Leinster v Cardiff Blues - Saturday 15th September 2006 KO 7.30pm

Leinster v Cardiff Blues - Saturday 15th September KO 7.30pm

Another tricky one here, Leinster aren’t at full strength and the Blues are recovering after their exertions against the Ospreys, who notably went on to a convincing win against the Borders last night. Leinster have got a couple of their Irish stars back, Hickie for example who will add something to their back line. The Blues, very importantly I think, have their 3rd choice hooker playing tonight I’ve been doing a little trawling the Fans forums and the Leinster fans are quietly confident but this was causing a little consternation on the Blues site:

"To be honest i have no idea why hes done it. My thoughts though are, Dia was in the press over here saying he wanted to win two out of the three games that opened the season. I personally think he always targeted the first game and the Os game to win and never had any intention of going for the Leinster game. If thats not the case maybe with the injuries he has written it off and decided not to risk the players to injury when they aint going to win"

This kind of seals the deal for me. Dai is resting players for the EDF cup and the HEC

Form: Leinster’s season began last weekend with a 14-20 defeat at Edinburgh, but at home Leinster have won seven in a row in all competitions at three different grounds. Cardiff are playing away to the Ospreys on Wednesday evening and have not won in Ireland since an 18-8 victory at Connacht on 22 January 2005. Both encounters between the two teams last season were won by the home side on the day.


Leinster: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Luke Fitzgerald, 13 Kieran Lewis, 12 Michael Berne, 11 Denis Hickie, 10 Felipe Contepomi (c), 9 Chris Whitaker, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Niall Ronan, 6 Stephen Keogh, 5 Owen Finegan, 4 Adam Byrnes, 3 Will Green, 2 Harry Vermaas, 1 Ronan McCormack.Replacements: 16 Reggie Corrigan, 17 Bernard Jackman, 18 Devin Toner, 19 Keith Gleeson, 20 Guy Easterby, 21 Christian Warner, 22 Gary Brown.


Cardiff Blues: 15 Ben Blair, 14 Chris Czekaj, 13 Tom Riley, 12 Marc Stcherbina, 11 Mosese Luveitasau, 10 Nick Macleod, 9 Wayne Evans, 8 Xavier Rush (c), 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Mark Lewis, 5 James Goode, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Gary Powell, 2 Gareth Williams, 1 John Yapp.Replacements: 16 Taufaao Felise, 17 Ross Johnson, 18 Robert Sidoli, 19 Scott Morgan, 20 Ed Fairhurst, 21 David Flanagan



Date: Saturday, September 16Kick-off: 19:30 (18:30 GMT)Venue: DonnybrookReferee: Andy Macpherson (Scotland)

This ref is scottish and therefore a massive homer.

Recommendation: With love to VC Bet for the minus 7 they are giving to Leinster - Love you Guy's. 10 Pts Leinster -7