Leinster @ Glasgow, 20 Sep 2013

[hugonaut]

First, the obvious game: this is going to be a very tough fixture.

Glasgow have one of the deepest and most talented squads in the league – 45 senior players in their squad, including 24 Scottish internationals and three Lions in Hogg, Maitland and Cussiter. They've also got a tranche of quality foreigners in Fijian internationals Niko Matawalu and Jerry Yanuyanutawa [and while Matawalu will miss our game, Cussiter is some replacement to have], DTH van der Merwe [Canada], new signing Gabriel Ascarate [Argentina] and Josh Strauss, and some very talented youngsters in centre Mark Bennett and lock Jonny Gray.

With due respect to the other teams in the competition, I'd have them in the top echelon in the league in terms of their squad, along with ourselves and the currently mis-firing Ulster. As we saw last year, the Ospreys still have a ton of quality up front, but they're shy of depth in their backline. Beck, Bishop and Fussell are, within the limits of their current squad, irreplaceable. Munster could be very good and have started the season well, but it's difficult to get an accurate read on them when they were no better than ordinary in the Pro12 last year and have only played the 10th and 12th ranked clubs from last season's campaign.

In any case, Glasgow should be right up there as title contenders. Aside from the big, talented squad, they're well coached – very nuggety and clever at the breakdown, much better than solid defensively and capable of playing a really nice brand of attacking rugby [although they typically play that narrow offloading game with Matawalu at No9].

Watching a recording of RTE's coverage of our game against the Ospreys, it was striking how critical Shaggy was of players not doing their basic jobs well and letting their thoughts wander to scenarios further down the line. We let our ruck ball go unprotected for the middle part of the match and put Reddan under a ton of pressure. If we do that against Glasgow, we won't be in the game at the death. They compete well at practically every breakdown and play a very hard and fast defensive line. They're a difficult team to make yards against, and while they leak penalties [because they infringe a lot competing for the ball], they won't be penalised that often at home, and they're a difficult side to score tries against.

We've got our fair share of injury issues and post-Lions rest periods to contend with as well. Comments from the camp would suggest that both Roux and Fitzgerald weren't too far away from fitness last weekend, so I think it's reasonable to assume that they might feature next weekend. Rob Kearney hinted in his IRUPA radio interview that he might be back in action this week, but who can tell? After all, he was away with the Lions until July. He didn't play a huge amount of rugby last year, so it'd be good for him to get back to his day job and play a run of games in the league, just like Gordon D'Arcy is doing. The player welfare system did f*ck all good to anybody last year, and it's hard to argue against the premise that the Leinster players who made the most progress last season were those who played in the most games, i.e. Madigan and Toner.

Forwards [1-8]; J. McGrath, Strauss, Ross, McCarthy, Toner, McLaughlin, Jennings, Murphy
Backs [9-15]: Boss, Madigan, Fitzgerald, D'Arcy, Macken, Tuqiri, D. Kearney*
Subs [16-23]: Cronin, O'Connell, Moore, Roux, Ruddock, Reddan, Gopperth, Fanning

Unavailable [provisionally]
Front row: Healy [post-Lions rehab], Bent [injury to nerve in neck];
Second row: Cullen [post-Achilles surgery rehab];
Backrow: O'Brien [post-arm surgery rehab], Heaslip [post-Lions rehab];
Halves: All clear;
Centre: O'Driscoll [post-Lions rehab], Goodman [Achilles tendon injury];
Back three: McFadden [hamstring injury], Hudson [leg injury], R. Kearney* [post-Lions rehab]

*If Rob Kearney is available for selection, I'd put Dave Kearney on the wing and Fitzgerald on the bench. K2 has started the season at a good clip, and I think it's a bad idea to drop a player in good form because a guy with a bigger rep is coming back from injury. In any case, Fitzgerald gives more cover [he has started test matches at Nos11, 12 & 15] and might get a run in the centre off the bench.

[johng]

Good team Hugo. Was coming to similar conclusions myself, barring below.

O'Connor said McFadden and Fitz would have played if it was a final, but he didn't risk them as it was early days. I'd have one of them benching and one on the wing if they are both fit.

Also Heaslip was waterboy, which often means they will be up next week. If so I would play him with Murphy on the bench.

We may see a lion or 2 I reckon. Heaslip, O'Brien and R Kearney the most likely.

