Borders v Leinster Friday 13th Oct KO 7.30PM

Borders V Leinster

You’d think this game would be easy to call after last weeks results; Leinster beat Munster in front of a record Celtic League Crowd and the Borders got punched out 25-0 in Glasgow. But it’s not easy in the slightest – It’s HEC time next weekend and some of the team decisions have left me a little worried. No matter.

At the end of the day this should come down to class and Leinster’s backs look very classy indeed; Brian O'Driscoll, Gordon D'Arcy, Denis Hickie, and Felipe Contepomi should do enough to secure a decent win for the Lions. Chris Cussiter and McCrae are back for the Borders which is good news for them but even with Cussiter supplying the ammunition I’m not sure the Borders are good enough to capitalise. Leinster did concede 20 points last week but that came mostly from the notorious Munster pack and the boot of O’Gara but Borders haven’t really got anything they can compare although McCrae is a competent kicker.

Form: Border Reivers are struggling with form of late and have just one victory to show for their toils from their last dozen matches: 43-5 over the Dragons at Netherdale on 26 May. In addition the Reivers have lost their last eight games against Irish Provinces. Leinster lowered the colours of Munster 27-20 at Lansdowne Road on Friday and are now going for a third successive Magners League victory. The Leinstermen did lose however on their last visit to Scotland: 14-20 to Edinburgh at Murrayfield on 8 September. Leinster won both matches against the Reivers last season although the second one was by the narrowest of margins in a 69 point thriller at Netherdale on 7 April.

Borders: 15 Calum MacRae, 14 Simon Danielli, 13 Ben MacDougall, 12 Garry Law, 11 Nick De Luca, 10 Steve Jones, 9 Chris Cusiter (c), 8 Kelly Brown, 7 Scott Gray, 6 Ross Beattie, 5 Craig Hamilton, 4 Opeta Palepoi, 3 Ed Kalman, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Gavin Kerr.Replacements: 16 Steve Scott, 17 Bruce Douglas, 18 Scott Newlands, 19 John Dalziel, 20 Brendan McKerchar, 21 Andy Miller, 22 Gregor Townsend.

Leinster: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Luke Fitzgerald, 13 Brian O'Driscoll, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Denis Hickie, 10 Felipe Contepomi, 9 Guy Easterby, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Keith Gleeson, 6 Cameron Jowitt, 5 Malcolm O'Kelly, 4 Trevor Hogan, 3 Will Green, 2 Brian Blaney, 1 Reggie Corrigan.Replacements: 16 Harry Vermaas, 17 Bernard Jackman, 18 Owen Finegan, 19 Stephen Keogh, 20 Cillian Willis, 21 Christian Warner, 22 Kieran Lewis

Recommendation: Leinster could win this by a massive margin but the Borders won’t be the push over everyone thinks. Paddy power who normally are a tad bias towards the Irish teams are offering a lowly 13 to the Borders. Leinster –13 10/11 @ Paddy Power.