson | |
| Josh Murphy | 6 | Matthew Rea | |
| Josh van der Flier | 7 | Sean Reidy | |
| Caelan Doris | 8 | Nick Timoney | |
| Replacements | Ronan Kelleher | 16 | Bradley Roberts |
| Michael Milne | 17 | Callum Reid | |
| Michael Bent | 18 | Tom O'Toole | |
| Devin Toner | 19 | Alan O'Connor | |
| Jack Conan | 20 | Greg Jones | |
| Cormac Foley | 21 | Nathan Doak | |
| Rory O'Loughlin | 22 | Ian Madigan | |
| Tommy O'Brien | 23 | Rob Lyttle | |
| Not Considered
due to Injury |
Conor O'Brien, Dan Leavy, Adam Byrne, Max Deegan, Jamison Gibson-Park, Jack Dunne, Jonathan Sexton, Will Connors, Harry Byrne |
John Cooney, Marcus Rea, Kieran Treadwell, Jack McGrath, Luke Marshall, Cormac Izuchukwu, Stewart Moore, David O'Connor |
|
| Officials | Referee: Mike Adamson (SRU) | ||
by Jim O'Connor, © 2021-05-13