Really tough away game and therefore an opportunity to take points off a top 3 rival.

This would mean a tight game. I might play Gopperth and keep Madigan on the bench. Gopperth up to speed (and a fair old speed he has too) Madigan a little rusty, but not as rusty as Hogg who had a shocker in Ravenhill

Great to have a fit and hopefully firing Tuqiri to step in on the wing.

[tigerburnie]

I'd have thought your Lions would need to be playing as the AI's are not too far away, our ones that are fit have had a run out already.

[johng]

I'd have thought your Lions would need to be playing as the AI's are not too far away, our ones that are fit have had a run out already.

The IRFU give us so many minutes for each player to use over a set number of games. eg. the first 9 games before the AIs xxx Lion can play 400 minutes or whatever.

I would say our 5 Lions will come back over the next 2 to 3 weeks the soonest would be a couple this week and the rest next.

2 of them are coming back from injury also.

[simonokeeffe]

Kearney and Heaslip might come back from bench
DK deserves to keep his place after his beautiful finish, IMO Boss should/could start too

One weakness in Glasgow is Weir is missing at 10 and Hogg is kicking as well as covering 10 so goal kicking could haunt them like in 0-6 match last year.
We could get at them in scrums with McGrath, Strauss, Ross being a very good scrummaging front row

Sounds trite but we will have to keep the ball as much as possible to win this
Be a good chance to see exactly how good Murphy is re battle at the breakdown

[Aussiedub]

Would like to see Madigan/Gopperth at 10/12 to see how it works out.

[hugonaut]

Also Heaslip was waterboy, which often means they will be up next week. If so I would play him with Murphy on the bench.

We may see a lion or 2 I reckon. Heaslip, O'Brien and R Kearney the most likely.

Heaslip had a very, very long season last year. Before going away with the Lions, he had played the fourth most minutes of any player in the touring squad in all competitions [club and test] with 2056mins. The three players above him were all Leicester and England players: Parling first, with 2346mins; Tuilagi second at 2244mins; and Dan Cole third with 2094 mins.

With Gatland only bringing two No8s on tour, he played in 6 games, starting 5 of them including the first two tests. It's a lot of high quality gametime to pack into one seasons ... and there was an awful lot of extraneous pressure there as well, between being announced as Irish captain and then getting slated at practically every turn!

Against that is the fact that he's always shown incredible fitness levels and, with Leo out for the next while, we need as many leaders on the pitch as we can get. Glasgow will be a very tough game and we'll need a strong team to get any kind of points out of it.

[grahamwa]

three Lions in Hogg, Maitland and Cusiter.

A good synopsis, you forgot Ryan Grant who was called up as a Lion this year. He like Hogg never had the best of games either at Ravenhill. The Lions hangover very evident. Cusiter is just making his way back from injury after missing the whole of last season just about. Was diagnosed that he needed to rest a shoulder injury to avoid surgery, spent 7 months resting and then needed surgery to repair it anyway. We've not been firing on all cylinders yet and to be frank we are lucky that we've got 8 points from the two games played.

Anyhoo, we also owe you a turn for your 0 - 6 borefest (both defences cancelled each other out in minging conditions if I remember correctly last time at Scotstoun and for the semi at the RDS. I expect a really tough game for both teams. You can have a losing bonus point.

[cormac]

Healy is back in full training from today.

[JB1973]

Tough start for Leinster even if you had all your lions playing!

Glasgow are a good side and have the pace in the back 3 to hurt leinster, (not sure if maitland will be playing) . However they will miss Niko Matawalu big time and I also think they will miss Barclay at 7.

The Glasgow pack is decent but no more than that and I would expect you to get the nudge on them at scrum time. There are question marks over Hogg as a kicker and you won't beat leinster unless you take every chance to score points you get .
If Leinster are able to get some of their back 3 players back from injury/lions release I fancy you to pull off the win in what should be a high scoring exciting game

As for returning lions, I'm not sure a 1 size fits all policy should apply, Kearney played a lot less rugby than Heaslip on tour and I don't think he should require as long a rest period.

[johng]

The management hope to have a number of players available ahead of the trip to Glasgow, with the returning British & Irish Lions players set to come into the frame over the next couple of weeks.

The medical team are confident that Luke Fitzgerald - a precautionary late withdrawal on Saturday - should be involved against Glasgow.

Winger Darren Hudson suffered a hamstring injury in the draw against the Ospreys on Saturday night and won't play this week.

Kevin McLaughlin made his first appearance of the season alongside the likes of fellow Ireland internationals Ian Madigan and Richardt Strauss.

Saturday's game marked Jack McGrath's 40th in Leinster colours while both McFadden and McLaughlin have now made 96 appearances for their home province. Mike Ross' next game will be his 90th in Leinster colours.

Funny one that. They say nothing about McFadden's hammer but then tell us how many caps he has.

Then again they don't mention Leo's opp either or how Roux is. Keep us guessin eh?

Strong hint on the Lions though.

[Donny B.]

Healy is back in full training from today.

Great news!

[Morf]

Rather than fluff in an injury update we're getting the bare minimum.

Not sure if that is an improvement.

[Xanthippe]

However they will miss Niko Matawalu big time

I hope to God they miss him more than the Ospreys missed Kahn Fotuali'i at the weekend. I really expected the Os to struggle at scrumhalf after he left but I was a little surprised and a lot impressed with Tito Tebaldi's performance. Had the Os won I'd have had him as MOTM.

[Laighindown]

However they will miss Niko Matawalu big time

I hope to God they miss him more than the Ospreys missed Kahn Fotuali'i at the weekend. I really expected the Os to struggle at scrumhalf after he left but I was a little surprised and a lot impressed with Tito Tebaldi's performance. Had the Os won I'd have had him as MOTM.

His passing was good, but he kicked the ball out on the full twice at a time when Ospreys should have been turning the screw in the second half. Had he nailed those kicks, the Os probably would have won, and your MOTM would have come about. Thought he looked very lively.

We will need Healy for this one, I would also like to see Rob Kearney back. Macken had another very interesting game against Ospreys, he has developed a serious step and is finding space in tight areas in quite impressive fashion. K2 and Luke on the wings and Lote and Gopperth on the bench would be my guess. McFadden to be given another week.

This would be a good game to see Murphy really grow into No. 8, it would be a shame to lob him out of there as he looks like gaining momentum. Hopefully Heaslip on the bench though.

[Xanthippe]

However they will miss Niko Matawalu big time

I hope to God they miss him more than the Ospreys missed Kahn Fotuali'i at the weekend. I really expected the Os to struggle at scrumhalf after he left but I was a little surprised and a lot impressed with Tito Tebaldi's performance. Had the Os won I'd have had him as MOTM.

His passing was good, but he kicked the ball out on the full twice at a time when Ospreys should have been turning the screw in the second half. Had he nailed those kicks, the Os probably would have won, and your MOTM would have come about. Thought he looked very lively.

We will need Healy for this one, I would also like to see Rob Kearney back. Macken had another very interesting game against Ospreys, he has developed a serious step and is finding space in tight areas in quite impressive fashion. K2 and Luke on the wings and Lote and Gopperth on the bench would be my guess. McFadden to be given another week.

This would be a good game to see Murphy really grow into No. 8, it would be a shame to lob him out of there as he looks like gaining momentum. Hopefully Heaslip on the bench though.

Much as I'd love to see him back I don't reckon there's a snowball's hope in hell that Cian Healy will be playing this weekend - he only had his first day back at training today.

[Alternative Ulster]

His first day full contact training surely. He has been back for a month or so.

[simonokeeffe]

Jack has been lasting the 80 quite well so we are ok at loosehead. By full training what exactly do they mean or what training had he been doing; eg no full contact?

Tibaldi did a lot of (illegal) damage to reddan's service by standing beside middle of ruck, not backfoot, then jumping on reddan as he picked the ball up

Form he is in can see Gopperth keeping his place, fullback at very least

[cormac]

Jack has been lasting the 80 quite well so we are ok at loosehead. By full training what exactly do they mean or what training had he been doing; eg no full contact?

Tibaldi did a lot of (illegal) damage to reddan's service by standing beside middle of ruck, not backfoot, then jumping on reddan as he picked the ball up

Form he is in can see Gopperth keeping his place, fullback at very least

Healy has been doing pre-season training like the other Lions.

[domhnallj]

Anyone know where they'll be located in the ground for this? Thought I'd sort the tickets now rather than at the game if possible. I'll be tootling up the motorway early Friday afternoon from Newcastle if anyone fancies a lift (I'll be going A69 --> then M6 --> M74).